CH. 15-SEC. 2 “THE CHILDREN ARE GETTING GOOFY” ALSO KNOWN AS “CALLS FOR WIDESPREAD EDUCATION”

BACKGROUND American schools varied from section to section across the country. Massachusetts passed laws requiring towns to provide schools(1647). The towns, not the states, paid for the schools. Mid-Atlantic states also took responsibility for education. New York organized a school system in 1784, Private societies had to raise money to fund the schools. Federal Govt. mandated education for people in the lands west of New York. In the Northwest Ordinance, Congress set aside a section of land in each township for the support of schools. Public schools in the North and West hardly had enough money to furnish good educations…. Southern schools had less support. Families had to work all the time so there wasn’t much time for schooling…normally a minister would teach children in a school built on an unused field. Well-to-do (rich) people could give their children a good education. Many in private schools. In the South, private tutors were hired or the children were sent to Europe to finish school.

EDUCATION REFORM 1830’s---as more people qualified to vote reformers argued that voters needed a good education to make sound decisions about their government. They proposed raising standards of schools and supporting them with tax money. They started the common school movement. Horace Mann campaigned for common schools…he was concerned with the poor children Mann organizes the 1 st State board of Education in Mass. Mann’s efforts helped with: 1.raised teacher salaries(yea)2. est. statewide standards of ed. 3. set up the first schools for teacher training. 4.extended the school year to six months(yea). With the rising population of immigrants, schools were the ideal ways to teach American values to the new arrivals.

MORE BACKGROUND Despite all these advances schools needed more improvements: School buildings were not built for school…..30 students stuffed in a 7ft by 18 foot room. Students weren’t required to go to school or only had to go for 12 weeks. Most students went to school only till the 8 th grade. By 1860 there were only 40 public high schools

WOMEN, MINORITIES AND SCHOOLS WOMEN- Girls received only a basic education….Morals and Manners (still needed) Emma Willard and Catharine Beecher founded schools for girls teaching all subjects. Elizabeth Blackwell becomes 1 st woman to earn a Medical Degree in MINORITIES Education was barely offered to African-Americans. Salem, Boston, NYC were the exceptions. Institutions of higher learning barred African-Americans…. Amherst College(Mass) and Bowdoin Colllege(Maine) allows African-Americans to attend 1 st College Graduates= st college exclusively for African- Americans= Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.

Other minorities HEARING IMPAIRED: –Thomas Gallaudet opened 1 st free school for the hearing impaired in (Hartford, Conn.) –VISUALLY IMPAIRED –Samuel Howe opens the Perkins Institution for the Blind in –He develops a raised alphabet that allowed the blind to read.