Science and Urban Life - Schoolwires

Warm-up

1. What was the turn-of-the-century era, known for its

political corruption and extreme wealth gap, known

as?

2. What is a political machine?

3. How did machines win elections?

4. Who was the most infamous city boss of this era?

Warm-up

1. What was the turn-of-the-century era, known for its political corruption

and extreme wealth gap, known as?

Gilded Age

2. What is a political machine?

Organized group that controlled party activities in a city

3. How did machines win elections?

Aiding the voting base through public works; voter fraud

4. Who was the most infamous city boss of this era?

Boss Tweed (his machine was called Tammany Hall)

SCIENCE AND URBAN LIFE

Chapter 16.1

Urban Planning

■ Skyscrapers = America’s contribution to global architecture

■ Expanding steel landscapes prompt desire to restore some measure of nature

– Urban parks become integral to city planning

■ Chicago’s population grew 10x between 1850-1870

– City planning initially unable to keep up with growth

– Daniel Burnham re-planned Chicago

■ Also oversaw construction of the White City for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago

New Technologies

■ 1890, literacy rate is 90%– Advancements in printing process lower costs for paper

■ Newspapers cheap, daily

■ Magazines more popular

■ 1903, Wright brothers make first successful flight of a powered aircraft– Nobody cared

■ Prior to 1880s, photography = user-unfriendly, only for pros– 1888, George Eastman introduced Kodak camera

■ Used flexible film instead of heavy glass plates

■ $25 ($645 today), 100-picture film roll

■ Could send film off to studio to develop

■ Kodak made photography accessible to millions

■ Field of photojournalism created

EXPANDING PUBLIC EDUCATION

Chapter 16.2

Early Education

■ 1865-1895, states passed laws requiring school attendance

– Focused on rote memorization

– Teaching was not a profession; quality extremely uneven

– “They hits ye if yer don’t learn, and they hits ye if ye whisper, and they

hits ye if ye have string in yer pocket, and they hits ye if yer seat

squeaks, and they hits ye if ye don’t stan’ up in time, and they hits ye if

yer late, and they hits ye if ye ferget the page.” – 13 year old schoolboy

in Chicago

■ Kindergarten created as childcare for employed mothers

High Schools

■ Industrial age demanded advanced tech. and managerial skills

– High schools offered core of science, civics, social studies

– Also offered vocational classes: carpentry, mechanics; office work for women

– Goal = loyal, subservient future employees

■ Public education unavailable for majority of blacks until 1940– ~2% of blacks attended high school at turn of century

– Goal = deprivation of opportunity

■ Immigrants encouraged to go to school– Native languages, culture suppressed

– Companies offered ed. programs for employees

– Goal = assimilation

Expanding Higher Education

■ School attendance expanding, still low

– Minority of Americans held high school diplomas

– Even less attended college (2%)

■ Industrial era changed higher educational needs

– Research university emerges

– Law, medical schools open

– Entrance exams required for private; h.s. diploma for public

■ Blacks excluded; founded their own colleges

– Little opportunity to earn money, paying for college near impossible■ 0.04% of blacks in college in 1900

Booker T. Washington

■ Former slave

■ Believed in vocational training for blacks

– Founded Tuskegee Institute to do so

■ Believed in gradual equality for blacks

– Achieved by demonstrating their economic value over time

■ Supported by whites; not always popular with blacks

W. E. B. Du Bois

■ First black man to earn doctorate from Harvard

■ Wanted immediate equality for blacks

■ Believed it wrong to expect blacks to “earn” their equality

– “We are Americans, not only by birth and by citizenship, but by our political ideals…and the greatest of those ideals is that all men are created equal.”

■ Getting liberal arts education should be primary focus for blacks

– Need well-educated leaders