Soc/EDS 126; Topic #2, (4/6 and 4/8/10):

Education for Democracy in the Common School Era (1840s—1920s)

Revised 4/7/10

Announcements

• Reflection #1: due 4/13/10• New people need to be assigned to groups to

write reflections; turn in group list• Sections: Thursdays, 1:00-2:00 or 3:30-4:30,

Pepper Canyon 304• Read Dewey on pedagogy in packet; title left

off syllabus by mistake• Syllabus and Powerpoints at create.ucsd.edu

Political Economic Context 1840-1920s

• 1. Urbanization: by 1850: 10--20% urban; 1900 50%+ urban

• 2. Industrialization—especially in Eastern Cities• 3. New Immigration:

• Internal-- from Northeast to Midwest and

-- from South to North—especially Blacks after Civil War • From Europe

– Ireland, Italy (Mediterranean countries)– poor, uneducated, unskilled, Catholic– competed for low-skill jobs

Horace Mann & the Development of the Common School (1840s-1920s)

• A. Goals of Early Common (Public School) Movement

– 1. To provide equal educational opportunity

– 2. To provide free [tax-based] education

– 3. To close the economic gap and social antagonisms

between rich and poor

• B. Curriculum and Instruction Strategies—Moral lessons for industrial society taught through

reading

Common School took on new “Social Integration" or Assimilation function

• 1. “Americanize” new immigrants who were a threat to social order because they had different language, cultural conventions, and religion

• 2. Why? Society in decline because of rural--urban shift (Durkheim, Weber, Marx)

• 3. School (and church): formal institutions needed to replace family which because of alienation and anomie caused by urbanization, industrialization, immigration

Depictions of the Irish

Depictions of the Irish

Announcements

• Reflection #1: due 4/13/10• New people need to be assigned to groups to

write reflections; turn in group list• Sections: Thursdays, 1:00-2:00 or 3:30-4:30,

Pepper Canyon 304• Read Dewey on pedagogy in packet; title left

off syllabus by mistake• Syllabus and Powerpoints at create.ucsd.edu

Black-White Tensions in Common School Era

• Before Civil War, Blacks in North were “free,” but not accorded civil liberties:– Denied housing, voting, schooling

• Even after “Emancipation Proclimation” schools were segregated– 1896 Supreme Court decision (Plessy v. Ferguson

reaffirmed “separate but equal”– 1954: Brown v. Board: segregation not

constitutional; Warren Court invoked “equal protection clause”

The Contribution of Curriculum to Contradictions within Common

Schools (1840-1920) Professed Goal of Common School--reduce antagonisms between rich

and poor; But McGuffey Readers interpreted this charge as:

Rich: learn sympathy for the poor; learn that ranking of rich and poor is “God’s will;” is a “Natural” condition;

Poor: poverty is their natural condition; but can the poor work out of poverty?

Therefore, helped to legitimate and rationalize the segregation of sons and daughters of "old” wealthy families and sons and daughters of poor families

Protestant messages within McGuffey Readers reinforced capitalism:

-- hard work as key to success-- honesty--gender roles

Contradictions Between Democratic Impulse and Actualization in Practice

• Stratified Schooling--The development of tracking--Segregation of rich and poor, blacks and whites,

Catholics and Protestants

Lessons:--Drill & practice/recitation inconsistent with call for

thoughtful citizens--Reading and writing in the service of

religious/moral training defined in explicitly Protestant terms

Some Contradictions of Assimilation Impulse

• Goal: Impart common values to unite peoples from different cultures who spoke different languages (Italian, Polish, Greek, Irish.) of new immigrantsBut school used overtly religious

(Protestant) materials: McGuffey Readers & St James Bible

Contributed to segregation of Protestants and Catholics in separate schools

Common School and Progressivism

• The “Progressive Movement”• --“child saving”• --protective social services• --child labor laws• --universal education

Dewey’s View of Education and Democracy

Schooling to serve democratic ends:Critical thinking

Prepare students for college and career:Bring outside world in

Devolved into vocational education“College prep” separated from “voc ed”