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History of education in america
The history of the american education system
History of the american school system
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During this class I have been able to explore more into the world of education and through different videos of how education has changed over time. Today, I will be discussing the video “The Bottom Line in Education 1980-Present” and how education operated during this period. I was given the opportunity to understand how schools in the United States were functioning from 1980 until how schools are functioning now. The documentary talked about different topics concerning the impact of the educational system with how it has to be changed with things such as the curriculum of what the children are learning.
Through this time period in education the main focus of the era was to build an educational system that was right for the students. Also there was a need for a curriculum that would serve to organize students to participate in the world of business. Schools have become to have very low principles and also low value that would not suitable for the students to have the best level to be successful outside of school. With what was happening in schools the government than started to believe that the low standards and quality the students had put the nation at jeopardy and even the economy around them. Schools were than being accused for the disasters in education and the main purpose during this time was to change the school system that was getting bad. The curricula changed, it became stricter for students,
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Many of the school reforms were resulted from the laws and ideas that became presented by the presidents or other political officials during that time. The presidents pushed for the educational system to accomplish the ideas that they had. Which would have increased the quality and successfulness of the nation’s schools
-- Public eduction is one of the most significant and unfinished achievements in American history. The main point of the first video was to show the viewer how far public schools have come and how far they still need to go.
Guggenheim focuses his documentary on the teachers that make-up a large portion of the system. One of his strongest arguments is that the teachers are the problem, and the inability to rid schools of the incompetent teachers is the primary reason American schools are coming in so low in the international rankings. He also shares many facts and statistics that are staggering by their lonesome, but he presents them in such a way to exaggerate them by use of animation, music, and narration.
In the 1890s, the spread of public school education enabled the learning of writing, reading, and arithmetic for a whole generation of workers who would be the literate labor force of the new industrial age. It was important that these people learned obedience to authority and responsibility. A journalist observer of the schools wrote, "The unkindly spirit of the teacher is strikingly apparent; the pupils, being completely subjugated to her will, are silent and motionless, the spiritual atmosphere of the classroom is damp and chilly." The children were not being educated for the purpose of creating sense of wonder, to increase their knowledge, or even to learn; they were being educated simply so that they could work more
...management of their educational establishments. Although there are many debates still taking place today on how the education system needs improving or re-addressing, the fact remains that the education acts focused on in this essay, greatly impacted and improved the British education system in terms of the quality of education and equality for pupils.
...forbade black education. Besides that, very little of the white population went to schools anyway. Establishing school systems in these areas was a tricky job. Despite problems in the South and West with education, America had grown into a more learned nation. Over 80% of the population (excluding the slavery population) were literate, compared with a much lower literacy rate prior to the 1800’s. Americans had once again worked hard in order to enhance their societies’ standards.
1779- Thomas Jefferson implements a two- track educational system that brings different regulations for the government to uphold with regards to “the laboring and the learned.” The regulations that this largely effected were ones that required to government to allow every citizen the right to gain an education. It was one of the first and largest pushes towards getting a free education
Labaree discusses how the United State’s education is in a school syndrome, as people in America want schools to teach society’s ideals as well as let people express their individuality. These two demands are polar opposites that cannot be achieved. As the focus goes towards balancing these in hopes of improving society as a whole, the bettering of actual student learning is put on pause. Labaree talks about the beginning of education reform, in the 19th century, being the most successful in developing society; however, as education reform continued throughout time, its effectiveness wore off. He then addresses how the desire for education reform is more about improving society than it is about learning. He finishes his argument by providing possible solutions to fixing this problem, but states that fixing this problem will never happen because no one is willing to give up both demands. Overall, Labaree goes in wonderful detail explaining the problems of education reform. What made me choose this article was that he addressed the desire that people have on school systems in promoting both society normality and individuality. This correlates well with my topic in whether public school systems promote conformist ideals or individuality.
Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the American educational system has undergone much transition in response to our changing society. Though there have been many problems raised throughout the years in regard to what our school systems should be teaching our children, there have also been many developments.
Americans schools have a tendency to try to reform certain parts in one’s school but chooses to ignore what’s being reformed. Although, once Americans schools do reform it would make it a lot easier for the one who is willing to learn to get the education they need. In the essay “Let’s Really Reform Our Schools” by Anita Garland. Garland explains that there needs to be changes in Americans schools. Garland mentions that Americans school are coming to a disaster and they are in trouble. Their needs to be changes in Americans schools to improve one’s education. For starters, the attendance should not be mandatory for the ones that do not attend. Next, the cafeteria food is revolting and needs to be changed. Last, having that huge dance so called
Now that public schools were commonplace in America, they needed to be altered to increase knowledge of students leaving them. Through reforms and political events, schools became not only a place for learning math and English, but also a place to learn other skills that will help students obtain jobs once they graduate. School was becoming essential rather than optional.
This trend rising from the advancements in factories and production leading to urbanization. This centralization of society lead to the creation of social ills that need to be reformed, this feat was done so by the reforms to the education system of the time.
Going to school and getting a great education is important for a successful future in today’s world. Years ago, many children did not go to school and many young adults opted to work instead of attending college. In today’s society, gaining a high level of education is almost always mandatory for many jobs. There are many changes being done to the education system along with new items and ways of teaching in the classroom. There is a growing amount of changes in the classroom such as technology, teaching time, teaching styles, and freedom of space.
Education is a vital part of society. It serves the beneficial purpose of educating our children and getting them ready to be productive adults in today's society. But, the social institution of education is not without its problems. Continual efforts to modify and improve the system need to be made, if we are to reap the highest benefits that education has to offer to our children and our society as a whole.
...the pressure of keeping up with other students. Here, they can work at their own pace and figure out a solution that best works for them to understand or solve a problem. One last idea school reform should address in creating an equality of opportunity in public schools would be to set standards and spend more time in the classroom on these important tasks. These standards are put into place to help evaluate one’s progress. It’s important to have some standards in place, but they need to be feasible. To make such standards feasible, the teacher will be able to tailor it so that the standard can be met by the student. Spending a decent amount of time to get students to reach these standards is imperative. Without a sufficient amount of time, students may not be able to grasp and fully understand what is being taught to them resulting in standards not being met.
Senge, P., Cambron-McCabe, N., Lucas, T., Smith, B., Dutton, J. & Kleiner, A. (2012). Schools that Learn (pp. 32-69). Boston: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.