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The American Educational Reform in the 1800s


American reform movements in the early to mid 1800's strived at improving our developing society. America was growing larger, and with the expanding population, many new ideas sprang up. Conflicting opinions between the people of the United States caused the emergence of an Age of Reform, where people tried to change things such as the educational system and women rights. These movements were the result of our nation's self-determination and interest in improving the society we live in. Education is really important to every country and every civilization and it's noticeable that "Education is the transmission of civilization." (Ariel and Will Durant, The Lessons of History, 1968) Education reform means to make education better by removing faults and defects. True educators are always thinking of more effective ways to enhance and democratize the way children learn. With the continuous change of growing population, economics, culture, family, and global communication, there has to be continuous educational reforms to keep the society abreast with these changes.


Home education was so common in America that most children knew how to read before they entered school. As Ralph Walker has pointed out, "Children were often taught to read at home before they were subjected to the rigours of school. In middle-class families, where the mother would be expected to be literate, this was considered part of her duties." (Ralph Walker, Old Readers: In Early American Life, October, 1980, p. 54.) In the early 1800’s education in America grew and developed rapidly, largely because of the works of three very important men: Noah Webster, William McGuffey, and Horace Mann. These three men were catalysts for the growth of education throughout the nineteenth century, and without them the large strides America took during this time would not have occurred. These great men all shared one goal: to educate the youth of America as well as possible.


The first American schools opened during the colonial era. As the colonies began to develop, many began to institute mandatory education schemes. In 1642 the Massachusetts Bay Colony made "proper" education compulsory. Similar statutes were adopted in other colonies in the 1640s and 1650s. Virtually all of the schools opened as a result were private. The nation's first institution of higher learning was Harvard University, opened in 1636. Most of the universities which opened between 1640 and 1750 form the contemporary Ivy League, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown, the University of Pennsylvania, and several others. After the American Revolution, the new national government passed the Land Ordinance of 1785, which set aside a portion of every township in the unincorporated territories of the United States for use in education.


Public education in Massachusetts began when Horace Mann left his post as Senate president and became Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837. Mann did many things, but his main legacy was to convince people that public education was a public good that should be publicly funded. As a result, Massachusetts had the first system of public schools in the country. By 1860 the fruits of these efforts were impressive. The states were generally committed to providing free elementary education. For students who wished more than a grammar school education, there were 300 public high schools in the whole country, and almost 100 of these were in massachusetts. There were also about 6000 private academies, many of which charged only a small tuition to poor children. Colleges and universities were still small, few had over 100 students and ill equipped, but their numbers had increased since colonial times. Just as every instant city needed a newspaper and hotel, so it needed what was called a college. Julian Sturtevant, founder of Illinios College in 1830, said, "It was generally believed that one of the surest ways to promote the growth of a young city was to make it the seat of a college." (A History of the United States, p. 281) So before the Civil War 516 colleges were founded, many were little better and the private academies, but only 104 survived to the 1900s.


The Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 provided federal financial support to state universities. Many land-grant colleges and state universities were established through gifts of federal land to the states for the support of higher education. Financial support was extended to the universities and this in turn led to increased research. The Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862 sparked the growth of state institutions offering curricula in agriculture and the mechanical arts. The act created a variety of institutional arrangements such as A %26amp; M colleges, and even allowed some private colleges to provide the new curriculum.


Women have been equally discriminated against in American schools. Even in coeducational schools, practically no encouragement was given to the girls. For countless centuries, the role of the American female was in the home. Domestic responsibilities such as devoting time for the home, preparing meals, and caring for the family rested in the hands of females. Mothers taught their daughters' responsibilities in the home to prepare them for their future. In colonial days girls were taught the household arts but were not expected to learn to read and write. People thought that "book learning" would put an undue stress on their delicate minds and bodies. Progress came slowly and step by step.


Women's education and career options, especially for the middle and upper classes, were aided by the founding of academies and seminaries for girls. In Massachusetts girls began to attend summer sessions of the public grammar schools in the late 1700s. "In 1821, Emma Willard established the Troy Female Seminary in New York, the first endowed educational institution for women in the United States." (Education, p, 3) In 1823, Catharine Beecher opened the Hartford Female Seminary and later founded seminaries in Cincinnati and Milwaukee. In 1837, Mary Lyon established the Mount Holyoke Seminary with a curriculum that emphasized domesticity, piety, and teaching. Mount Holyoke enrolled girls from both wealthy and poor families; it was the first institution to challenge class discrimination. By 1840 the efforts of reformers where showing results, and nearly all New England women could read and write.


Finally in 1836 (200 years after Harvard College was founded for men) Wesleyan College in Georgia was chartered as the first college for woman. As years rolled by "women protested that they too should have a right to learn and that it is unfair that men could go to college and they can't." (Westward Expantion 1800-1880, Article, Pg 3) A new status for woman was "their opportunity for an adequated education and the right to speak out in public, would mean a richer life for all." (History of the United State, p.284) The rights of women seemed essential to a better America. "The brave reforming women that helped in education are our founding mothers of women education today." (Westward Expantion 1800-1880, Article, Pg 3)


Because of racial discrimination, African Americans not only struggled to acquire an education but had to combat stereotypes concerning what type of education was most suitable for them. The 1800s witnessed important changes in their education. The education of blacks remained very low until President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. The Civil War and Reconstruction period had a profound effect on the education of blacks in the South. The Thirteenth Amendment ended slavery and the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments granted equal rights to freed slaves. Many sought to take advantage of their new freedoms, especially the opportunity to acquire an education. The reconstruction era witnessed major advances in segregated education for African Americans. Before the Civil War, education for blacks was practically non-existent in the South, and several southern states had laws against teaching slaves to read and write. Schools in the North were segregated. African American ingenuity and perseverance produced some notable exceptions. For instance, Milla Granson of Natchez, Mississippi, a slave who had learned to read and write from her master's children, operated a school late at night when her master slept and slaves had finished working in the fields.


During the Civil War, both African American and white teachers began the arduous but rewarding task of educating southern blacks. Indeed, freedmen's education began in army camps. Many brave teachers such as "Mary S. Peake began teaching freed slaves at a Fort Virginia School in 1861. Susie King Taylor, a former slave who learned to read and write, taught black soldiers in the army." (African Americans: Freed People, p. 5) After the war, some white northern women used their education by moving south to teach the freed slaves. Laura Town was the first to do so; in 1862, she established the Penn School on the South Carolina Sea Islands, which she ran for forty years. The African American educator Charlotte Forten Grimke joined her. In her diary, Forten remarked "I never before saw children so eager to learn." Such was the case with most black children throughout the South. The number of black teachers increased as more African Americans became educated.


The literacy rate was around 5% in the 1860s rose to 40% in 1890, but when many wealthy American men and woman, mostly from the North gave millions of dollars to help educate black people, the literacy rate by 1910 was at 70%. John D. Rockefeller an American industrialist and philanthropist, for example, "had contributed over $50 million, most of it to train more teachers for black schools." (History of the United States, p. 449) The South spent less money than other parts of the country on education of all kinds. And blacks there had to attend separate and inferior schools. But many black leaders did not agree about this situation. In 1881, an American educator, author and leader of the African American community, Booker T. Washington founded Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. There he trained thousands of blacks to be better farmers and mechanics, to make a good living, and to help build their communities. He did not want blacks to spend their efforts learning history, literature, foreign languages, science, and mathematics. Instead, he said that they should train quickly for jobs, and mostly for jobs they could do with their hands.


Many who admired Booker T. Washington still did not agree with him because they did not want to wait for their rights. Twenty five years after Washington started his Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, a group met at Niagara Falls. Their black leader was W. E. B. Du Bois. He was born in Massachusetts after the Civil War, he studied at the University of Berlin in Germany and then received a Ph.D.degree from Harvard University in 1895. "He was the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard, was a professor at AtlantaUniversity and the leading black intellectual of his time." (Evitts,William. The Niagara Movement, p. 1) In 1905 the declaration by Du Bois's Niagara Movement expressed outrage. It demanded for blacks all their human rights, all their rights as Americans, and at once. It opposed all laws and all customs that treated blacks as if they were different from other people. And of course, it demanded the right to vote.


As the United States entered the twentieth century, it had adopted a framework of publicly supported elementary and secondary schools and had seen a significant increase in the number of colleges and universities nationwide. The advancement in technology and learning methods has brought about a lot of change for the better in the public education. The American public school has always been looked upon as a system that inculcates the ideals of equality and freedom in the individual. It has changed historically according to the upheavals in the society.

What do u think of my Research?
I liked it, very thorough and systematic. 101
Reply:Its really pleasure in reading ur research work...


I have educated myself in short period regarding the work of education in America... u have done a good work ru sure ths work is not done before ah...but really good work if it hadnt done b4... congrats doing it on useful topic..after reading lots of books i suggest ur conclusion should stressing the "education of money' bcoz lots suffer bcoz money even thy have a lot ok....


i didnt come to get how to suggest you...ur hard work will have its reward sooon...ALL THE BEST








your score is----88 ok


if already performed work----55 work hard this just my opinion
Reply:"The literacy rate was around 5% in the 1860s rose to 40% in 1890"





I think it was much better than that. By the time of the Civil War the US had the second highest literacy rate in the world (after Sweden). The rate was more than 80% (slightly less in the Souhern States).
Reply:As I began reading I became so interested that I actually forgot that I was on Yahoo Answers. Maybe that tells you that I rank it high.
Reply:I think it's Great!


I really wish u a Good Luck!


I Give you 90%.