The Chosen Era

The Chosen Era

Education is important because it is the key to social, ethical, governmental issues and principles. It gives us a new perspective of the world in which we live in and enables us to create our own opinions and viewpoints on certain matters. As I read the first part of the book “The Story of American Public Education,” I was captivated by how the school system was developed and how the history of American schools in many ways mirrors the history of American democracy. The ability to read why Americans constructed schools and see historical pictures so vividly come into play as we read is what captivated me the most about the first chapter in this book. I also found very interesting how till this day I still notice to a certain degree, those hardships in motion with undocumented students and the poor as well as racism. 

Education began to gain traction in the mid-nineteenth century and was first known as the “common” school because they were funded by local property taxes. These common schools were only open to white children and often favored boys over girls. As a matter of fact, families, churches, neighbors and peers carried most of the responsibility for the education of children, to which some might agree is much like today. Education came out of parents' pockets which is why family wealth, race and gender played a crucial role in the years of education a child received. Yet, leaders like Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Rush, and Noah Webster believed that education should be more systematic and widespread because the young republic depended upon educated citizens. Why did citizens need to be educated in the first place? Well, so they could choose their national leaders, governors, presidents wisely and so they could understand public issues. Around the 1840s states began undergoing an industrial revolution and immigration swelled which led to new social problems, and a mass production of textiles, canals and railroads.

Consequently, one of the biggest problems it caused was amongst religion, social status and color. Jefferson’s educational plan greatly benefited wealthy males because he never considered female geniuses, on the contrary, his plan allowed only for 3 years of schooling to prepare them for marriage and motherhood. Education wasn’t allowed for slaves nor people of color. That reminds me of how undocumented students nowadays aren’t given the same opportunities as documented students to pursue their dream jobs and ultimately only those who have enough money can be afford further education after high school. It all seemed to be snail-paced, for example, Jefferson kept persisting on trying to persuade the Virginia Assembly to ratify his education proposal for 38 years and each year it got rejected. He stated that any new idea was shunned upon and if it wasn’t even taken into consideration then there wasn’t going to be progress in education. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t until the 1830s-1840s that Jefferson’s dream of statewide school systems began to take root through the work of Horace Mann. 

        Mann noticed that the proposed education system was lacking in many areas and proposed a new system in which it would serve both males and females

and give each student an equal opportunity in life no matter if they were poor or rich. There was a connection between both Mann and Jefferson in that both believed the social status you were born in shouldn’t determine your opportunities.  I believe that this whole entire chapter portrayed education as an experiment where there was a fight for public and free education for all no matter his/her ethnicity, gender, or financial status and there was a major victory at the end but the uncertainties of what was to come was still present.

    Robert Morris and Charles Sumner were amongst the nation’s first African American lawyers and they were able to become lawyers and fight for what they believed and defend the right cases because of the education they were able to obtain. By being men of color back in the early 1700s they wouldn’t  have been able to sit in a classroom and the fact that they became the first lawyers proved that the country was heading into a positive direction. Thus, I agree with Sumner that, “The school is the little world in which the child is trained for the larger world of life, beginning those relations of Equality which the constitution and the laws promise to all.”