Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Reflection #20


Public high schools in the nineteenth century added democracy to America. It gave Americans the power to choose whether they wanted to attend a public or private academy.. These public high schools gave everyone a chance to gain an education, despite os social or economic class. The classes focused on some basic curriculum with an emphasize of college preparatory. The Kalamazoo case was filed which indicated that public funds were to be collected in order to maintain public high schools. Without the support of the townspeople, the only method of education would be private high schools, which would then disqualify many students into an education. A law was passed ensuring that towns of more than five hundred people were to fund public high schools. Soon, schools were beginning to open placing and giving opportunities to children with disabilities. The “New England Asylum For The Blind” opened giving students with visual impairments and disabilities a chance at education. These movements had never been done before and gave democratic rights to everyone. Horace Mann also went on to create a great movement to ensure that education was free and public to everyone and was very influential in benefiting the school system. This also led to the establishment of the first college for women, “Mount Holyoke Female Seminary,”. Public schools helped set up attendance laws that mandated that students must attend school a certain amount of dates out of the year. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois were the founders of african american education. They were often criticized for working too closely with white americans. However they contributed to many changed in the lives of african americans and the education system.  European high schools consist of yet less democracy. Classes are more difficult and the curriculums are strict. They’re high school lasts five years instead of the regular four years for Americans. They also do not have many electives to choose from. They never really had much of the democratic movements we Americans had in the nineteenth century.