1900-1950

Abstract: This movie covered the movements of the purpose of education in public schools. The years covered in this section were from 1900-1950. In the beginning public schools in the cities were terrible places to be; overcrowded, dark, cold, and full of sickness. A lot of children worked in factories instead of going to school. Five hundred children were asked whether they would rather work in a factory or go to school. Eighty percent replied they would rather work in a factory. Physical conditions soon improved. Academic subjects were the focus and students were forced to sit in desk bolted to the floor in 1 room schools for hours. This was the case until John Dewey came up with the Gary plan. He is considered the father of progressive education. His ideas about education were that children learn by doing. Children should exercise their minds and their bodies. Students were outside a lot of the day and moved from class to class. This school had classes such as art, mechanics, and working with animals. Students that left these schools were prepared for the work force. Throughout this time span there were movements from progressive education to more traditional education depending on the administration and current political movement. In a decade or two the pendulum would swing in favor of progressive education. Then two inventions were created that are still in effect today: the I.Q. / S.A.T. and tracking. When it was determined by scientists that a person was born with a certain I.Q. and that it stays relatively constant throughout life educators began testing children as early as five. Using those results the administration would place the child in the appropriated track for the rest of the student’s educational career. This has many flaws some are the following: the tests are culturally western European, always in English which might not be a student’s first language, some students are behind in reading at the beginning of school but can catch up later, and students with test anxiety will have results will not accurately reflect their ability. For these reasons many poor students, immigrants, and blacks were disproportionately represented in the lower tracks. Usually students who scored high on the I.Q. test were put into college bound tracking. The low tracks or industrial track were for Mexicans and blacks. Domestic science was for girls. Native Americans were sent to boarding schools to not only separate them from their language but also their culture. Even now many schools have an English only school. There also has been since the birth of this country a movement that will gather steam and die depending on current events. That movement is to make English the official language of this country. This might be why foreign language is not taught since kindergarten and so many students who graduate high school are not fluent in any other language besides English despite a few years of classes in another language.

Reflection: I think the main question to be asked is what is the purpose of education? Is it to be a good citizen? Or is it to cure social evils? Perhaps its purpose is to prepare students for the workforce? Or is school to be used for opportunities, advancement, and upward social mobility? Schools and the movement of education is a reflection of the society as a whole. What is society’s expectation of its youth and future employees? The swing between progressive and traditional education movements reflects this idea. Even now tracking still exists in our schools. I.Q. tests have been replaced with the S.A.T. to measure students’ abilities and whether they can attend a certain college. Society still places value on these measurements of intelligence to ascertain the abilities of students. So the purpose of education is determined by society.