19th Century Public Schooling
A Uniformity of Purpose
Review
 From 1620 to ca. 1820, schooling had been
 Local
 Varied
 Privately supported
 Widespread
 Purpose:
 Universal literacy
 For getting on in the world
 For reading the Bible; i.e., getting on the next world
Review
 Reason for this commitment to elementary schooling:
 Colonists were English
 Colonists were Protestant
 (Results would have been very different if the successful,
culture-defining colonists had been Spanish Catholics)
Review
 This background is important to keep actively in mind
 English
 Protestant
 Committed to schooling for universal literacy
 Very important that all these things are in place as big decisions
are made in the 1st half of the 19th Century
Historical Background
 The time between 1754 and ca. 1820 was a time of
 Upheaval
 Disruption
 Confusion
 Survival
Historical Background
 1754-1765 The French and Indian War
 1765-1776 Conflict with Parliament over questions of






governance
1776-1783
1783-1789
1789 -1790
1790-1800
France
1800
1803
Revolution
Articles of Confederation
Constitution
First presidential administrations, conflict with
Hotly disputed election
Louisiana Purchase
Historical Background
 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark expedition
 1812-1814 War with England
 1817
 1824
 1828
Panic
Disputed election
Election of Andrew Jackson
Historical Background
 The period up until about 1830 was dominated by war,




internal political conflict, and questions of survival
By around 1830, Americans had enough peace and security to
start thinking about what it meant to be an American.
This is manifested in politics, philosophy, theology, art,
music, and literature
Washington Irving: “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is
published in 1820
Andrew Jackson (1829-1837) personifies a new “democratic
man” in politics
Historical Background
 Noah Webster publishes the American Dictionary of the English
Language in 1828
 Ralph Waldo Emerson publishes “The American Scholar” in
1837
 Henry David Thoreau moves to Walden Pond in 1845
 Highlights of what is becoming a uniquely American way of
seeing, thinking, and acting
Historical Background
 Two examples of self-conscious American-ness:
 What then is the American, this new man?...He is an American, who,
leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives
new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new
government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He has become an
American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater.
Here individuals of all races are melted into a new race of man,
whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the
world. Americans are the western pilgrims. (from "Letter III,"
1782) Hector St. Jean Crevocoeur
Historical Background
 “We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own
hands; we will speak our own minds.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar
Historical Background
 In politics, the result was a commitment to democracy.
 This was not inevitable
 We should not take it for granted
 It was grounded in a belief in the ability of “common man” to
make choices for himself and for the polity
 Historically, this was not only peculiar, it was unique
 There was no model to follow; we had to make it up
 We had to “walk on our own feet; work with our own hands;
and speak our own minds.”
Historical Background
 This commitment to democracy would have far-reaching
consequences; important to keep actively in mind
 Just as one example, we are committed to the
“comprehensive” high school, because we believe that it is the
“democratic” approach to secondary schooling; no other
developed nation does it this way
 So we have two defining phenomena occurring during the
period, 1820-1860:
 The development of a self-consciously American way
 The commitment to democracy as an essential component of
the American way
American Schooling in the 1st Half of
the 19th Century
 The question about democracy is always, “Can the ordinary
person make wise choices for himself and for the polity, or
will he succumb to naked self-interest or be seduced by
demagogues?”
 Even as late as the late 18th Century, most people would have
picked the second possibility as being much more likely
 “Democracy” was derided by most as “mobocracy”
 The shift came in this way: “The ordinary person is not
currently capable of making wise decisions but can become
so through education.”
American Schooling in the 1st Half of
the 19th Century
 Education, then, became a public good.
 Remember the two reasons for widespread schooling in the




colonies: getting on in the world and getting in to the next;
both are private goods
Now the purpose of schooling has shifted to the creation of a
democratic polity
What is necessary?
Reading, writing, and figuring
But also much more
American Schooling in the 1st Half of
the 19th Century
 First, schooling had to become
 Universally available, and
 Well done
 Good schoolhouses
 Good textbooks
 Well-prepared teachers
 Carefully developed curricula
 And the key to all this was public funding
 During this period, all states commit to using tax revenue to fund
schools
 Schooling had been a private enterprise in the colonies but was now
public schooling
American Schooling in the 1st Half of
the 19th Century
 Purposes beyond ‘readin, ‘ritin’, and ‘rithmetic
 A commitment to the principles of republican democracy
 Virtue
 Balanced government
 liberty
 A commitment to Protestant Christianity
 Moral training would produce virtuous, well-behaved citizens
 Discipline
 Sacrifice
 simplicity
 A commitment to capitalism
American Schooling in the 1st Half of
the 19th Century
 Notice two things:
 First, that these reformers saw the role of the school as one of
formation (not as fostering “development”)
 Second, that they believed whole-heartedly that the proper
formation meant convincing students of the superiority of



Protestant Christianity in religion
Republican democracy in politics
Capitalism in economics
American Schooling in the 1st Half of
the 19th Century
 Schools were meant to effect a revolutionary change in how




people were involved in politics
The history of the world had been one of control from the
top
The obvious thing to do would have been to adopt some
version of this
Americans chose the democratic experiment
They believed that a proper education could raise all persons
to the point where they could participate wisely in the
democratic polity
American Schooling in the 1st Half of
the 19th Century
 But only if the schools were committed to forming young
people in ways that were consistent with the preservation
and extension of the democratic way
 They believed that this meant
 Universal schooling
 Publicly funded
 Aimed at achieving public purposes
 Inculcation of virtue so that the free citizen would act to preserve
order
 Inculcation of self-reliance so that all would take responsibility for
their own lives
American Schooling in the 1st Half of
the 19th Century
 This meant teaching
 Republican democracy
 Protestant Christianity
 Capitalism
 In the “common school”
 Open to all
 Well-funded
 With well-prepared teachers
 With well-developed curricula
 Where one learned to be an American