The Expansion of Education
chapter 9, section 1
Growth of Public Schools
• Importance of literacy
(1st step toward success)
• 1870s
–Leaving school at an early age
–2% of 17-year-olds graduated HS
–Rural: November to April only
Growth of Public Schools
• Industry grows after Civil War
–People move to cities
–Emphasis on education
• By 1910, graduation rate = 8.6%
(This is up from 2% in 1870s.)
School Days
• One-room school houses
–Ages 6 to 14 years old
–1 teacher
(older students taught younger)
–Mostly rote memorization
(reading aloud & repeating)
–Subjects (geography, history, R, R, R)
Immigrants
• Assimilation for children
–English literacy
–American cultural values
(thrift, patriotism, & hard work)
–Traditional American cooking
–Traditional American games
• Some resisted (Catholic school)
Uneven Support
• Separate schools for whites
and blacks
– Minority schools received less money
• Virtually no schooling for Native
Americans. Those that attended:
– Gave up their language
– Gave up their dress
– Gave up their customs/culture
Higher Education
• 1880-1900
150 new colleges/universities open
• Wealthy contributions to education
– Stanford
– Rockefeller
• Enrollment doubles (1890-1910)
– Soon middle-income families send kids
Women & Higher Ed.
• Private women’s colleges
established by philanthropists
• 1880/90s: pressure to admit women
– Some, yes; others, no.
• Most scholarships went to men.
• Social prejudice against women
– Too independent  “unmarriageable”
African Americans
• Many wanted to enroll, but few
schools allowed it.
• Total enrollment (1890) = 160
• Most were at African American
colleges
(established during Reconstruction)
– By 1900, there were 2,000 graduates.
Black Education Opinions
• 2 famous African American
college graduates:
–Booker T. Washington
–W.E.B. Du Bois
• 2 very different perspectives
Booker T. Washington
“To those of my race who
depend on bettering their
condition… I would say:
‘Cast down your bucket
where you are’ …No race
can prosper till it learns
that there is as much
dignity in tilling a field as in
writing a poem”
Booker T. Washington
• Founded Tuskegee
Institute (Alabama, 1881)
• Focus:
– Building
economic security
& vocational skills
– Not on political equality
• Popular w/ whites
W.E.B. Du Bois
“I insist that the true object
of all true education is not
to make men carpenters, it
is to make carpenters
men….”
W.E.B. Du Bois
“…The Talented Tenth of
the Negro race must be
made leaders of thought
and missionaries of culture
among their people. No
others can do this work
and Negro colleges must
train men for it.”
W.E.B. Du Bois
• Harvard PhD
• The Talented Tenth
• Political/social
equality & civil rights
• Liberal arts (not vocational)
• Pride in heritage
• Niagara Movement
(1905)
Niagara Movement
• Met on Canadian side of
Niagara Falls
• Called for:
–Full civil rights
–End to racial discrimination
–Recognition of human brotherhood
• Led to the formation of NAACP
New Entertainment
chapter 9, section 2
Flowchart
Industrialization
Urbanization
New Commercial
Recreation Industry
Vaudeville / Minstrel Show
• Vaudeville
–Inexpensive variety show
–Comic sketches (racial/ethnic
humor), song/dance, magic acts
• Minstrel Shows
–Blackface
(perpetuation of black stereotypes)
Movies
•1908
–8,000 nickelodeons
(theaters set up in converted stores or
warehouses that charged a nickel for
admission)
–200,000 viewers daily
•Movies continue to get bigger
and better
Circus
•1872
–The circus train: traveling circus
–“Advance men” promote the show
days in advance, drawing in
huge crowds.
–Running away to join the circus
Amusement Parks
•Advances in trolley technology
–Trolleys extended to lesser
populated areas
–“Trolley Parks” at the end of the line
•½ day off on Saturdays (more common)
•Music, games of skill, rides,
beaches, vaudeville
Sports
•Baseball
–By far the most popular
–Development of leagues
–1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings
(first professional team)
Sports
•Football (1880s)
–Walter Camp began adapting rugby
•Basketball (1891)
–Invented by Dr. James Naismith, a
PE teacher in Springfield, Mass.
•Women
–Played, but not equally encouraged
Reading
•Newspapers
–Easier printing  mass production
–Now w/comics, sports, pictures, etc.
–Circulation rises from 2.6 million1870
to 15.1 million1900
–Becomes big business 
more competition 
sales tactics change
Reading
•Yellow Journalism
–sensational mass
coverage (murders,
vice, scandals, etc.)
–Reference to yellow
ink in a popular
comic strip of the
era
Reading
•Magazines
•Popular Fiction
–Dime novels
–Social protest
novels
–Humorous novels
Music
•Negro Spiritual
–African American folk music
–Acceptable to whites
•Ragtime/Jazz (New Orleans)
•Music @ home
–Player piano, phonograph