Expanding public
education
Schooling
Most states had public school systems near the Civil War
Many children received no formal schooling at all
North Carolina was the only state that had a public school system by the 1860’s
Reformers worker to extend schooling to more children by the 1870’s
Schools for children
• 31 states passed laws requiring 12 to 16 weeks a year of compulsory
school attendance for children between the ages of 8-14 between 1865
and 1895
• A New York pediatrician, Joseph Mayer Rice visited 36 cities and
interviewed 1200 teachers
• The number of kindergartens raised from 200 in 1880 up to 3000 in 1990
• In 1880 62% of white school aged children attended school
The growth of high school
• The number of public high schools jumped from 800 in 1878 up to 5500 in
1898
• Fewer than 72,000 students attended school in 1870
• New vocational courses helped prepare males for the work force even
better than regular schooling
• Courses such as drafting, carpentry, mechanics, and female graduates for
work as secretaries and book keepers
Racial discrimination
• In 1880 African Americans were basically
excluded from public secondary education
• By 1890 less than 1% of African Americans
were attending high school
• By 1910 almost 3% between the ages of 15-19
were attending high school but most were still
attending private schools
• Education for Immigrants
• Immigrants were not locked out of school like
African Americans were
• Most immigrants had the choice to send their
children to America's free public schools
• Instead of catholics sending their children to
public school where bible teachings were
mandatory catholic communities often set up
parochial schools
• Thousands of adult immigrants attended night
school in order to obtain the english language
and to qualify for American citizenship
Expanding higher education
• Only 2.3% of America's younger people
continued their schooling to attend colleges
and universities
Changes in universities
• Colleges and universities start to offer more
modern courses in languages, engineering,
ecomnomics, the physical sciences, and the new
disciplines of phsycology and sociology
• Jane Lathorp Stanford donated $21 million to
open Stanford University in memory of her son
• This is the period when entrance exams were
being required by private colleges and
universities
Higher education for African
Americans
• After the Civil War all black schools eventually
opened to educate merchants, ministers,
physicians, dentists, and teachers
• In 1895 W.E.B. Du Bois became the first African
American to receive a doctorate from Harvard
• He believes “ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL”
• Booker T. Washington, another African American,
believed that racism would end once African
Americans acquired useful labor skills and proved
their economic value to society
Education Influences Culture
• As the number of Americans attending school
increased the cultural vistas of ordinary
Americans expanded
Promoting Fine Arts
• By 1900 at least one art gallery existed in
every major city
• Thomas Eakins, an American artist, began to
embrace realism, an artistic school that
focused on portraying real life even in its
grittier forms
•
The End