1. Educational Reform

2. In 1800 Massachusetts was the only state requiring free public schools supported by community funds Middle Class Reformers wanted a tax supported education – new economic order needed educated workers

3. Educational Reform Leader: Horace Mann 1830s Where: Massachusetts Was lawyer who became head of the Massachusetts Board of education.

4. Horace Mann Credits: Adopted a school year (Lengthened the school year to six months ) Developed better ways of training teachers Doubled teachers salaries Expanded Curriculum: Geography & History

5. Education for Some By 1850 all states had accepted 3 basic principles Schools should be free Teachers should be trained Children should be required to go to school Dozen of new colleges and universities were created

6. Educational Reform Greatest success in the Northeast; Least success in the South Southern planters opposed paying taxes to educated poor white children Educational opportunities for women also expanded 1833 Oberlin College in OH became first coeducational college 1837 first all-female college was founded – Mount Holyoke, MA

7. People with Special Needs Thomas Galaudet developed a method of educating the hearing impaired and opened the school for the Deaf in Connecticut in 1817 Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe who headed the Perkins Institute-a school for the blind-developed books with large raised letter that people with sight impairments could “read” with their fingers.

8. Education Reform Leaders: Horace Mann GOALS: to educate all Americans REASON: more Americans were qualified to vote and needed to be able to make wise decisions about their government “Education does better than to disarm the poor of their hostility toward the rich; it prevents them from being poor.”

9. Education Reform American schools varied from section to section across the country. As early as 1647, Massachusetts passed a law requiring towns to provide schools for their children. The rest of New England adopted similar laws. The towns, not the states, paid for the schools.

10. Education Reform The Middle Atlantic states also took responsibility for education. Private societies in New York and Pennsylvania raised money to fund schools. The federal government required education for people in the Northwest Territory. In the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Congress set aside a section of land in each township for the support of schools. Public schools in the North and West seldom had enough money to furnish good educations, though.

11. Education Reform Southern schools had even less support. In the South, families had to work so hard to make a living that little time or money was left for schooling. Well-to-do people in all sections of the country managed to give their children good educations. Many paid for privately operated schools.

12. Education Reform During the 1830s more Americans qualified to vote than ever before. Educational reformers argued that voters needed good educations to make sound decisions about their government. The reformers proposed raising the standards of schools across the nation and supporting them with taxes. To accomplish these goals, they started the common school movement.

13. Education Reform Not everyone favored common schools, also referred to as free, or tax-supported, public schools. In the 1830s few people paid state or federal taxes. As a result, many strongly objected to paying taxes for public schools.

14. Education Reform Horace Mann spearheaded the campaign for common schools. Mann was especially concerned about poor children. Their families could not afford to send them to private schools or to contribute to the support of schools in their district. Mann won over taxpayers to his way of thinking by pointing out the benefits to society.

15. Education Reform During the 1840s and 1850s, the flood of immigrants into the United States helped free public schools gain general acceptance. Many Americans realized that schools were the ideal agents to teach American values to the new arrivals.

16. Education Reform Even with reforms, for many Americans getting into any kind of school remained a struggle. Most areas of the country neglected the education of women, African Americans, and the physically challenged. Bold and far-sighted reformers, however, took up their cause.

17. Education Reform Girls generally received only a basic education. Even private schools taught girls morals and manners rather than science and mathematics. Eventually, women’s colleges were founded—such as Troy Female Seminary in NY, Mount Holyoke in MA, and Oberlin College in OH. Few places offered any kind of education to African Americans in the early 1800s. Almost all colleges barred African Americans from attending. Two exceptions were Amherst College and Bowdoin College in the northeast. Little progress was made in higher education for African Americans until years after the Civil War.