A R EFORMING S OCIETY 8.2

O BJECTIVES Describe the public school movement Describe how reformers tried to improve the condition of prisoners and people with mental illness Evaluate the effectiveness of the temperance movement.

K EY P ARTS Reforming Education Helping the Ill and Imprisoned The Temperance Movement

I NTRODUCTION Read 8.2 Answer Question # 4 on pg Answer it in the form of a thesis statement.

R EFORMING E DUCATION During the 1780s Education in America was inadequate to say the least. There was only one notable educational textbook at the time called “The American Spelling Book” by Noah Webster. There were no public schools that children were required by law to go to. The public school movement sought to establish a system of tax-supported public schools.

C ONT. Horace Mann was one of the greatest school reformers. He advanced the idea of a free public education that students must attend. He also created the state board of education. Horace man was also a Massachusetts Senator.

H ELPING THE I LL AND I MPRISONED One reformer who turned her religious ideals into action was Dorthea Dix. She discovered that people suffering form mental illnesses were housed along with hardened criminals, she decided to change that. She spent the next two years visiting every prison and hospital in Massachusetts. Then she wrote to the state legislature describing the horrors she had seen.

C ONT. Dorthea went on a campaign across the nation encouraging other communities to build humane hospitals for people with mental illnesses. She was remarkably successful. She started the prison reform called the penitentiary movement. This formed two different prison models.

C ONT.. The Pennsylvania System- Prisoners were urged to repent, and lived in complete solitary confinement, working alone in their cells and exercising in individual yards. This was expensive to run and considered Cruel. The Auburn System- Prisoners worked with one another during the day under strict silence but slept in individual cells at night. This form was the most popular.

T HE T EMPERANCE M OVEMENT Reformers surveyed American society and they saw a country in desperate need of reform. They started the Temperance Movement, an effort to end alcohol abuse and the problems created by it. Temperance is different than prohibition. This will be an on going issue even until today.