Education for the Masses
American education in the 19th century saw changes that would reverberate through American education through the 20th century and even still into the 21st. Improvements in teacher education and training came as a result of the adoption of the Common School and the Prussian Education Model. A post-Civil War United States would leave the government to decide on the issue of race and equality in the school systems and everyday life. An influx of European immigrants as never seen before would weigh heavily on the public school system as well. These movements created issues to be solved in the 20th century and in modern times for generations.
The objects of this primary education determine its character and limits. These objects are To give to every citizen the information he needs for the transaction of his own business; To enable him to calculate for himself, and to express and preserve his ideas, his contracts and accounts, in writing; To improve by reading, his morals and faculties; To understand his duties to his neighbors and country, and to discharge with competence the functions confided to him by either; To know his rights; to exercise with order and justice those he retains; to choose with discretion the fiduciary of those he delegates; and to notice their conduct with diligence, with candor and judgement; And, in general, to observe with intelligence and faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be placed.
Thomas Jefferson |
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