What is cultural about education?
Highlights of American education:
 Education since the colonial period has been a part of almost every community.  Some effort has been made to learn how to read, write- there were different reasons, but there was always an emphasis on some sort of education.  As soon as communities get shaped around industry, you have to be able to read, write, run the industry.
 It was not just that there was education, but that it was compulsory.  It was considered essential for children to be prepared for social, economic life.  It was considered both a right and a responsibility.

Progressive Period in American Education- from the end of 19th to the early 20th century
 Reasons for this- growth in population (birth, immigration), growth in the social sciences.  Because of growth of immigration, there was also a growth of diversification and the need for diversity.   Out of the conditions of urban areas in this time rose new needs and ideas about education.
 John Dewey:  Very influential in education.  He worked with the idea that education was more than just for academia- it was also for public service.  He asked: Assuming we live ina democratic society, how should children learn and teachers teach?  The idea of active, community based education slowly began at this time.  The curriculum in these innovative schools were community oriented- learning from things and people in the community, designing education around the community. Theory coming out of this time- you can’t understand something until you experience it.  You can’t understand community until you experience it.  Experience was knowing how to live well in community.
Other major education philosophers:  Alexander Mekeljohn.  University of Wisconsin (contemporary of Dewey)- set up an experiment of men living together in a community and working the community out. Living and learning together-interdisciplanry.
Tussman- similar at Berkeley
Evergreen- looked at Tussman and Mekeljohn

Matt:
There is a fundamental theory about schooling in America- learning in school is learning how to be in school:  learning how to behave in ways that are socially acceptable, learning how to appear to be busy with work, learning how to be a worker.  The most basic idea of this is that it teaches children how to be “effective working beings”.  How to listen to authority, to keep time schedules, etc.  There was a fundamental transition from the agricultural world to the industrial world.  One major piece of what schools were for in the early 20th century was to learn how to be in school: sit in rows and do work, be on time.  You had to learn english (as an immigrant) so that you can understand what the boss will say to you when you are working.  If you look at the reform that has come about in response to washington state tests, test standards, etc.- you will see that the single most important document that pushed for education reform in Washington was a report from the washington state business roundtable.  A major piece of education reform is trying to figure out what people need in order to be the worker bees in a society.
The notion of a democratic society makes no sense if people cannot read, understand the issues, think about the arguments and dissect them, etc.  What are the criteria we have to have in order to make democratic judgements?  These move us into the question of what does it mean to live well?