Expanding Roles of Education:
Welfare, Workplace, and Meritocracy
Charles W. Eliot:
Mar. 20, 1834- Aug. 22, 1926
For the duration of this school board meeting you are representing the views of The Committee Ten as Charles Eliot. Charles Eliot was the president of Harvard University and the chairman for the Committee of Ten. In the 1800’s there was a great controversy over whether public schooling should used as a college preparation system or if schools should be catered to the individual needs of the students. The National Education Association (NEA) took this debate seriously and established the Committee of Ten 1893 in order to determine the most effective way to create equality within the school. The Committee of Ten consisted of ten school administrators and principles that decided the best way to create equality in schools was to give all students equal opportunity to attend college. In order to accomplish this the Committee of Ten established a standard curriculum for all students from 1st-12th grade.
The Committee of Ten made several changes to the curriculum regarding what students needed to study and for how long. These decisions have had a strong impact on curriculum to this day. It was the Committee of Ten that recommended students attend 8 years of elementary school and 4 years of high school. In the end the Committee of Ten recommended that all students study: Latin, Greek, English, language, mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, natural history, history and geography. To this day high schools recommend the same basic courses with slightly different classifications: Math, science, foreign language, history and English.
Quick Reference:
²The Committee of Ten was established in 1893 to solve the debate over if public schools should be a college preparation system.
²They concluded that allowing all student equal opportunity to attend college was the most effective way to give all students equal opportunity in life.
² In order to prepare all students for college they established a standard curriculum required for all students.
² The standard curriculum consisted of: Math, science, foreign language, history and English
Annotated Bibliography
about
The Committee of Ten
By: Mindy Cinqmars
1. http://www.blancmange.net/tmh/books/commoften/mainrpt.html
This is an extremely informative website that contained the Committee of Ten: Main Report. The main report explains exactly who the committee met with about each subject and how their decisions were made. It also contains a chart explaining the results of the meeting including what subjects are to studied and for long.
2. http://www.nd.edu/~rbarger/www7/neacom10.html
This website provides a very concise and simple explanation of what the Committee of Ten was and their purpose. To give validity to their claims this web site provides a reference list.
3. http://www.personal.kent.edu/~whelton/cd001.html
This web site is focused on curriculum development in the 20th century. This particular page gives an overview of how the Committee of Ten has impacted education to this day. If you want further information there are links to several other historical periods with explanations of other events that have influenced curriculum development.
4. http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agexed/aee529/Historythird.ppt
This is a web that links to a PowerPoint presentation entitled, “The history of curriculum in workforce development”. The PowerPoint presents the events that influenced the issue in the form of a time line from 1871-1980. It explains the events that lead up to and resulted from the formation and decisions of the Committee of Ten. However, because it is a PowerPoint it is difficult to open if your computer doesn’t have PowerPoint and it can take a long time to view. As an alternative I recommend searching for, “The history of curriculum in workforce development” then clicking on html. By doing this you will be able to view an outline of the PowerPoint as a word document.
5. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=316
This web site is slightly morbid but provided the only picture I could find of Charles Eliot on the Internet. If you go to www.findagrave.com you can search for other famous graves.