SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION:
 
Intro: 2-3 min.
Reading Primary Documents: 5 min.
Discussion: 10 min

Questions:

What were some complaints about the current school system?

What were the primary purposes for education, according the Workingmen’s Party ideologies?

What were some common goals of education?

What kind of education did they advocate for? 

What were some main ideas?

Facts about the Workingmen’s Party:

1827 – 1835
        --Educational demands – central to political campaigns – EQUAL OPPROTUNITIES FOR ALL
        --contributed to the popularity of the struggle for common schools

Advocates for:
        --FREE common public schools
        --to ensure political and economic power for everyone

“argued for the necessity of education as a means by which workers could protect themselves from economic and political exploitation” (p. 115).

Workingmen’s movement started in Philadelphia (1827)
        --Mechanics Union of Trade Association
                --demand for worker influence on legislative action
        --spread to Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, New York

Formed a committee to investigate schools
        FOUND:
                --little support for public instruction
                --did not like Charity Schools
                        -Government money providing questionable education
                                “ignorance, inattention & immortality” (p.116)
                        --$$ instead went to colleges/universities for upper class

“make equal knowledge a common property of ALL GROUPS in society” (p. 116)

“in an Industrial society, knowledge is power” (p. 116)

COMMON SCHOOLS:
        --essential for the protection of rights for the workingman
        --equal sharing of power
        --help to combat the tyranny of the upper class
        --reduce distinctions among economic classes by providing equal economic opportunities

From the Workingmen’s Advocate (1830)
“The right of self government implies a right to a knowledge necessary to the exercise of the right of self government.  If all have an equal right to the first, all must consequently have an equal right to the second; therefore, all are entitled to equal education” (p. 116).