The American School 1642-2004

Ch. 6: Organizing the American School:

 The Nineteenth Century Schoolmarm

 

 

The American Teacher

 

-Development of professional teachers is directly related to changes in the status of women in the US

-Woman can be hired at lower wages than men, because of this, at the end of the civil war women dominated the ranks of teaching

-Prior to the revolution, education for woman was limited to writing and reading, music, dancing, needlework, etc

-“instruction on credit” instituted to help women receive an education if they agreed to teach in the future

-The nineteenth-century schoolmarm was to fulfill the requirements of high morality and social conformity demanded by common school reformers

-People believed that women are better teachers of young children because of their natural child-rearing talents

-at the time there was no country in the world where women held such a high rank and influence on society

-females dominated teaching roles because males were in the civil war

-schoolmarms responsible for the morality of society, but limited in political and social activities

-even the earliest professional teacher training, with its limited preparation for elementary school instruction, and its emphasis on moral exhortation, further contributed to the low-status professional image of teaching

 

The Maternal Model of Instruction

  • Pestalozzian method of instruction was emphasis on relating teaching in early years to objects in the real world, on learning by doing rather than sitting at a desk. This was the first widespread theory of teaching that was based on concepts of maternal love and cultivation of moral faculty.
  • Johann Pestalozzi developed method of instruction by observing the morality of women in their homes with their children
  • His bases for child’s ability to learn were based on concept of maternal love and cultivation of the moral faculty.
  • A trademark of Pestalozzi method was use of common objects in instruction and development of child’s powers of observation, rather than abstract teaching that has little connection to the realities of a child’s life.
  • Prior to Pestalozzi method there were two types of instruction that were most popular:

1-       Intellectual overseer- This type stressed memorization and punished

failures with assignments

     2-The drillmaster- Has students repeat material in unison

         Pestalozzi method was found to be more humane and children could relate to it    

 

·         Through this method teachers began to use objects in classrooms such as maps for geography, globes, and real objects to count with for math.

·         Pestalozzi method was popular for its strong display of moral charm, and because of this method children would become more moral and intelligent members of society.

·         1818- Pestalozzi methods spread to English infants school

·         Johann Pestalozzi (1746-1827) born Zurich, Switzerland. He also wrote a book, Leonard and Gertrude which offered a popular description of domestic education.

 

The Bureaucratic Model

The bureaucratic remodeling of schools in the 18th and 19th centuries mirrored industrial changes as well as reinforcing the ascribed attributes of male/female roles in society.

 

Why Bureaucracy in School?

  • As a means of dealing with population growth while upholding moral values
  • Organizational focus on training children with the necessities for an industrial world-emphasizing punctuality, rational planning, order and regularity.
  • To reinforce gender specific roles
  • To teach children to conform to societal standard
  • Reinforcing gender norms with uniformity in teaching curriculum and methods

 

What made it Bureaucratic?

  • Creation of hierarchy in school with clearly defined roles for each

v      Superintendent(male)

v      Principal(male)

v      Assistant principle(male)

v      Teachers(female)

 

  • Separation of classrooms by age(graded schools)
  • The Architecture of new schools:3-4 floors bottom floors were classes and teachers offices while the top floor was administrative
  • Reasoning behind women as teachers

 

 

McGuffey’s Readers and the Spirit of Capitalism

-McGuffey Readers written by William Holmes McGuffey first published in 1836 and 1838. -Sold more than 122 million copies between 1836 and 1920.

- Designed to teach through moral tales, appropriate behavior in a developing industrial society with increasing concentrations of wealth and expanding social divisions between rich and poor.

- Series contains a Primer, a Speller, and four Readers. Readers contain religious sections (The Lord’s Prayer, the Story of Joseph, and the Child’s Prayer) historical sketches, poems, and tales about animals and birds.

- Girls occupied little space in the series, only role in capitalistic and industrial society is to serve as models of charity.  - Central problems in the character of girls were considered to be overeating, a lack of appreciation for learning, and untidiness.

-Boys occupy large portions of series, with themes including relationship with nature, value of learning, gluttony, mercy, pranks, charity, industriousness, honesty, courage, envy, alcoholism, insolence, and thrift.

-McGuffey Readers had profound impact on average Americans by shaping their attitudes toward political, social and economic institutions.

-Contain political messages that are conservative and express the values and beliefs of the Whig Party.

-Economic issues in the Readers are premised on the Calvinistic concept that Wealth is an outward sign of inner salvation. Wealth is a sign of God’s blessing. Poverty is a sign of God’s disapproval.

-Poor had to be godly and industrious to gain wealth. Rich had to use their wealth in a godly fashion to continue receiving blessings of God. Thus charity was a means for the rich to remain worthy of their wealth in the eyes of god and a justification for a concentration of wealth in their hands.

-Economic arguments in Readers provide means of understanding the goals of the common school.  Common school was supposed to solve the problem of social-class tension by education children to accept their positions in society and the existing economic arrangements.

-The poor were educated to accept the existence of the rich, to learn that the rich would take care of them, and that they where free of the responsibilities that accompanied wealth. They where taught that happiness depended on behaving in a manner that would not antagonize the wealthy.

-The Rich were educated to not have negative feelings about the poor and to perform acts of charity as a means of disarming the poor of hostility.