|
|
|
From the Desk of Bill Cirone...
April 23, 1999
Thumbnail Sketch of U.S. Education
In a recent report, "Preparing Schools and School Systems for the 21st Century," the Council of 21 , with Senator John Glenn as its honorary chair, outlined the needs our public schools will face in the next decades. The report started with a thumbnail history of public education in this country that is very helpful to revisit.
When settlers first arrived in the New World, they brought with them the basic and critical concept that all people should be able to read. The Bible had been printed and was widely available. As a result, according to the Council's report, our earliest schools made sure that children had a grounding in reading and fairly basic math, and that they explored some of the moral and ethical rules of what was then thought to be important to a civilized world.
Thomas Jefferson, one of America's first education supporters and reformers, believed that education is essential to maintaining a democracy and that it serves as a foundation for freedom.
Interestingly, the U.S. Constitution that Jefferson helped frame does not directly address education. It was intended that authority for schools rest with the states, not the federal government, and that the states delegate day-to-day operation of schools to local school boards. States ensure that their public schools are open to all children.
In 1836, the federal government began looking to its obligations to students with special needs, and created an elementary school for the hearing-impaired in the District of Columbia. That was followed, in the 1860s, by creation of the American Printing House for the Blind, Gallaudet University, and Howard University. During this period, however, slavery continued to deprive legions of people of formal education.
In the mid-1800s, the nation was jolted by the coming of the Industrial Revolution. Jobs were becoming more complex and workers needed to know how to read, write, do complex mathematical computations, and understand fundamental scientific concepts.
It was during this period that educator Horace Mann convinced the nation that universal public education benefited not just students, but society as well. This period could be described as a time of making sure that students were capable members of the workforce, according to the Council's report.
"During a wave of intense immigration in the late 1800s, a new high school was opening in the country every day," according to the report. "Education seemed to be the anchor for an industrial age, but schools were having a hard time keeping up."
As the nation became a microcosm of the world, with its schools focusing more and more on preparing students for the workforce and life in U. S. society, a Committee of 10, chaired by Harvard President Charles Eliot, made recommendations for U. S. education in the 20th century. The committee, according to the report, sought to "counteract a narrow and provincial spirit" and to "prepare the pupil...for enlightened and intellectual enjoyment." Also high on the agenda was educating students "to exercise a salutary influence upon the affairs of the country."
The Council's report explained that following World War II, the G. I. Bill ushered in an age of scientific and math education. "After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, the National Defense Education Act helped produce a generation of people so adept in science that they created the technologies that are now transforming the world."
The Council's report then looked to the future: "As we move into the 21st century, what we expect of our schools is cumulative. Schools are still expected to produce ethical, moral, civilized people who can help us sustain our democracy. They are expected to prepare students for employability.
"They are expected to prepare a new wave of immigrants for life in America. And as demands increase, expectations grow, and life accelerates, our schools are expected to produce people who can effectively lead us into a global knowledge/information age."
The Council claimed its thumbnail sketch was intended to let us know that the transformation expected of us is not new. "It is simply one of the great benefits and ongoing challenges of living in a free and dynamic society &emdash; a society we can only keep that way through sound education."
© Santa Barbara County Education Office
<.shtml>