Recently, Rob Schofield made an excellent observation. “One of the most common problems for those involved in contentious policy debates is a lack of historical perspective.” He is right. (Holla atcha flibbity dibbity!) Historical perspective is a necessity, which is one of the reasons why JLF established the North Carolina History Project.
Mr. Schofield cited a lecture by Dean Jack Boger of the UNC School of Law as an example of the importance of historical perspective. “Common Schooling in the 21st Century: What Future for American Education?” is an interesting lecture and I am glad that I read it. Those of us who work in education policy rarely get an opportunity to discuss the history of education.
Mr. Boger’s lecture begins with a discussion of the work of Horace Mann and North Carolinian Calvin Wiley, two nineteenth century proponents of “common schools.” The notion of a “common” school is an interesting one because, for reformers like Mann and Wiley, the “common” meant that students would be forced to learn a common core of pan-Protestant values. Of course, this did not sit well with Catholics (and other minority faiths) and immigrant groups. It probably would not sit well with those who want to keep religious dogma and moralistic instruction out of the public schools.
Speaking of public schools, nineteenth century education reformers did have a notion of “public” schools, but one should not impose a present-day meaning on the idea. As historian Michael Katz notes, “[I]n the early republican period, ?public? implied the performance of broad social functions and the service of a large, heterogenous, nonexclusive clientele rather than control and ownership by the community or state.” (Class, Bureaucracy, and Schools: The Illusion of Educational Change in America, 23)
Indeed, most communities, legislators, families, and religious groups were satisfied with the educational configurations as they existed – state-supported charity schools and universities and privately or denominationally supported academies, grammar schools, Sunday schools, proprietary schools, Lancastrian schools, and colleges. Apprenticeships, home schools, and private tutors were particularly prevalent. All of these types of schools served a “public” purpose, as nineteenth century folk understood the term.
When the Prussian model of schooling arrived in the United States and inspired those like Mann and Wiley, Americans had already had 250 years of public schooling under their belts. The state-run, compulsory system of public schools that we have today has been around for about half that time.
