20th Century Public Education

Anyway, I am very interested in your "memory work." Along with the explanation of classical ed -v- 20th century.

Kristi-but-not-me imbedded this sentence in one of her comments many posts below. Little did she know how I have become obsessed with the topic of 20th century public schools and that I would devote an entire post on why the schools are going to Hell in a handbasket. Little did she know, indeed. After this post you'll be wondering if I really am Kristi-but-not-me posing fake questions in my own comments in order to bring up my pet subjects. In my own blog. Yeah...nevermind. That would just be pathetic.

This is What Happened and I Dare You to Prove I'm Lying

That's the title I use when I give a history of public education without any sources or backup. I feel like Dr. Madden is going to give me an 'F' for not citing my footnotes correctly. I love blogs.

Way back in the olden days, the education of children was left to the discretion of their parents. Most parents taught their kids to read and do math, as their parents had taught them, but many did not send their kids to school since the rural economy demanded more labor. Makes sense, right? You'd think that we'd have a lot of illiterate farm kids running amok. Not so. Prior to government enforced compulsary education, literacy rates were higher than they have ever been since. In other words, parents, who have the greatest vested interest in the education of their children, were somehow doing a better job than the institutions that were created for that purpose.

But I digress. So somewhere in the 19th century the good folks in Washington decided education should be free (sorta) to everyone and all the youngins are compelled to go to the little red schoolhouse. Still, things were good. Because back in the old days everyone more or less followed an education pattern known as the Trivium. I encourage you to take a look at the Wikipedia article for a thorough explanation of what the Trivium entails. A very simple but effective pattern is followed with this method of education. During the elementary years the child is crammed with so much knowledge they are just oozing ridiculous amounts of information. Then, during the jr. high-ish years you cut back on filling their heads and try to get them to begin to apply their knowledge. This is called the logic stage. This is when you attempt to get them to see relationships and give analysis. Finally, in highschool students completed the rhetoric stage. At this point they are learning to articulate and defend positions...they are debating. They should be able to pierce through flawed loging like a hot knife through butter.

And then everything changed. In the early 20th century the field of "child development" was just maturing as a branch of psychology. Guys like Piaget and Dewey started hinting that academics wasn't nearly as important as emotional well-being. Progressive educators began hinting that newly enfranchised blacks and immigrants wouldn't be able to handle Latin and Shakespeare. So we needed to re-shape our high schools to give our non-white citizens the skills they need to enter the workforce. There is a section in To Kill a Mockingbird in which Scout complains that all they ever do at school is create stuff with construction paper. Her teacher won't even let her read. Progressive education in a nutshell.

By the 1950s people like Dorothy Sayers begin suggesting our education system is heading for a crash. She predicts that the only reason Americans were still competitive was because of the influence of classically educated parents and grandparents...once they're gone American schools will no longer be producing the brightest students in the world. And as if God himself had appointed Miss Dorothy as some sort of educational Isaiah, SAT scores started plummeting. That was in the 60s.

By the 70s people like Marva Collins and Jessie Wise had the courage to stop playing the public school game and get out. And millions and millions of others have followed along.

Thanks, Kristi-but-not-me for the encouragement to write the thesis I always wanted to write.