The American School: 1642-2004

by Spring, Joel

• ISBN13: 9780072875669
• ISBN10: 0072875666
• Edition: 6th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-05-21
• Publisher: MCGRAW

Summary

This current, comprehensive history of American education is designed to stimulate critical analysis and critical thinking by offering alternative interpretations of each historical period. The point of view taken by this text emphasizes 1) the role of multiculturalism and cultural domination in shaping U.S. schools, 2) the position of the school as one of many institutions that manage the distribution of ideas in society, 3) racism as a central issue in U.S. history and U.S. educational history, and 4) economic issues as an important factor in understanding the evolution of U.S. schools.

Table of Contents

List of Time Lines	xi
Preface	xiii
Thinking Critically about History: Ideological Management, Culture Wars, and Consumerism	1	(8)
There Is No Correct or Right Interpretation of History	2	(1)
Thematic Time Lines	2	(1)
My Perspective on Educational History	2	(1)
Cultural Domination as a Central Theme in Educational History	3	(1)
Schools as One Form of Ideological Management	4	(1)
The Role of Racism in U.S. History and in the History of Public Schools	5	(1)
Economic Issues in Public School History	6	(1)
Consumerism and Environmental Education	7	(2)
Religion and Authority in Colonial Education	9	(35)
The Role of Education in Colonial Society	10	(2)
Authority and Social Status in Colonial New England	12	(7)
Colonialism and Educational Policy	19	(1)
Language and Cultural Domination	20	(2)
Native Americans: Education as Cultural Imperialism	22	(3)
Early Native American Educational Programs	25	(2)
Enslaved Africans: Atlantic Creoles	27	(1)
Enslaved Africans: The Plantation System	27	(2)
The Idea of Secular Education: Freedom of Thought and the Establishment of Academies	29	(4)
Benjamin Franklin and Education as Social Mobility	33	(3)
The Family and the Child	36	(4)
Conclusion	40	(4)
Nationalism, Multiculturalism, and Moral Reform in the New Republic	44	(29)
Noah Webster: Nationalism and the Creation of a Dominant Culture	48	(2)
Thomas Jefferson: A Natural Aristocracy	50	(3)
Moral Reform and Faculty Psychology	53	(2)
Charity Schools, the Lancasterian System, and Prisons	55	(6)
Institutional Change and the American College	61	(6)
Public versus Private Schools	67	(1)
Conclusion: Continuing Issues in American Education	68	(5)
The Ideology and Politics of the Common School	73	(29)
The Ideology of the Common School Movement	75	(9)
Workingmen and the Struggle for a Republican Education	84	(3)
The Whigs and the Democrats	87	(4)
The Birth of the High School	91	(1)
The Continuing Debate about the Common School Ideal	92	(5)
Conclusion	97	(5)
The Common School and the Threat of Cultural Pluralism	102	(32)
Irish Catholics: A Threat to Anglo-American Schools and Culture	103	(5)
Slavery and Freedom in the North: African Americans and Schools in the New Republic	108	(2)
Racial Segregation	110	(1)
Boston and the Struggle for Equal Educational Opportunity	111	(3)
Learning in the Plantation System	114	(1)
Native Americans	115	(3)
The Ghost Dance: The Educational Dilemma for Native Americans	118	(1)
The Civilization Act	119	(1)
Native Americans, Education, and Social Class	120	(2)
The Missionary Educators	122	(2)
Language and Native American Cultures	124	(2)
Education and the Trail of Tears	126	(4)
Conclusion	130	(4)
Organizing the American School: The Nineteenth-Century Schoolmarm	134	(34)
The American Teacher	136	(9)
The Maternal Model of Instruction	145	(5)
The Evolution of the Bureaucratic Model	150	(7)
McGuffey's Readers and the Spirit of Capitalism	157	(5)
Female Teachers Civilize the West	162	(3)
Conclusion	165	(3)
Multiculturalism and the Failure of the Common School Ideal	168	(38)
Mexican Americans: Race and Citizenship	168	(3)
Segregation, Language, and Mexican American Education	171	(4)
Asian Americans: Exclusion and Segregation	175	(2)
Asian American Citizenship	177	(2)
Education of the Coolie and Deviant	179	(3)
Native American Citizenship	182	(1)
Educational Racism and Deculturalization	183	(1)
Native Americans: Reservations and Boarding Schools	184	(5)
Citizenship for African Americans	189	(2)
The Fourteenth Amendment: Citizenship and Education	191	(1)
The Great Crusade for Literacy	192	(5)
Issues Regarding Puerto Rican Citizenship	197	(1)
Puerto Rican American Educational Issues	198	(4)
Conclusion: Setting the Stage for the Great Civil Rights Movement	202	(4)
Growth of the Welfare Function of Schools: School Showers, Kindergarten, Playgrounds, Home Economics, Social Centers, and Cultural Conflict	206	(37)
Integrated Time Line	207	(1)
The Kindergarten Movement	208	(3)
Home Economics: Education of the New Consumer Woman	211	(4)
School Cafeterias, the American Cuisine, and Processed Foods	215	(4)
The Play Movement	219	(2)
Summer School	221	(1)
Social Centers	222	(2)
The New Culture Wars	224	(2)
Resisting Segregation: African Americans	226	(1)
The Second Crusade for Black Education	227	(2)
Resisting Segregation: Mexican Americans	229	(2)
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)	231	(2)
Native American Boarding Schools	233	(1)
Resisting Discrimination: Asian Americans	234	(2)
Educational Resistance in Puerto Rico	236	(2)
Conclusion	238	(5)
The School and the Workplace: High School, Junior High School, and Vocational Guidance and Education	243	(43)
The High School	244	(11)
Vocational Education, Vocational Guidance, and the Junior High School	255	(8)
Public Benefit or Corporate Greed?	263	(8)
Adapting the Classroom to the Workplace: Herbart, Dewey, and Thorndike	271	(10)
Conclusion: The Meaning of Equality of Opportunity	281	(5)
Meritocracy: The Experts Take Charge	286	(31)
Meritocracy and Efficient Management	288	(9)
Measurement, Democracy, and the Superiority of Anglo-Americans	297	(6)
``Backward'' Children and Special Classrooms	303	(1)
The University and Meritocracy	304	(8)
Conclusion	312	(1)
Integrated Time Line	313	(4)
The Politics of Knowledge: Teachers Unions, the American Legion, and the American Way	317	(29)
Keep the Schools Out of Politics: The Politics of Education	317	(2)
The Politics of Professionalism: Teachers versus Administrators	319	(4)
The Rise of the National Education Association	323	(3)
The Political Changes of the Depression Years	326	(8)
The Politics of Ideological Management: The American Legion	334	(1)
Selling the ``American Way'' in Schools and on Billboards	335	(2)
Propaganda and Free Speech in the Schools	337	(2)
Textbook Censorship and the American Way	339	(1)
Rugg and Advertising	340	(3)
Conclusion	343	(3)
Schools, Media, and Popular Culture: Influencing the Minds of Children and Teenagers	346	(29)
Educators and the Movies	348	(6)
The Production Code: Movies as Educators	354	(1)
Should Commercial Radio or Educators Determine National Culture?	355	(5)
Creating the Super Hero for Children's Radio	360	(4)
Controlling the Influence of Comic Books	364	(2)
Educating Children as Consumers	366	(2)
The Creation of Teenage Markets	368	(2)
Conclusion	370	(5)
Education and National Policy	375	(30)
The Cold War and National Educational Policy	377	(5)
Ideological Management: Anticommunism	382	(2)
Back to the Basics: Scholars and Conservatives Take Charge	384	(3)
The National Defense Education Act	387	(2)
The War on Poverty	389	(5)
Children's Television Workshop and Sesame Street	394	(8)
Conclusion	402	(3)
The Great Civil Rights Movement and the New Culture Wars	405	(36)
School Desegregation	406	(3)
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.	409	(2)
Native Americans	411	(2)
Indian Education: A National Tragedy	413	(2)
Asian Americans: Educating the Model Minority	415	(2)
Asian Americans: Language and the Continued Struggle for Equal Educational Opportunity	417	(2)
Hispanic/Latino Americans	419	(2)
Bilingual Education: The Culture Wars Continued	421	(3)
Multicultural Education, Immigration, and the Culture Wars	424	(4)
Schools and the Women's Movement	428	(1)
Children with Special Needs	429	(2)
The Coloring of Textbook Town	431	(4)
Liberating the Textbook Town Housewife for More Consumption	435	(1)
Conclusion: The Cold War and Civil Rights	436	(5)
Education in the Twenty-First Century	441	(1)
The Religious Right and School Prayer	441	(2)
Environmental Education: The Radical Paradigm	443	(5)
The Nixon Administration and the Conservative Reaction	448	(2)
Accountability and the Increasing Power of the Standardized Test	450	(2)
The Reagan, Bush, and Clinton Years: National Standards, Choice, and Savage Inequalities	452	(4)
The End of the Common School: Choice, Privatization, and Charter Schools	456	(5)
No Child Left Behind: Testing and the Continuation of the Culture Wars	461	(2)
The Commercialization of Schools and Education for Consumption	463	(1)
Consumer Education	464	(2)
Fast-Food Education	466	(5)
Textbooks: Environmentalism as the New Enemy	471	(1)
Conclusion	472
Index	1