The Public School Movement
I gathered and took away a lot of important facts and information from this chapter, the main thing for me being how immigrants transformed America. During this time, our school system was changing quickly and other countries and parts of the world were noticing. American schools were seeing so many positives as well as seeing a huge decrease in illiteracy. Families from around the globe wanted to move to America to provide a prestigious education to their children. Immigrants came to America and were able to work towards their dreams everyday to make them a reality. Students could be whatever they wanted to be. Most importantly, students made a lasting impact to society and this statement stands true to todays current society, in which immigrants continue to bring forth many contributions.
While the educational system was changing, there were some setbacks individuals faced. Theodore Roosevelt strongly urged and believed in an English only curriculum and wanted all students to speak and write in English in the classroom setting. So, one can imagine the stress and burden this places on students; they are coming to America learning new customs and language and then are placed into a classroom setting where there is no room to make mistakes in that aspect. Certain testing was also required for students and at times was unfair. The topic of testing and standardized testing even today is controversial. Back then, criticism that arose is that the higher the test scores, the more successful you would be. This does not stand true for many students, especially those were still trying to learn and read our language and were very smart...the test did not accurately reflect those dispositions. I also do not think test scores accurately reflect a students potential. I believe the same stands true today and that there are very smart kids who are not good at taking tests and these same children can apply their knowledge through different career outlets. I found it astounding that such a large percentage of kids (80%) wanted to work in factories as opposed to receiving a higher education. This thought primarily was due to the fact that based on circumstances children had to prioritize what was most important which at the time was taking care of their family and contributing to such matters.
Through the use of public schooling, students had the right to go to school everyday and not have to worry to get a job to try and help support their family. Students were able to dream and pursue their educational and personal goals. This was truly part of the American dream. I found it easier to rank the 4 A's based off of what I found to correlate the most and what ranked of most importance to me. I feel once I ranked each A as the most important, the rest supported the first agreement, argument, assumption and aspiration very nicely.
While the educational system was changing, there were some setbacks individuals faced. Theodore Roosevelt strongly urged and believed in an English only curriculum and wanted all students to speak and write in English in the classroom setting. So, one can imagine the stress and burden this places on students; they are coming to America learning new customs and language and then are placed into a classroom setting where there is no room to make mistakes in that aspect. Certain testing was also required for students and at times was unfair. The topic of testing and standardized testing even today is controversial. Back then, criticism that arose is that the higher the test scores, the more successful you would be. This does not stand true for many students, especially those were still trying to learn and read our language and were very smart...the test did not accurately reflect those dispositions. I also do not think test scores accurately reflect a students potential. I believe the same stands true today and that there are very smart kids who are not good at taking tests and these same children can apply their knowledge through different career outlets. I found it astounding that such a large percentage of kids (80%) wanted to work in factories as opposed to receiving a higher education. This thought primarily was due to the fact that based on circumstances children had to prioritize what was most important which at the time was taking care of their family and contributing to such matters.
Through the use of public schooling, students had the right to go to school everyday and not have to worry to get a job to try and help support their family. Students were able to dream and pursue their educational and personal goals. This was truly part of the American dream. I found it easier to rank the 4 A's based off of what I found to correlate the most and what ranked of most importance to me. I feel once I ranked each A as the most important, the rest supported the first agreement, argument, assumption and aspiration very nicely.
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