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Early textbook used in Colonies
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is less than 82 days. Yet somehow these fellows come up with the Declaration of Independence, and later write the Constitution.
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Jefferson believes voters should be educated. Beyond that, the cleverest should receive higher level education
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Unsuccessfull Virginia Assembly proposal to guarantee 3 years of education for all children.
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Webster promotes a new national language. This new language is suprisingly similar to English. Thus Webster takes credit for something the English came up with. Taking credit where it is not due becomes a major theme in American history.
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Ideas of statewide systems and universal education start to become a reality
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Mann promotes "common schools," publicly funded and available to the rich and poor
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Caught in a double whammy, Irish Catholics object to English protestant schooling. Who can blame them?
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Catholics unsuccessful in getting government to support Catholic schools, so they create their own. Actually, they do successfully get the curriculum changed, but by then have lost interest.
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His work is successful in Mass by 1855. Most other states follow suit more than 100 years later.
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Massachusetts shows the way by being fair to blacks. 150 years later they give us Mit.
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Blacks see education as the way out after years of slavery. Not a bad thought.
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This brings the rise of the female teacher, changing forever how young children are taught.
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Do we do it better, or just more? American success in the next decades show we do the job right.
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Dewey is called the "father of progressive education," also called "child centered" education. Dewey seems to think kids like to do what's good for them. Or perhaps he thinks because they like to do it it's good for them. Children have fun, learn not so much. This is what happens when you let philosophers run anything. [I made that up, this is the only time in history anyone actually let a philospher tell them how to run an organization.]
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From 1890 to 1930 we see our greatest period of immigration. Everyone wants to be an American in the 20th Century. Will we still be popular in the middle of the 21th?
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Wirt puts Dewey's ideas into practice, calling the system "work-study-play." Children of all talents can succeed, not just those of an academic bent. This makes everyone feel better, even the academically inclined.
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New York City tries Indiana's child centered model. Ambitious parents find this revolting, since they want their sons to be doctors, not steel workers or meat packers. Who couldn't see that coming?
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So we have some exposure to France and Germany during the war, and immediately decide we need to be more English. Term "Ugly American" follows shortly.
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They are still with us, with a vengeance. These geniuses start "career tracking," which only works if you can figure out early who the stars will be. Oh, wait, if it was preordained, then why would you need to track them? Anyway, many would-be astrophysicists are trained to be street sweepers, and only manage to become astrophysicists by extraordinary personal effort. The only good thing is that the Soviet Union copies our strategy, resulting in its eventual fall without a nuke being fired.
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This is the real greatest generation. They grow up with innoculations and the threat of nuclear war. But they also get to run in the DDT fog behind the fogging truck, and be exposed to all other sorts of environmental problems. Teachers and schools are overwhealmed, and just want them to leave.
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And of those, half go to college. Colleges become so rich that they can pay their football coaches like they were movie stars. Of course, this is a white male only thing. Women and minorities have to go to colleges with bad football teams, and don't get to go to medical or law school.
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The Warren court justices see the light. [Would the Roberts court see it? They certainly don't now.] Saying segregation is bad is important, but things don't change as fast as they should.
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Soviet Union beats US to space. US declares a crisis in American education, and proceeds to retool and put a man on the moon. [Compare 1980, when Reagan declares a similar crisis in our schools. We tool up the financial markets and almost bankrupt the country. Then in 2000 Bush feels bad about education, so kids are tested, but banks aren't.]
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They didn't see this one coming. Never trust the man.
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As predicted by everyone.
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becomes president and knows that blacks are humans, and that the country cannot continue to deny it. Johnson is instrumental in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act or 1965. The latter makes a funded non-mandate. As opposed to Bush's unfunded mandates. This is why Johnson will be remembered as a great leader while the following joke will always be funny: "Bush was born on third base and thought he hit a triple."
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Chicanos, Indians, women, and the disabled get their chance in the 1970's. Bilingual education is still an issue, but Title IX does the trick for women. Now the issue is how to catch the boys up. [Bus them, maybe? Separate schools so they don't have to compete with the smart girls?]
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Reagan wakes up one morning and decides we have a "Nation at Risk." His solution is to bring free market principles to education. His economic ideas of trickle down are discredited, and his deregulation of the S&L's costs the taxpayers millions, but somehow his ideas about education have a long shelf life. We move toward a country of vouchers, home school, charter schools, and No Child Left Behind. None of these actually solves the problem, but many people feel better.
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magazine publishes an article entitled [if I remember correctly] "Reforming Public Schools: 200 Years of Crisis."
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