Composition: History & Theory: 1800 - 1865
Administration and Professionalization
Description
In The American School From the Puritans to No Child Left Behind (2008), Joel Spring notes that the supervision of instruction was of great importance. In rural areas, the superintendent became a major figure—riding from school to school to check on instruction. In urban areas, city superintendents began to take over the function of school committees. As larger schools replaced the one-room schoolhouse, two roles began to appear: principal teacher and assistant teacher. Thus began the hierarchical system of supervision and administrative control. Men would manage and women would teach. By the late 19th century, the following elements made up the bureaucratic organization of the typical school system: 1) a hierarchy with a superintendent at the top and orders flowing from the top down; 2) clearly defined difference in the roles of superintendent, principals, assistant principals, and teachers; 3) graded schools in which students progressively moved from one grade to the next (first grade to second grade, etc.); 4) a graded course of study for the entire school system to assure uniformity in teaching in all grades in the system; and 5) an emphasis on rational planning, order, regularity, and punctuality in order to translate education into the working world. The development of 8-year graded elementary schools was part of the more general growth of hierarchal bureaucracy (women were seen fit to teach younger children).
Spring argues that the first and probably most important step in the common school movement during this time was to create a stable, inexpensive teaching force that would uphold in the classroom the moral ideals of the movement (134). Thus, the advent of the American Schoolmarm: women were welcomed into the ranks of teaching by local school boards because women could be hired at lower wages than men (136). This movement was perpetuated by the belief that women were better teachers (of a purer moral standing) because of their natural child-rearing talents (139). Teachers were expected to lead exemplary lives, with their social activities constantly under public scrutiny. This control of the social life of teachers contributed to the low status of teaching as a profession (138); and, in many cases, marriage often seemed like a more profitable alternative. The ideal characteristics for common schools were stated by Horace Mann in his 4th annual report 1840 to the Massachusetts State Board of Education—good behavior and morals were 4th and 5th on his list. The common belief was that female minds were less distracted by worldly forces because women had no other employment possibilities—they could more easily concentrate on teaching (139). In 1864, 69% of Ohio common school teachers were female (this was becoming a national trend).
The first teacher-training institution in the United States was the Troy Female Seminary, officially opened by Emma Willard in 1821 (the school was opened for the specific purpose of educating women for responsible motherhood and teaching). Willard, in an address to the New York legislature in 1819 declared the hopes of republican motherhood: “Who knows how great and good a race of men may yet arise from the forming hands of mothers, enlightened by the bounty of that beloved country.” The development of teacher institutions in the 1830s placed a strong emphasis on character. Though the schoolmarm was given responsibility for the morality of society, she was limited in political and social activities (143).
During this time, the view of the schoolmarm was influenced greatly by the work of Johann Pestalozi, a Swedish-born educational theorist who began his career in journalism but made a tremendous impact in educational reform with the release of his classic description of domestic education, Leonard and Gertrude. The work’s underlying thesis was that material love is the first agent in good education. Pestalozzi gave the mother figure the main responsibility for the salvation of society. The concept of “mother as teacher” had a profound impact on textbooks and classroom practices. Pestalozzi also wrote critically against 19th century pedagogical practices that asked students to memorize, recite, work at their desks, and simply listen to verbal instructions. The major impact of Pestalozzian theory was its emphasis on relating instruction in the early years to objects in the real world, learning by doing, and the importance of student activity.
William McGuffey’s Readers were a series of readers that contained numerous moral lessons designed to teach appropriate behavior in a developing industrial society with increasing concentrations of wealth and expanding social divisions between the rich and the poor. Females were seldom-discussed characters in these moral tales dealing with social behavior.
By the 1840s, the rush of women into teaching resulted in an oversupply of teachers in the northeastern states, so many of these women headed west. These women were motivated by a combination of economic necessity, religious mission, and romantic visions of the West and Indian life. Unfortunately, many of these women found even gloomier circumstances awaiting them in Indian Territory.
Date of Upload
3/13/09