Composition: History & Theory: 1800 - 1865
The Charity School
Description
In The American School From the Puritans to No Child Left Behind (2008), Joel Spring notes a number of ways in which educators tried to address the poor situation of children during this time period. The charity school movement was intended to reduce crime and poverty among urban street children. Spring writes that “charity schools and juvenile reformatories in the early nineteenth century sought to create good moral character by replacing a weak family structure and destroying criminal associations” (61). Reformatories for children were founded in the 1820s. The Lancasterian system of instruction valued environment in learning. This movement was later called the “process of socialization”. It was associated with a factory because it was cheap and served many children. Submission, order, and industriousness gave poor children a chance to integrate into society (63).
Date of Upload
3/13/09