Composition: History & Theory: 1800 - 1865
The Development of the High School
Description
In The American School From the Puritans to No Child Left Behind (2008), Joel Spring notes the birth of the high school in 1821. Boston established the first high school, but it did not become a mass institution until the 1920s and 30s. The goals of the institution were vague; but, like the common school reformers, advocates of the high school believed in education leading to equal opportunity, individual responsibility, and the reduction of crime and social conflict. There is a continuing debate among historians about the intentions of the common school movement. Spring notes that Ellwood Cubberly (1919) argues that those opposed to the common school movement were protecting aristocratic interests while Merle Curti (1935) argues that the common school was designed to extend social benefits to all social classes. Michael Katz (1968) argues that schools arose because of social and economic changes associated with factories, immigration, and urban growth (Schools would train obedient workers for factories). Rush Welter (1962) emphasizes the workingmen’s parties’ role in the formation of the common school while Carl Kaestle (1983) argues that the common school played a role in assuring the dominance of Anglo-Protestant culture over other cultures in America.
Date of Upload
3/13/09