It is pretty amazing what we take for granted today in our school systems. Seeing that only a select few children were educated because education was not something that was funded by the government was unlike what I had ever pictured. Originally, it seemed like education was meant to be available to all students (excluding blacks) although it ended up being only for the students whose families could afford it.
Horace Mann, the first Secretary of Education, really paved the way for the first set of reforms among schools. I was impressed to hear that he traveled to nearly 1,000 schools in such a short amount of time to do a report on every school. He recognized that many of them were underprivileged and even made the point, "How could students learn in an environment like this?" That sounds similar doesn't it? We make that point all the time with the schools and classrooms we encounter today.
Although this was the incorrect era for relating my interview data to, I am excited to see the responses my grandfather came up with and how similar they may be to what we have watched thus far. I am curious to hear about his transportation to school, and what type of environment he learned in, and the types of teaching strategies that teachers used back in the mid 30's. Perhaps they were more similar to 19th century than we may think?
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