What Has Happened to Education in the United States? Education and Democracy

By

Robert Fischer

Education and Democracy in the 17^th and 18^th Century America

Education is the process whereby a society teaches its members the knowledge skills that are necessary to function in that culture.  There are two broad categories of education.  Formal education or schooling is provided in a formal setting teaching prescribed topics.  The second category is informal education.  This is education gained through experiences.  Much of this informal education is found in the home or workplace.

Education in the colonies and early America was far from consistent or formal.  The northern colonies were heavily populated by Puritans who valued education, with 70% of men being literate. For Puritans, education was needed so that their congregations could read the Bible and be involved citizens.  Massachusetts mandated that every town of over 50 families support an elementary school for boys and girls, and towns with over 100 families support Latin to prepare boys for the ministry and law practice.  Subjects for both boys and girls included reading, writing, and religion.  Girls, in some cases, were taught sewing and social “graces.”   Boys were allowed to continue anywhere they learned advanced math, Latin and Greek.

While Elementary schools for both girls and boys were common in the northern and middle colonies, the southern colonies did not value literacy for the poor or working class.  Education for the wealthy, provided by private schools, was normal.  Middle class children were often taught at home by literate parents.  There were few secondary schools, and most were in the larger colonial towns.  Education was geared towards males who might eventually go on to college or become business owners.

Secondary education was rare, the exception being in larger towns such as Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and Charleston.   Subjects might include more Latin, accounting, surveying, other languages, and navigation. Vocational education was probably more common during this colonial period. 

Colleges were even rarer. All the colonial colleges were in the middle or upper colonies and were small.   Only white males were admitted.  The curriculum was set on ancient languages, history, math, and theology.  Most graduates became ministers.  By the end of the colonial period, the law had become popular.

The only college for women was in French Louisiana (not part of the colonies). Ursuline Academy graduated women one who would later become the first female pharmacist.  The Catholic school was also the first to provide classes for African and Native Americans.

This was the status of education as our founding fathers struggled to create a new nation.  Given the support that many of these men showed for an educated populus, what did they envision as an education for the masses?  The new government set out to standardize spelling and instill patriotism.  In New England the teaching of religion was still paramount.  By the mid-1800s, many wanted a free and compulsory education.  This desire was not realized until the end of the 1800s.   This changed the focus of education for the wealthy to all Americans.  Education now focused on not only the basics of social survival but included courses to stabilize national unity and teach new arrivals “American” values.  The changing social structure, moving from rural to city (industrial) required reading, writing, and math skills.  College education was still reserved for the wealthy class.

Education in the 20^th Century

By the beginning of the 20^th century, public education was available with almost 80% of the young population in school.  However, 2/3 of the schools were small, multi-grade rural schools.  The curriculum focused on math and grammar.  The teachers were dedicated but had little formal education.  Teaching techniques frequently involved only memorization through repetition. Larger communities with more students often had schools grouped by age.  The urbanization and industrialization of the nation created new demands.  Added to this shift in culture was the great influx of immigrants looking for a new start.  The inadequacy of the education system created a public demand for education reform.  A more efficient education system was needed.  In addition to traditional education, there was also a demand for vocational programs to prepare individuals to work in the skilled trades.

Despite the improvements in education during the first several decades of the 20^th century, fewer than 15% were educated beyond grade school.  It wasn’t until the 1940s and 50s that the numbers attending high school would increase.

The Second World War saw major changes in education.  The draft rejected five million recruits because they could not read or write.  The problem clearly showed that education varied greatly, depending on where you received an education.  As young males went to war, the demand for technical training programs for those left behind to fill their jobs increased.

Following the end of WWII, the Servicemen’s Read-justment Act (GI Bill) supported college education for those that served.  Millions of Americans now received college degrees.

Education for the Baby Boomer

During the 1950s rural country schools were being consolidated into community schools.  Most states required the completion of 8^th grade as a minimum requirement.  Most teens attended high school.  The emphasis was on either vocational education or college preparation.  In most cases, less than 25 percent of a high school graduating class went on to college.  By the 1960s those that did pursue a college degree could expect that less than 30 percent of those who entered college would graduate.  For the most part, good jobs awaited the college graduate.  With the high number of baby boomers, universities could afford to be tough and selective. 

This trend continued through the early 1970s.  However, by the end of the 70s and into the 80s the number of degree seeking quality students began to decline.  The colleges, for the most part, were faculty/student oriented.  However, by the 1980s the emphasis shifted to a quasi-business model.  With the emphasis shifting from an educational focus to a numbers/monetary interest, many schools began to look for new ways to bolster their enrollment.

This shift in emphasis started a downward spiral in educational quality.  College/university graduation rates have risen to over 60 percent.  Graduation GPAs have increased from an average of 2.5 to 3.25.  This leads to the question of “Are students better prepared and smarter than their 1960s counterparts?”  I highly doubt it.  The other side of the change was the need to recruit students from nontraditional social groups.  The diversity of education is a positive from this trend.  More minority students were admitted to colleges.  However, this policy often overlooked academic abilities, creating a need for special remedial and support services.

What does this have to do with Democracy?

Given the emphasis that our founding fathers placed on an educated electorate, it is important to consider how various phases in the education of Americans shaped our politics.  It is impossible to consider all the dynamics in this short piece.  So, let us consider how our current educational system has impacted politics in the 21st century.

Students today have less exposure to civics and history.   These are two very important topics, given the nature of our democratic/socialistic republic.  Unless citizens understand where our nation came from and how our government was designed to work, the “noble experiment,” as Benjamin Franklin called it, will eventually fail.  Given today’s governmental gridlock and the lack of consensus building, America may have reached a turning point. 

We need to provide an education that supports our history, explains our social system, and explains our civil processes.  We also need to educate people on how to evaluate the information that they consume.  What is good research?  What is propaganda?  Which media outlets can be trusted, and which should be read with skepticism?

Only with an informed and critical electorate can America retain the democracy envisioned by its founding fathers.

Unless we reform education to include these important topics on a priority basis, America is at risk of losing its democracy.  Government reform may be needed.  However, it cannot occur until the electorate takes their responsibility seriously, holding their representatives to account.