Please
prepare responses to the following questions for our next class meeting.
If called upon be prepared to discuss these questions at length.
Q.1 Do
schools change society or does society change schools?
Q. 2 What has history got to do with
education?
Q. 3
p.4 "Historians no longer have
a monopoly on history." Explain.
Q. 4 p.5 According to Theodore Roszak, master ideas shape history. Explain
Q. 5 pp.5-6 Industrialization provides us with with a good example of the process of social change. Do you agree?
Q. 6 p.7 Urbanization meant that a new institutional culture took shape in the large cities. Explain.
Q. 7 p.8 "Social scientists and historians have long noted that both industrialization and urbanization have been linked to . . . the social division of labor. . . . and this is tied to yet another enduring concept in social theory: class conflict." Explain.
Q. 8
p.10 What is cultural capital?
Q. 9
p.11 What is social capital?
How does it differ from cultural capital?
Q. 10 Why are modern historians and social scientists placing so much
emphasis on the concept of cultural capital?
Q. 11 p.13 Both cultural
capital and social capital are distinct from human
capital. Explain.
Q. 12 p.13 We have come to recognize that both social and cultural capital
help to explain success in school but they are not the result of teaching.
Explain
Q. 13 Give a definition for ideology.
Q. 14
p.15 The concept of equity
has been one of the great ideologies of the past 50
years in US education. List some of the social and educational outcomes.
Q. 15
p.17 From the early 20th century vocationalism
took hold in American Schools. Expound on this idea.
Q. 16 p.20 "All things considered, there is much evidence that schools have had a substantial impact on society at particular points in time." Give three examples.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter
2 - Colonial Origins:
Education in a Preindustrial Society.
Please
prepare responses to the following questions for our next class meeting.
If called upon be prepared to discuss these questions at length.
Q.1 The
story of Cotton Mather is that of a man torn between two conflicting
cultural traditions. Explain.
Q. 2
Mather stood at the pinnacle of the society of his day because he
was endowed with high levels of cultural capital. Explain.
Q. 3
p.28 "Most historians divide colonial America
into three broad regions." What were these regions?
Q. 4
p.29-31 Religion was a critical factor in
each of these sections. Explain.
Q. 5
p.31 Max Weber
makes an interesting argument regarding Protestantism and the rise
of Capitalism. What is his argument? Do you agree?
Q. 6
p.32 What is a theocratic society?
Where might we find such a society today?
Q. 7
p.33 What was the 'Old Deluder Satan Law'? In what year and in what
colony was it instituted?
Q. 8
p.36 What were the social and religious results of the Great Awakening of
1730s?
Q. 9
p.36 "The Enlightenment was a revolt among European
intellectuals." What were they revolting against and what were
they in favor of?
Q. 10
p.38 Comment on the literacy rates in the three broad regions of the British North America colonies.
Q. 11
On pp.41-42 is to be found a summary of what we have come to call
the 'Protestant work ethic.' What is your understanding of this term?
Q. 12
p.44 The English Enlightenment philosopher John Locke
had a very definite effect upon the thinking of colonial parents and
educators. In what manner did he influence their thinking?
Q. 13
p.46 "The men of the Manumission Society
were liberals." However, their Enlightenment idealism and their capitalist practices did not always fit together. Discuss.
Q. 14
p.51 "[Jefferson] believed that widely
distributed and free schooling would would lead to the rise of a 'natural
aristocracy.'" Explain.
Q. 15 pp.53
What was the colonial understanding of the concept of "republican
motherhood"? Give some detail of the position of women in the family and social structures of the colonies
Q. 16 p.56
"In the ferment to establish a new nation . . . . great significance was attached to education as an instrument
of political socialization." What is your understanding of the
term 'political socialization'?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter
3 - The 19th Century:
Beginnings of a Modern School System.
Please
prepare responses to the following questions for our next class meeting.
If called upon be prepared to discuss these questions at length.
Q. 1 The story
of Francis Wayland and his willful son Heman contain this sentence
"Willfulness in children often was compared to a kind of sin,
parallel if not equivalent to original sin" (p.60). What is the 'original sin' to which the author refers?
Q. 2
pp.61-63 Industrialization changed the face of America
but this change had both positive and negative effects. Build a case
for either the positive or the negative effects.
Q. 3
p.64 "school
became associated with preparation for life and for work in particular"
and "the duty of the school was to prepare students for the demands
of the emerging industrial social order." (p.64). How did this vary from earlier conceptions of schooling?
In what way did it change the schools' agenda?
Q. 4
p.67-69 What was "Lancastrian education"?
Q. 5
p.69 What was the first secondary school
established in the New World and the first public secondary school
established in America?
Q. 6
p.70 "Reformers, consequently,
often worked through the national political parties then taking shape."
Which political party lead the drive to reform schools? What was there
motivation?
Q. 7
p.75 The most famous proponent of common
school reform was ___________ - - - - - who accepted the newly
created post of _________ in _________ in (the year) _____. His ______
_______ - - - - - became influential statements of educational reform.
Q. 8
p.76 "Mann advocated a nonsectarian
form of Christianity for the public schools" and ran into a 'heap
of trouble.' Explain.
Q. 9 p.76
"Mann succeeded in persuading the legislature to establish
the nation's first publicly supported normal school in Lexington
in 1838." What was the significance of this move?
Q. 10
As your text points out "Consequently, school reform was often a slow and difficult
process" (p. 77). What problems did Mann
and other reformers encounter?
Q. 11
p.79 "During the latter half of the
19th century the nation's teaching force feminized rapidly"
Could you suggest reasons for this feminization?
Q. 12
Connecticut had its own common school reformer. To whom does this
title belong?
Q. 13
p.81 By the time of the Civil War the common
school reformers had won most of their battles and established the
basic practices and principles. What were these practices and principles?
Q. 14
pp. 83-84 Be prepared to give a brief
account of Mann's confrontation with the Boston grammar school masters.
Q. 15
pp.86 "The future of the high school hinged on
its popularity with the relatively small but growing urban middle
class." Explain.
Q. 16 pp.89-91
The US college of the colonial and revolutionary era
was conducted according to the English (Cambridge) model but following
the Civil War a growing number of colleges changed to the German,
research-oriented model. Explain.
Q. 17 Select a short quote from the text of Chapter 3 and explain to the class its meaning and its importance in the context of the work we have been covering.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter
4 - Ethnicity, Gender
and Race: Contours of Social Change in the 19th Century
Please
prepare responses to the following questions for our next class meeting.
If called upon be prepared to discuss these questions at length.
Q. 1
p.94 ". . . schooling generally is believed to represent a direct contribution to improved proficiency, and hence general social advancement." What is the term used by social scientists to describe this process?.
Q. 2
The narrative on pp.95-98 would suggest that
Bishop Hughes was fighting for a lost cause. Do you agree?
Q. 3
p.99 "With respect to European immigration, the Irish represent a telling case." What were the problems posed for the schools
and for society in general, by the flood of Irish immigrants, in 1840s
and 1850s?
Q. 4
p.103 "The process of change in women's
schooling . . . . was marked by a series of struggles by visionary
leaders." Name these leaders and detail their accomplishments.
Q. 5
p.105-06 "In this respect the growth of women's education
was the very embodiment of cultural capital." Expand on this
idea.
Q. 6
pp.106-07 In 1873 Edward Clarke published "Sex
in Education" in which he made some extraordinary claims.
Explain
Q. 7
p.110 "More significant were
the thousands of women, most of them middle class, who became involved
in other reform activities at this time." In what reform
activities were they involved? Why was this significant?
Q. 8
p.113 "Virtually all Blacks recognized
that lack of education was a mark of inferiority, one that seemed
to legitimate their their servile status." Develop this
statement.
Q. 9
p.115 ". . . 19th century African
American education was quite different from that provided for other
groups." How was it different?
Q. 10
p.118-19 "Southern states . . . . were
inherently suspicious of the idea that common folk - White or Black
- should be educated." Why were they suspicious?
Q. 11
pp.119-122 What was the essence of the disagreement between Booker
T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois?
Q. 12
p.125 "African American schooling
in the latter part of 19th century provides an instance where hard
work and investment in education did not result in meaningful social
change." Expound on this statement.
Q. 13
p.127 In the latter part of 19th century the
government funded boarding school for the education of American Indian
boys. According to one educator of the time the aim was to "kill
the Indian in him and save the man." Be prepared to explain
this conundrum to the class?
Q.
14 p.130 "For the descendant
of the major European immigrant groups of the 19th century, the school
. . . . was a part of the 'American Dream.'" Explain in
some detail.
Q.
15 p.132 "For non-European
minorities, on the other hand, the story was quite different."
In what manner and for what reasons was it different?
Q.
16 p.133 "Gender and race, therefore,
appear to have differed in their impact on education."
Please clarify this statement.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter
5 - The Progressive Era:
Reform, Growth, and Differentiation
Please
prepare responses to the following questions for our next class meeting.
If called upon be prepared to discuss these questions at length.
Q. 1
p.136 "Progressivism,
in short, represented . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . In the words of Lawrence
Cremin (1961) it was . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fill in the missing parts of
the sentences and be prepared to explain this to the class.
Q. 2
p.140 "To be educated meant that assimilation
was well underway." Explain.
Q. 3
p.142 "Chicago sociologist Louis
Wirth noted that life in the biggest cities was characterized by a
loss of community." Explain this phenomenon in terms of
its effect on social capital.
Q. 4
p.142 "[B]y the turn of the century
large numbers arrived from poorer areas in Southern and Eastern Europe."
How were these groups received?
Q. 5
p.143 "This was the age of the
'robber barons.'" Who were they? How did they earn
this title?
Q. 6
p.145 "The most significant intellectual
events of the era followed from Charles Darwin's promulgation of evolutionary
theory in 1859. Briefly outline the social effects of Darwin's theory.
Q. 7
p.146 "As a general principle,
historians have identified two broad impulses that characterized educational
reform during this period." What were the two Progressive responses?
Q. 8
p.149 "The pedagogical progressives
challenged the logic of faculty psychology. Explain.
Q. 9
p.149 According to the pedagogical
progressives education was supposed to be 'fun.' What was
their rationale?
Q. 10
p.149 "The most famous of pedagogical
progressives was . . . . . . . . . . . "
Q. 11
p.150 "Unlike more traditional educators, Dewey
believed that . . . . . . . . . ."
Q. 12
p.150 "John Dewey eventually came
to believe that . . . . . . . . . . . "
Q. 13
p.151 "As the social distance
between various elements of the nation's population increased . . .
. ." Complete the sentence.
Q.
14 p.153 Perhaps the most famous
of Dewey's disciples was William Heard Kilpatrick. What is Kilpatrick's
claim to fame?
Q.
15 p.153 "It was not long,
however, before criticisms of the pedagogical progressives
began to surface." What were these criticisms?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter
5: PART TWO
Please
prepare responses to the following questions for our next class meeting.
If called upon be prepared to discuss these questions at length.
Q.
16 p.154 "Dewey
and other reform figures found themselves struggling to prevent the
misinterpretation of their ideas." What were the most common
of the misinterpretations?
Q.
17 p.155 "If one word were
to express the principal bearing and object of administrative
progressivism it would be efficiency." Be
prepared to explain.
Q.
18 p.156 A key strategy
of the administrative progressives (also known as the social efficiency progressives) was differentiation.
What did this educational policy entail?
Q.
19 p.158 ". . . . a generation
of professionals trained in a new sub field of psychology eventually
labeled psychometrics." What did this new field
of study involve?
Q.
20 p.159 Give a brief outline
of the beginnings of what we today call "special education."
Q.
21 p.160 What practices were advocated
by the zealots who supported mental hygiene and eugenics.
Q.
22 p.160-61 "Like the pedagogical reformers, the administrative progressives
managed to stir up opposition to their ideas in the general public."
What arguments were advanced by their critics?
Q.
23 p.162 Give a brief summary
of the findings of the Committee of Ten as contained in their report
on secondary education, issued in 1893.
Q.
24 p.163 The Cardinal Principles
of Secondary Education, as published in 1918, advocated for a new
direction in secondary education. Explain.
Q.
25 pp.163-64 "These two reports
provide an interesting contrast." Differentiate the two reports.
Q.
26 p.166 "High schools became
he key link between the nation's education system and the labor market."
Expound on this idea.
Q.
27 pp.170-74 "Despite the interest that school leaders expressed in serving all the various elements of society, there is evidence that inequity in education grew worse during the Progreessive era." What evidence does your text provide to sustain this argument.
Q.
28 pp.176-78 "The old-time college with its emphasis on classical study and mental discipline, slowly gave way to the modern research university." Mention a number of ways in which colleges were changing. Where did the inspiration for these changes originate?
Q.
29 p.180 "Did the pedagogical
progressives succeed in creating a renewed sense of community
by making schools more humane and child-centered?"
Q.
30 p.181 "Education and social change were thus clearly linked during the progressive period." Would you agree with this conclusion? Provide one example of the nexus between education and social change in the period under discussion.
Q. 31 Select a short quote from the text of Chapter 5 and explain to the class its meaning and its importance in the context of the work we have been covering.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter
6 - Education in Postwar
America: The Human Capital Revolution
Please
prepare responses to the following questions for our next class meeting.
If called upon be prepared to discuss these questions at length.
Q. 1
p.182-184 Schools
continued to be seen as engines of economic development, but after
WWII they became instruments of federal social policy.
Explain this interpretation of post WWII education policy
Q. 2 p.183
The 1954 Supreme Court decision Brown v Board of Education was
a milestone of national education policy." Why does it
deserve the 'milestone' accolade?
Q. 3 pp.185-188
In "Rebels in Search of Themselves" the author attempts
an understanding of the post-war teenager in an examination of the
1955 movie Rebel Without a Cause. Could this movie be construed
as a criticism of progressivism?
Q. 4 p.191 "Gradually
de jure policies of educational segregation were ended, but
de facto segregation proved much harder to change."
Be prepared to explain this to the class.
Q. 5 p. 192 "This changed in the years following 1950 as a number
of prominent academics and journalists took aim at progressive education."
What was the basis of this change of heart?
Q. 6
pp.192-193 What event triggered the passage of the National
Defense Education Act (NDEA) in 1958?
Q. 7 pp.193-95
Give a brief summation of the urban/suburban migrations that occurred
in the 20 year period that followed WWII.
Q. 8 p.199 "In the decades since 1950, the ideal of a common school
experience for American youth appears to have become increasingly
elusive." Comment.
Q. 9 p.200 "Perhaps the most telling cause of educational inequality was
the nation's historic commitment to local control and funding of public
schools." Explain the dilemma this situation creates.
Q. 10 p.200-201
"In 1965 . . . . President Lyndon Johnson oversaw passage of
the nation's most comprehensive federal education bill to date."
What was the title of this legislation?
Q. 11 pp.201-202 Name some of the educational programs that grew out of President Johnson's legislation.
Q. 12 p.203 "When sociologist James Coleman completed a massive federal government survey of student achievement in 1966, he found . . . . . . . Complete the sentence.
Q. 13 p.204 "In 1975 The Education of All Handicapped Children Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Gerald Ford." What was the effect of this act?
Q. 14 p.205 ". . . these critics felt that schools reinforced sex discrimination . . . They noted many problems" Name some of these problems.
Q. 15 p.211 "Basically, the principles of affirmative action held that . . . . . . . . . ." What were the principles upon which affirmative action was based?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 6: PART TWO
Please prepare responses to the following questions for our next class meeting. If called upon be prepared to discuss these questions at length.
Q. 16 p.211 What was the ruling of the Supreme Court in the 1978 Bakke Case?
Q. 17 p.213 "National polls showed a widespread public concern that education was slipping in quality, and that this was linked to American economic strength." This concern lead to the issuance of a policy document from the Reagan White House in 1983. Name the document.
Q. 18 p.217 "In 1969 the US Supreme Court handed down a decision in the case Tinker v Des Moines Independent School District." What was the decision of the court and what were the consequences?
Q. 19 pp.218 In a couple of sentences sum up the author's main points in the section, Woodstock Nation.
Q. 20 p.226 "Beginning in the mid-1980s, ever larger numbers of American high school graduates entered college. Suggest reasons for this increase.
Q. 21 p.228 "As the nation's interest in schooling has grown, the stakes of success and failure in the schools have gone way up." Have you noted a growing public interest in the success and/or failure of the nations schools?
Q. 22 p.229 "In addition to this, the interest of federal and state governments in schooling has escalated. . . . . .The age when education was purely a local concern has long passed." Why this growing interest of federal and state governments in schooling?
Q. 23 p.230 A reading of the last paragraph of Chapter 6 (p.218) will provide you with a summary of the significant changes (particularly in secondary education) that the author forsees in American education in the near future. Be prepared to talk about at least two of these changes.
Epilogue
Q. 1 p.233 "Among the major developments of the 1990s, few events in education have been as important as the so-called standards movement." What, briefly, is the standards movement?
Q. 2 pp.233-34 Your text details an example of the standards movement and the chaos that it caused in the Chicago public schools. What was the the cause of the problem? What groups suffered as a result?
Q. 3 p.234 Assessment policies like those employed in Chicago were promoted as the solution to the problem of social promotion. What is social promotion?
Q. 4 p.238 "And then came urbanization . . . . . . As a result the stock of available social capital available to children . . .was diminished." What idea is the author conveying?
Q. 5. p.240 "The history of the schools working to change society also is marked by well-intended failures and unplanned cases of success." Could you name some of these failures and successes?