Carl Kaestle, Pillars of the Republic, Chapter 6 “The Common-School Reform”

 

  1. What were the goals of most common-school advocates in the early 19th century?
    1. Who was education to serve?
    2. What would education provide a community?
  2. Who attended common schools in the 1840s, 1850s, and 1860s?
    1. What areas had the lowest attendance rates?
    2. Why did some parents keep their children out of schools?
  3. What problems did common-school reformers try to correct?
  4. Why did common-school reformers believe it was necessary to introduce state-level authority and administration of schools?
  5. Why did rural residents resist consolidation efforts?
  6. What factors limited the scope of state-level reform?  How much power did superintendents really have?
  7. What is the double-meaning of the word “common” school?
  8. Who paid for schools (common and private)? 
    1. Why did reformers resist parental assessments for schooling? (p. 117)
    2. Why, do you suppose, some taxpayers resisted tax-supported schools?
  9. What was the function of the high school?  Who was it intended to serve?
  10. Why did school districts turn to women as teachers?
  11. What does “the feminization of teaching” mean?
  12. What function did “normal schools” serve?
  13. List the ways in which common schools were bureaucratized in the 19th century.