America's Public Schools

Overview

William J. Reese's history of public schools in America examines why citizens have repeatedly turned to the schools to improve society and how successive generations of reformers have tried to alter the curriculum and teaching practice to achieve their goals. Organized around two themes - education as the means for reforming American society and ongoing reform within the schools themselves - this study examines two centuries of American public education. It explores school and society in the nineteenth century, including public school growth in the antebellum and postbellum eras; competing visions of education and reform during the first half of the twentieth century; and social change and reform from the 1950s through the 1980s. Reese emphasizes the centrality of schools in the history of reform and their persistent allegiance to traditional practices and pedagogy despite two centuries of complaint by romantics and progressives.

Details

Publisher

JHU Press

Published

2005

Pages

355

Language

EN

Categories

Education / General, Education / Schools / Levels / Elementary, Education / History, Education / Educational Policy & Reform / General, Education / Educational Policy & Reform / Federal Legislation, Education / Schools / Types / Public, History / United States / General

ISBN-13

9780801881961