Top Five Rankings of Historical Events--EDSC 310 Lesson 11
1. The Progressive Education Association—I think this is also important because it was a “formalized attempt to reform education according to principles that helped students to freely develop at their own pace, to be educated by natural interest and a teacher who is a guide, and even recognized that students’ health, physical development, and needs at home make a difference. This is incredible for the time because it really recognized (in a small, growing way for the time) the child/student’s needs as it related to education just as much as education can affect a child to aid in supporting the needs to try and help foster a society of educated, individual people who could progress in life outside of social class.
2. Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka—This case really began to show the social changes that were necessary that recognized that the idea “separate but equal” was unconstitutional and illegal. It truly began to give black Americans educational opportunity and authority over their own voices. Plus, it recognized that separate schools were biased and giving more opportunities and resources to the students, not to mention how qualified white school teachers and administrators would have been in comparison to the instructors in schools for African Americans. It also recognized that facilities and materials were just as important to the education of the people as much as the content was. As the chapter states many people have come to consider the case to be “the responsibility of the educational institution, not the child, to create achievement” (327).
3. The Common School—“It was also argued that education was a natural right, just like the very rights for which the revolution had been fought” (310). This event is very important in the history of American education because it really began to recognize the disparity between the wealthy or privileged and the poor or labor workers. It also is important to America’s ideology and philosophy because it recognized education as a natural right much like the social constructs that built the US’s reasons for representation from a tyrannous monarch and finally revolution in order to achieve sovereignty. Early education activists recognized that people deserved to be educated regardless of class, ethnicity, or religion. Yes, common schools needed help and yes, the schools still had yet to achieve the type of education where everyone was educated freely and without bias or without feeling left out because of a multitude of reasons, but it was a very important and progressive change the nation needed.
4. The Kalamazoo Case—This of course is very important because it finally enabled the school districts to tax the public so that they could support the schools of the time. It financed secondary schooling, especially high schools, which helped teach students so that it was not left up to the elite or wealthy to be able to help their children continue to advance their education, leaving behind the children who could not. It helped set up the school systems in the US.
5. The Morrill Act—Helped grant states land that helped fund and build schools. Schools were established to study agriculture and the mechanical arts, which were always considered to be jobs for laborers. This is significant because it not only recognized that even jobs historically given to the poor, lower-classes, or immigrant and colored laborers are significant to society, it recognized that to be educated in these jobs was necessary and even possible. It really provided an atmosphere to advance in jobs or careers that may have traditionally seemed impossible to advance in or even have prestige come from them. It also helped African American students who felt like they were being trained only for menial tasks, to really excel, thrive in an academic classroom, and advance if they were capable and desired to learn new subjects. At the same time, it really opened up the possibility of building more schools because it opens up educational institutions to more people in localities.
List of Historical Events--Ranked from Most Influential to Least Influential
Progressive Education Association
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
The Common School
Morrill Act
Kalamazoo Case
Plessy v. Ferguson
Lau v. Nichols
English Grammar Schools
No Child Left Behind Act
Northwest Ordinances
Kindergarten
Junior High/Middle School
The Public High School
Old Deluder Satan Act
Justification For Rankings: Though it was difficult to rank these in order of influence, I chose to rank based on the context of the time and how it has made major improvements to our education system today. I ranked the Progressive Education Association first because I really thought that the progressives were ahead of their time, realizing that student need truly affects education. Calling attention to health and circumstance paved the way towards the types of ideological practices that we are attempting to implement today. By realizing so long ago that the student is affected by his or her environment, and this can negatively or positively affect the way he or she is educated truly sparked reforms that reflected the original principles and theories that we truly recognize today. I ranked Brown v. Board of Education as second because it was the first case that really challenged the “separate by equal” mentality of American society. It gave African American students, and people of color generally, the means and resources that they were otherwise prohibited from having access to simply because of prejudice and discrimination by directly keeping their education systems from being on the same level as white schools. I had trouble not ranking this case first because it truly gave access to the marginalized who deserved so much better, but I didn’t rank it first because I think that without the progressives and their influence, progress and change would not have occurred and possibly, in some alternate universe, may have kept this case from happening with education. I ranked the Common school third because common schools recognized the disparity between the privileged and the underprivileged. It recognized that education was a fundamental, natural right that people deserved to have. Deciding that education is a natural right is very important in a time that was becoming individualistic and valuing life in general as free will rather than controlled by someone or something. The Kalamazoo is ranked fourth because without this case, there would have been a lot of push back when it came to school funding. By taxing the public, everyone was involved in the education process. It helped fund schools while also implementing a social program and institution that could not be rejected. In an indirect way, by taxing the people for secondary schools, they would push their children to complete their education as a way of making use of their tax dollars. This increased the popularity and demand for schools. Otherwise, only the elite would still fund their elitist schools and then the recognition of education as a natural right would have disappeared. Finally, I ranked the Morrill Act as fifth because I truly believe that without the federal government getting involved enough to distribute land to the states to construct schools, there would still be small, locally built schools that would keep many students from attending. It also served a purpose for helping African American students to find access to better opportunities that they earned through merit and hard work, while also helping the students who were not “prodigious” in a sense so that jobs normally thought to be menial or for laborers were not being ignored. In fact, by opening up schools for the more technical or vocational jobs, status linked to jobs would change and society would recognize the importance of jobs such as working on a farm as a laborer, not just living on a farm as it’s owner.
