At the start of the 1880’s till the early 1960’s there was a great increase of immigrants from Europe, Asia, Central and South America. A growth in global immigration and urbanization brought fourth innovative ideas that expanded on new notions for the social functions of schools. John Dewey explained how the new social functions of the schools would provide a means for bringing all people, their ideas, and cultures together in such a way that it would bring greater understanding and lessen friction.
As a result of this, the educational system introduced a number of movements including the kindergarten movement which was established to improve the quality of urban living and poverty where the children were conceived as a garden to be cultivated in the same manner as a plant and the teacher was to establish a sense of growth and unity (pg 204). This system of learning was to incorporate the moral values commonly found in nuclear families that were “supposedly” lost in urban slums. The major goal of this movement was to children habits that would reform the home and educating the parents, particularly the mother.
One of my main concerns with the kindergarten movement was that colonists assumed that these immigrants didn’t already have an established sense of family and unity. They assumed that the children would be raised in an inappropriate manner and would grow up to be immoral if it had not been for the movements. People from different countries have their own way of bringing up their children but does this imply that this is the wrong way? Must there be one universal way of social and moral upbringing? How does this affect the parent and the child?
