Category Archives: Common School and Power, Native American Education

Chapter 5 discusses the power struggle and tensions between the Protestants, Catholics and also how they discriminated against African Americans. I think that it is obvious that over the centuries and more recent decades, discrimination against African Americans has significantly declined. And yes I know that discrimination still exists today are that there are some very racist people, it is nothing like what it was before. It takes a lot of time to see a significant change and everyday now we are still progressing forward. But what I thought was also interesting was the discrimination against the Irish immigrants. The “drunken Irishmen” scared the Anglo-Protestants because they thought the Irish were going to kill the American Dream.

This tension between the Irish and Anglo’s lead to a lot of tension between Catholics and Protestants. In the common schools, there was not much diversity in them. The only common thing was that Protestant values were the ones taught in this school. This is what caused catholic schools to open. The Government felt to take matters in their own hands and tried to push their own religious values on others by making the pledge of Allegiance a mandatory part of every school morning. I am catholic, I was raised catholic and I received all of my sacraments, but what I wanted to know was if there will ever be equality between the religions. Before President Obama, most of the other presidents were all White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Do these religious differences still exists today? Many people turn to religion as a means to explain things they do not know and many like believing in the idea of a higher power. But does having a belief like this make you better then someone who does not?

After reading this chapter, I still have the dwelling and belief that standardized testing is not the best way for children to be evaluated and for different countries to be compared with each other. I don’t think that this is the best way because not all schools in one nation learn the same materials and use the same textbooks let alone all schools in the world. So how can all students be evaluated on a test on certain subjects when they do not learn the same materials? I think that the only way to internationally compare schools and compare schools within one nation is if all individuals learned the exact Sam materials. I know that this point returns back to the question of whether or nf whether or not there should be a standardized textbook or all school through out the world, but I don’t believe that will ever happen. I just don’t think that it is fair for all children to be compared on a test when the isn’t a standard on the materials that they learn.

It is very interesting to see how the reason that women were being educated was to assume this role of “republican motherhood”. Women were allowed to learn once the men saw they could reap some sort benefit out of their education. Once the schools began to open their doors to women then the schools began to seek out female teachers. I agree with Norton in saying that teaching is one of the first jobs opened up to women on such a regular basis. Emma Willard argued that an educated woman made a better mother which is a sentiment I agree with I think all the members of the family benefit from having a smart mother. The report by the Boston board in 1841 gives three extremely valid reasons for why women were better teachers. The idea that women are naturally better with children, women are less distracted by the world and, last of all they are purest. The second reason had a part which I chose to omit because I found it to be extremely crude to think that way but I do not have a hard time believing that people actually felt that teaching was all women could do.

When it comes to the Pestalozzi methods it is very true that at a younger age most of the learning is hands on learning, where the children learn by doing and as we get older we spend more and more time at a desk. This idea of maternal teachers made me think of all the teachers that I’ve had since kindergarten and it wasn’t until the 6th or 7th grade that I had my first male teacher. It is interesting to see how schools ended up becoming more and more bureaucatic with the women teaching the students and then the men acting as the teachers boss. I think that it is good that women were given their place in society but as we see eventually it was wrong to try and limit women, they have done pretty much everything there is to do in the world. First it was the head of the classrooms and in some countries women have gone on to be heads of state.

Chapter five really emphasized how the white protestant anglo american culture feared for their own social class standing.  For a certain american culture to attack another culture for the sake of preserving exclusive luxuries in a community may seem a bit unfair.  A society should be rational and work towards the better good of humanity.  Although, when conflicting views of religion come into play, it’s hard to work with people who do not have the same beliefs as you.  A question that wanders my head is: Can we really truly work together for a better society when religion is always a fiery subject?

The use of government money to support religious education was a subject in this chapter.  The idea of doing such a thing reigns catastrophe in my mind.  To support, financially, a certain religious belief goes against what an American society should stand for.  Religion has no place in education and should be taught outside of school.  In today’s society I believe it is even more crucial to make sure religion is not taught in a public education system. My question is: Does it seem just to ignore religion from a child’s learning curriculum or should there be a sort of basis to learn?

Immigration: Some controversial viewpoints, from both sides.

No Irish Need Apply

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.2736/pub_detail.asp

African-American and Slave Education:

http://www.america.gov/st/educ-english/2008/April/20080423212501eaifas0.8516133.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_Creole

Inside Native American schools: A quick look

http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/jazz/jb_jazz_citizens_2_e.html

http://www.archives.gov/research/native-americans/pictures/select-list-154.html

http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/c/ch049.html

This chapter shows a reflection on how schools have changed and developed throughout all these years. As we all know back then segregation against Native Americans and immigrants was a huge chapter in society; This segregation went all the way into classrooms and people’s lives to the point that native americans and immigrants would not have the same rights and opportunities available as white americans. Native Americans were seeing as savages and Irish immigrants were seeing as drunk immigrants who were here to destroy the American dream. Nowadays we all tend to believe that segregation is done in schools and society but is it? As we had spoke and argued a week ago, people still see immigrants and african americans a bit different, and I would say that because look at our schools today, how many different classes do we have that are related to black studies, asian studies and so on. My point is that even though society has developed a lot, yet today segregation or discrimination still exist. How can society be so selfish that there was a need to enforce the Pledge of Allegiance and religion back then? Fortunately at least today  that has changed, students have the right to follow their own belief and are not obligated to say the Pledge of Allegiance every day. So yes society has improved but I believe its not close yet to the perfect world. What is the perfect world though? How can we be fair to each other and respect people’s opinions, culture and religion? WHat can the government do to improve that?

In my experience as an immigrant in public school is that I believe there is some sort of segregation being that I did go to NEWCOMERS High School, the name says it all, and even there there was some kind of discrimination and individualism meaning, there were a variety of cultures and each country/culture had its own lunch table where they would not let anyone else in but their own nationality. So I believe that at the end of the day we all have some sort of individualism and discrimination at some point and the government and schools do not seem to know how to deal with it. The big question is how can the government deal with it and improve society?

This chapter was very interesting to me as orginally I felt that the idea of the common school was to bring all the cultures together and form a single identity in America. This chapter shows that the common school not only brought all the people together but was more excluding certain groups than bringing them together. The view of the Irish in the early 19th century has been echoed in another class I am taking this semester on Immigration in America. The Irish were often discriminated against when they first arrived in the United States many of them left their country because of the Irish potato famine. I do not believe the idea that the Irish came to undermine the Protestant ideals in America so there was no good reason for the common school to just exclude Catholicism the way it did. The early attempts to make the Protestant Anglo-American culture the dominant one resulted in the exclusion of many groups including the Irish Americans, Native Americans and African Americans. It was not fair to subject people of other religions to support and follow Protestant beliefs. When it comes to actually using government money to fund these schools it becomes a complicated issue, the government money would then be going to promote a religion which is unconstitutional but the Catholics need funding for their schools. This chapter shows us that although the common schools were made with good intentions or what appear to be good intentions, the idea was better on paper than in practice. I do not believe these same issues occur today, we are much more open to the mixture of cultures as over time through marriage all the cultures have come together in one way or other. There are very little if any people that are of one pure race, which has led the United States to be multicultural while still having this dominant image.

This chapter definitely made me more aware of the exclusionary practices of the common school movement during its early inception. Much of the common school movement was driven by the fear of the growing multicultural society in early America as there was a significant increase in immigration, most notably among the Irish and Germans.  The particular hostility and hatred towards the Irish immigrants from the Protestants was particularly disturbing. Of course it didn’t surprise me that the common school did not do much to ease this tension as they were dominated by Protestant religious values. The religious tension in New York City in the 1830’s and 40’s between the Catholics and Protestants was very interesting because it  was the start of the “great debate” which revolved around the idea or belief of using state education funds for religious use, in this case it was for the Catholics to operate their own schools. Although I am completely against the use of Public school funds being used for any religious purposes, in this case I believe it was appropriate given the dominance the Protestants had of public schools. It would have been unfair and unjust for Catholics to be subjected to Protestants beliefs and ideas.

The trail of tears was definitely one of the most infamous moments in American History. It was unfortunate that early settlers of this country had such a misunderstanding of Native American culture. The Native Americans were viewed as savages and barbarians who needed to be civilized and were targeted for their land. I find it very ironic that the early founders and settlers of this country came here to escape the monarchical rule and oppression in England yet treated the Native Americans in the same manner. Much of this occurred because of the lack of exposure to other cultures and groups of people at the time. This seems to be the major reason why common schools never appeared to be “common to all children”. Do modern public schools do an adequate job of promoting tolerance among different cultures, races and ethnicities? Is there still in existence, any form of a particular religious or cultural influence in public schools today?

Although one can say that racial segregation is over but to be honest… is it? As we all know, back then African Americans had to fight really hard to gain freedom. One of the examples was Charles Ray tried to enter school. However, many whites protested against this action. Slowly, public schools were formed where African Americans and Whites were allowed to attend together. However, bringing back to the question earlier, up until this day, is there not any type of separation at all? Even though we live in a society where everyone is equal, there are times when separation do exist. An example would be when I was in High School, Many cliques were formed based on their culture as well as nationality. I did not think people were being racist or negative towards other people, the reason was because everyone in the group felt they all had something in common. Even though when a student enters a setting where it was much more diverse, often times, separation surfaces. An example of such separation would be college courses. Courses such as Asian Studies, African American Studies or Hispanic Studies, Doesn’t these courses present a sense of separation?

As read in the chapter, Religion was emphasized greatly on its people. In the 19th century, U.S government felt that it was their duty to convert everyone to its belief. In today’s society, students have a choice to practice their own religion and not forced to say the Pledge of Allegiance that is on everyday before class. However, I think it is unnecessary to have students say it everyday. U.S is known for its diversity and I do not believe that by knowing how to recite the Pledge of Allegiance will show that you appreciate and is considered being a good American. Instead we should use the diversity that exist and take advantage of it. Back then, Christianity was viewed as the trait of being a good citizen. Does being in a different religion determine whether one is good or bad?

This chapter gives a good foundation on how common schools were developed. After reading this chapter i think of how far we’ve come from a society full of discrimination. Majority of the time when we think of discrimination we think of African Americans with regards to slavery and the segregation in the school system. Reading this chapter, it was interesting to see how Protestant Anglo-Saxons viewed the Irish. They feared that the “drunken Irish” might destroy the American Dream. I had no previous knowledge on this hostility between Catholics and Protestants. This hostility shows the irony of the name of the common school because it wasn’t really common to all children as Protestant religious values were dominated.

Another aspect of this chapter i can relate to is the opening of catholic schools. I was actually in public school until i entered into high school where it was a catholic school. To read and learn how catholic schools emerged is intriguing because it was developed due to the struggle between Irish and Anglo-Saxon cultures.

The first question i would like to ask is, Are Anglo-Saxon cultures still evident or somewhat dominated in American school systems today ? Secondly, without the conflict between Anglo-Saxon and Catholics, do you think Catholic Schools today would have emerged the way they did ?