Common School Movement

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The “common school period’ was between 1830 and 1872 and during this period, almost every state experienced great changes in its public schooling system (Sass Para. 5).

Through the common school movement the masses were able to access an education. Education innovators and reformers worked very hard to ensure that education became public, as opposed to free, state maintained, and private.

According to Church (64), the objectives of the common school movement were to ensure that white children had access to free education, to educate and train teachers, and also to ensure that the state had control over public schools.

Many proponents were in favor of the common schools. During this period, the northern states experienced a tremendous growth in immigrant population and for this reason the common schools acted as a tool for “Americanizing” the foreigners.

Horace Mann played a very crucial role in popularizing the common schools and as such, he was for the common school movement. He was convinced that by enabling everybody to have access to common education, this would result in a more prosperous and productive society (Church 66).

The deep commitment by Mann to the common school movement was greatly informed by his strong belief that social harmony and political stability relied heavily on universal education.

He advocated for the establishment of common schools that all children could have access to. In addition, he argued that it was a civic and religious duty to support nonsectarian common schools.

He preached to the working class that education “is the great equalizer of the conditions of men” (Cremin 65). He preached to individuals who owned property that their prosperity and security relied heavily on having law-abiding and literate neighbors who are knowledgeable about the sanctity of private property having attended the common schools.

Moreover, common schools would also ensure that such neighbors remained competent. Mann was also convinced that education was the “absolute right of every human being that comes into the world” (Cremin 87).

On the other hand, there were those who were opposed to the common school movement. For example, Carl Kaestle, a renowned historian, argued that in order for the common school systems to be accepted by the Americans, this would depend on the development of capitalism, the dominance of the native Protestant culture, as well as how committed the American were to the republican government (Church 67).

Most of the Protestant sects (save for the Pan-Protestants) and the Roman Catholics were strongly opposed to the establishment of the common school movement on grounds that they were “nonsectarian” schools.

Bishop John Hughes of New York City opined that the public schools were anti-Catholic and as such, they would not be accepted by his flocks. Many Catholics were in agreement with him.

Besides religious divisions to the creation of public schools, there was also a growing desire to ensure that schools were controlled locally and for this reason, majority of the advocates of statewide organizations were opposed to the common school movement (Sass para. 7).

When the issues of race, class and ethnic tensions were factored in, the demand for controlling schools locally grew immensely. There was also the argument that the establishment of public schools would come at the expense of the taxpayer.

In addition, the involvement of the government in education was seen as a repudiation of parental rights and liberalism. Proponent of this position also argued on the need to ensure that individuals remained solely responsible for their lives, and hence it was important to leave them alone (Church 67).

There was also growing fear among conservative members of the society that the creation of public schools would negatively affect relations between labor and capital, and result in enhanced clamoring for “rights” among the working class.

It is important to note that the government, the church, and scholars were all behind the formation of the movement for Common School.

I believe the reason why the common school movement was such a controversial issue in the nineteenth century America is because of religious and racial differences.

To start with, some of the churches were seen as being liberal, and these are the ones who were in support of the establishment of public schools.

On the other hand, the conservative churches such as the Protestants and the Roman Catholic Church were opposed to the establishment of public schools on grounds that they did not support their teachings.

At the same time, because the main objective of the common school movement was to ensure equity to all though education, the white were opposed to it because it meant that both the Whites and the Blacks would also have access to the same education system.

Works Cited

Church, Robert. Education in the United States, an interpretive history, New York: The Free Press, 1976. Print.

Cremin, Lawrence. The Republic and the School: Horace Mann on the Education of Free Men, New York: Teachers College Press, 1953. Print.

Sass, Edward. 2008. American educational history: a hypertext timeline. Web.

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Common School Movement

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