Many scholars have argued that history education during the antebellum period in the United States supported conservative values and sought to produce close-minded citizens. History textbooks of that era, they frequently posit, cast Americans as God's chosen people and present the past in a style that reaffirms established social conventions. Ruth…

For many decades, American schools have been mired in jargon and confused values. A few exceptional books have shown the way through the thicket of educational ideas, policies, and practices. The work of Michael John Demiashkevich belongs to this set and offers a special philosophical perspective. In "An Introduction to the Philosophy of…

Education played a pivotal role in African-Americans' post-World War II struggle for equality. Many activists believed that victories against racially discriminatory school systems would lead to gains in other critical areas. By examining Howalton Day School, a black private school on Chicago's South Side in operation from 1946-1986, this article…

As a cultural and university historian focusing on Europe and the United States, Sheldon Rothblatt is more interested in understanding the multiple bearings of liberal arts education as it has developed across the ages. The American high school, from its origins in the 19th century to the contemporary period, represents only a fraction of the…

The purpose of this article has been to set the record straight as to the extent to which education of the mind and hands was prevalent in the United States prior to the 1880s. This effort is necessary since the proponents of the manual training curriculum that surfaced in the United States in the 1880s created a misperception that no prior form…

Historians of American education readily acknowledge that in the mid-19th century the German university and academic ideal rose in prominence among American academicians, who then worked diligently to replicate the German university model in the United States. During this same time, however, many more Americans were exposed to a different…

There are six oversized boxes in the New York Historical Society that contain the remains of the Public School Society (PSS), New York City's first experiment with publicly-funded education. They are filled with the detritus of the Society's nearly fifty years: recommendations for prospective teachers from their clergymen, student certificates of…

Some questions about education in the United States are easier to answer than others. If one wants to compare curriculum requirements across states, the data can be acquired and conclusions announced. However, any discussion of philosophy of learning or results of some pedagogy or another requires a look at what others have thought about,…

The classic "Slaughterhouse-Five" (1969/1991) and other writings of American novelist, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., resonate with young people and are sometimes part of the required curriculum in secondary schools, which necessitates an exploration of the ideas and ideals to which youngsters are exposed. This article explores the Atomic Age through this…

In the post-World War II era, efforts to improve the accessibility and quality of higher education rose to prominence in US educational debates and policymaking. In retrospect, a confluence of factors helped to forge this growing social consensus about the need to create educational opportunity and to diversify the nation's colleges and…

The question of how Whig policies affected the early development of common schools has received little examination in either political or educational histories. There is evidence, however, that Whig party politics did influence early educational reformers. This paper considers the influence of Whig party politics on the emergence of state systems…

The condition of education within the academy in the period surrounding desegregation might best be described as beleaguered. Ironically, this vulnerable and largely defensive stance emerged as the dividend of a unified movement among educationists (a derogatory term assigned to education faculty and those who populated the public education…

DeVry University, a proprietary school, has used senior projects as a strategy to demonstrate its educational value to students, employers, and society. The senior project has also played a critical role in the major imperatives of a proprietary university: production of employable students and maintenance of accreditation. As a general education…

As Jesse H. Newlon prepared to speak at Teachers College on July 10, 1940, he apparently did not appreciate the impact his words would make. He had not prepared a complete text of his remarks, as was his habit for important speeches, speaking instead from a three-page outline. His ultimate title, "The Teaching Profession and the World Crisis," was…

The American Civil War transformed societies' beliefs about education, as well as state policy regarding schools. The common schools of the 1850s tended to be locally funded, selective, and voluntary institutions. The Civil War, and the widespread belief, especially in the North, that a national system of common schools might have averted that…