John Lawrence Childs was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin on January 11, 1889, the second child of John Nelson Childs and Helen Janette (Nettie) Smith. In childhood Childs absorbed the values of industry, democracy, and a traditional, but socially conscious, religion. Childs was a Methodist and an intensely private person not given to talking about…

In 1999, the changing goals of American schools were explored in "Education Week" through the events, achievements, and personalities that had formed United States education in the 20th century. First a series of articles, the collection was later published in book form as "Lessons of a Century: A Nation's Schools Come of Age." The chapter titled…

This article will focus on the efforts of the State of Illinois to desegregate Chicago Public Schools between 1971 and 1979. The article also examines the responsibility taken on by the State of Illinois to desegregate schools and the limits between establishing the mechanisms to desegregate and the ability to accomplish those goals in Chicago.…

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…

In the progressive era, the distinguished political scientist Robert Putnam explains, progressives invested heavily in "social capital," that is, in the stock of active connections, social networks, shared values, norms of reciprocity, trustworthiness, and friendship that bind people together (Putnam 2000, 395). They were, he argues, wise to do so…

From 1945 to 1980, school districts across the United States decreased the number of schools through consolidation. With the advent of geographic software, it is possible to map schools across time and analyze patterns of school openings, closings, and consolidation. In this study, one Southeastern Kentucky district was selected as a pilot for…

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…

In "The Female Frontier" (1988), Glenda Riley notes that the typical historical account of life on the frontier puts men at the center of the experience. In contrast to a male frontier thesis, Riley posits that women played highly significant, though largely domestic, roles in the settling and development of the frontier, and that "their lives as…

This brief paper captures only a glimpse of the faceted experiences of Alabama State College Laboratory School's students, teachers, and administrators during a period of dramatic societal changes. It is a response to the call for more scholarship in the history of Black education during this period and for case studies of schools that…

One of the most remarkable developments in American education in the past half century has been the creation and rapid growth of the nation's community colleges. Built on the curricular pillars of vocational education, transfer programs, and community education, community colleges today are considered the "engines of statewide economic growth"…

With the colonization of Ireland in the 17th century by Cromwellian and Williamite forces, the spread of English as a language of power marked a linguistic shift as Anglicization and economic necessity transformed Irish to a vernacular of the poor. Where Irish was spoken by almost all throughout the country in the 17th century, a steady drop began…

This article will examine a little known but long-standing group, the Lisle Fellowship, that endeavored to open the world to college students and foster international understanding--or "world-mindedness," as the organization's founders called it--ultimately with the goal to contribute to the ideal of world peace. It will also, in particular,…

There have been several periods during which the professionalization of American teachers has been investigated historically--the 1960s produced studies on the education and the miseducation of teachers; the 1970s gave sociological historical scholarship on class, bureaucracy and schools and the professionalization of teaching; the 1980s provided…

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…