History of Education in America

by John D. Pulliam, James J. Van Patten

This popular book provides future teachers a solid foundation in the history of American education, from its roots in European tradition, through the colonial period, to the challenges of the twenty-first century. Redesigned to highlight historical information throughout the book . Here are all of the important people, places, dates, events, and movements; along with a capsule presentation of the underlying principles of educational practice and straightforward, nonjudgmental coverage of all of the current controversies within our educational system. For future teachers.

Genres: History, Education

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read bits and pieces of this book for historical research on education. The history here is very broadly painted and the authors’ biases are suffocating. I’m sure I read something very similar for my freshman educational history class nearly twenty years ago, and I’m sure I didn’t spot the biases then as I do now. The thought makes me shudder.

This is indoctrination (which I do not, on principle, mind) posing as objectivity (which I most emphatically do mind). The authors present different educational philosophies in both chart and explanation form, laying them out on the page so as to make them appear all equal. However, they have a very strong bias towards Progressivism, as is evident not only from the section on educational philosophies but from the unequal treatment given to different points in the history of American education and to the general pejorative language launched at anything that is not Progressivism. Every page carries deeply buried lessons on how the past was bad, the present is good, and the future is going to be really great so long as we do not allow conservative influences to drag us backward. Observe:

“The typical common elementary school of 1860 was a crowded one-room institution with poor lighting, bad ventilation, inadequate furniture, and no special equipment. The poorly educated and untrained teachers did not have a program to follow, and much of the time was spent in individual recitations. Severe discipline and corporal punishment stifled creativity and imagination.” (135)

Lesson: The 1860s were a time of terrible suffering and distress in our nation—obviously caused by the lack of governmentally-regulated schools and teacher training. I mean, seriously! Just look at the mortality stats for the period of 1861-1865 and you will see how many Americans were dying. This is an obvious case of causation.

(P.S. – I happen to live literally next door to a one-room schoolhouse from the nineteenth century. It is remarkably filled with natural light and shows no signs of noxious air quality unless skunks have been around the night before. I have no idea what “inadequate furniture” would be since I have never seen or heard of students having to sit on the floor for school in any one-room schoolhouse, and I’ll wager that teachers at the time didn’t want any more “special equipment” than the multiple blackboards plus set of maps that it has.)

(P.P.S. – No surprise that this book views “recitations” as evil, but it actually makes the point that it was BAD to spend so much time in INDIVIDUAL recitations, thereby overlooking the rest of the group. This, before it goes on to tout the modern methods of individualizing education to each student. Oh, the madness!)

“Most [normal schools for teacher training] had meager equipment, insufficient support, poor facilities, and an underpaid staff.” (174)

Lesson: The essential needs for good teacher training are up-to-date equipment, stamp-of-approval from government and other institutions, state-of-the-art facilities, and highly-paid staff. Give us more funding for education and everything will turn out perfect.

“The report [from 1999] found some 463 one-room, one-teacher schools . . . We may expect them all to disappear in the near future.” (196)

Lesson: We cannot blatantly quash the institutions of small, rural areas in which local community is still a dearly-held value. However, no need to worry about them. Such blotches upon our socialistic conglomerate of federally-mandated education will die out of their own accord.

“Beyond question, American teachers are better qualified to practice their profession than ever before in history. Nevertheless, there is considerable criticism of teacher education.” (215)

Lesson: If you dare question the experimental, progressive methods with which we are indoctrinating young would-be teachers, you are a backwards old fuddy-duddy who denies the obvious trend of social evolution.

Yet, the problem with constant evolution and “progress” is evident here, too. A lot can change in fifteen years, as evidenced by a 2018 perspective on this line from the introduction:

“Controversy over gays in the military causes school boards to review policies, although few schools would knowingly hire homosexual teachers.” (15)

This was 2003. Can you even imagine, 15 years later, how many heads would roll if any textbook or school board said that “few schools would knowingly hire homosexual teachers”? Observe, my friends, the slippery slope of social change. What is at first something we should allow in the general sense, but not in our schools, shifts to be required and praised in just over a decade.

Perhaps the only good thing to say about this book is that the authors were not subtle enough in their indoctrination. It seeps through the thin veneer of supposed objectivity, reminding “old-fashioned” educators like me why we should have nothing to do with public education or state-licensed teacher training.

[Mitchell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this one for my History of Education class. It's not too bad but basically just your standard overview and history. The beginning part was the most interesting where it talked about philosophies of education. The end was interesting also where it talked about issues in modern education and tried to guess at where things are going.