Preview

The Centralization Of Education

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1060 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Centralization Of Education
When I started my teaching career in 1830, I envisioned one day that the United States would reach an education reform that would help students of all races and different social classes gain an education. In 1830, I taught at a schoolhouse in New Hampshire. The people of New Hampshire would tax themselves to raise enough money for the districts to afford teachers. Teachers were put up for auction or boarded with the lowest bidder. Luckily, New Hampshire chose me to work at one of their schoolhouses. Students in my first couple years of teaching were mostly white children of all ages from the New Hampshire district. But as my career progressed, more immigrants students would enter the American Education system. In the 1840s, over a million of …show more content…
Since teachers were scarce, this made made my job much more difficult. Class sizes became bigger and it was harder to control and teach these bigger classrooms. I also had to change my teaching style from using the bible and having students memozise and recite, to using other literary works and more complex ways to educate, such as arithmetic skills . More pressure began to fall on me to become a better teacher. Classrooms were starting to move away from having a mix of all ages, to having specific levels of schooling. I attended normal school to learn more effective ways to educate my students in common schools. Since American settlers started moving West, we started to take land for the Native Americans. Common schools were created to teach all children, regardless of social class or their religion. However, Native American and African American children were not given equal education. Centralized education had a big effect on my students who were the children of immigrants. In 1851, the State of Massachusetts passes its first compulsory school which was aimed to make children of poor immigrants more “civilized”. In these compulsory schools, students were taught how to be obedient and good workers so they would become more civilized and educated members of society. In 1860, Congress made it illegal for Native Americans to be taught their native languages. Native American children as early as four years old were taken from their parents and put into boarding schools. Centralized education had the biggest effect on Native Americans. “Kill the Indian, save the man” was a catch phrase said by Richard Pratt in the response to the Education of Native Americans. Native American children were tripped of their cultral identity within these schools. As Rury states, “The story of Native Americans education in the 19th century involved a deliberate crusade to fundamentally

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Teaching an entire generation that their way of life was an abomination, as Ed Metatawabin was taught in the Canadian residential school system, allowed indigenous peoples to be marginalized by the rest of Canadian society; thus creating a clear imbalance of power between cultures so that First Nations lacked the support they needed to progress as a community.…

    • 976 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Indian School experiment set out to "kill the Indian and save the man". I believe this relates to the old saying, "the only good Indian is a dead one" in that the school essentially tried to kill the Indian spirit by attempting to "American-ize" the students. The process of assimilating the students into the "white man's way" took away a very important part of the children's being--their culture.…

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    to them. When they finally moved to the reservations, the children were forced to go to school. In…

    • 487 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This boarding school was founded under the premise of “kill the Indian save the man.” (Pratt, Reese et all, 114) The goal of the school was to take in Indian children by force and turn out civilized young adults that were European in their behaviors. This was not achieved and actually led to several hundred deaths and runaways. When narrating on the culture and belief systems of the Native peoples many fallacies and creative licenses were taken that caused it to be a “trivialization of the belief systems of a people.”…

    • 1751 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Phoenix Indian School

    • 1329 Words
    • 6 Pages

    As they lived at the school the Indians had to learn to find their dormitories and starting to understanding how going to building to building for their classes. Also, the Indians were “highly regimented, in military style” which was one of the reason why the school was running for many year since discipline helped Indians learned what not to do. Additionally, the boys and girl did do as if they were in the military such as the boy had to carry around rifles but the younger ones needed to carry wooden ones and marched in army units. The Indians were also taught to do the flag ceremonies that often happened when citizens came to visit the school. Some of theses Indian school were made to help Indians fit into American society, such as girls were taught how to cook, wash, sew, do household duties, and also had to learn how to study english language. Indian girls were also becoming servants as “depending on circumstances, these servants were either paid small wage or simply provided with room and bored..” showing how many of the girls were sent to boarding school and then sent out to get jobs and start living lives underneath Americans trying to fall into becoming more accustomed. So while trying to have Indians do more chores Americans do "will be enabled to find profitable employment in white communities, and will thus be prepared, as they could…

    • 1329 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Americanization policies said that indigenous peoples (American Indians) could continue practicing some of their own traditions as long as they have learned and become assimilated with American culture. This provided motivation for the American Indians to become educated with the American way of life. However, after the Indian Wars, the government outlawed the practice of these traditions and established Native American boarding schools that children obligated to attend. The children attending these schools were required to speak English, study the same subjects as American students, attend church ceremonies regularly, and leave behind their own traditional practices. This action forced American Indian children to assimilate themselves with American culture because they had no choice other than to do so. It also led to the gradual increased Americanization of each generation because as American Indian practices were outlawed, they became less common among the American Indian population. The Dawes Act of 1887 gave land to individual American Indians in return for these American Indians becoming United States citizens and giving up some of their traditional tribal leadership and institutions. This acted as a bribe for American Indians; they could have their own land as long as they assimilate…

    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The cultural assimilation of American Indians is the biggest scar that the United States of America carries to this day, dating back to the Pilgrims and Plymouth Rock. Four centuries of population decline in American Indians was due to America’s ignorance and avaricious ideas, all the while being blinded by Manifest Destiny. Native Americans were…

    • 2008 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    writing assignment 2

    • 2632 Words
    • 8 Pages

    ANSWER: The problem with Indian Boarding Schools was that Indian children were taken from their families to learn the American culture. These kids were made to stop dressing; speaking, thinking, and believing “like Indians”. For native girls’ assimilation to American culture consisted of training in menial occupations and in domesticity, which they…

    • 2632 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the late 1800’s, the United States government put into place the General Allotment Act, which essentially removed Native American children from their homes and forced them to attend boarding schools to rid them of their customs and languages (Chen, 2009). These are just a couple examples of the breakdown of the Native American people purely to create a more assimilated nation.…

    • 929 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The start was when the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) found the first Indian boarding school in Washington on the Yakima Indian Reservation. The plan was made by eastern reformers Herbert Welsh and Henry Pancoast, who had an original good-intentioned goal for Native Americans to “assimilate” (which means to understand fully) the “American way of life.” In the schools the Native Americans would be taught the importance of private property, material wealth and monogamous nuclear families. As well as that the reformers wanted to ‘civilize’ Native Americans and adjust to the white man’s cultures and beliefs. They believed…

    • 719 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    One of the most compelling debates facing American public education today is the issue of access for undocumented immigrants. Rights of undocumented or illegal immigrants is a polarizing issue due to political and economic factors. A 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision entitled illegal immigrants to public education from kindergarten through high school; 50,000 to 70,000 graduate from U.S. high schools each year (Holland, G., 2008). The objective of this paper is to analyze the pros and cons of undocumented immigrants receiving public education.…

    • 941 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the 1900’s, the United States tried to force assimilation of the Native Americans into American society. Native American children were sent to boarding school to gain an education and civilize them based on white American standards. When they were sent to off-reservation schools boys were taught agricultural procedures and manual arts, while the girls were taught domestic skills. Native American tribes all around the United States were conflicted on whether they should send their children or not to off-reservation schools due to them losing their culture and way of life by Native American standards.…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Future of Education

    • 7714 Words
    • 23 Pages

    Equal Opportunity has been an important facet of our society in America, particularly since Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his well-known speech, “I have a dream,” to our nation on August 28, 1963 (Historybits: Exploring True History). There have been many social programs started in order to make changes in equal opportunities, such as cultural education, cross-culture discourse and the present-day, multi-culturalism. The majority of these social programs have been unsuccessful when one realizes that a vast amount of America’s youth have to attend schools that are overcrowded, short-staffed, and lack the basic necessities for successful learning (Kozol, 1991). My vision for public education is: Equality for All Students, regardless of their social status, race, gender, or minority.This essay will discuss the inequalities in education in the areas listed below:…

    • 7714 Words
    • 23 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    What do you think of when you hear the word Native American? And what do you think of when you hear the word education? Probably two very clear and distinct images. But what do you think of when you hear Native American education? Unless you are a Native American, presumably that phrase means nothing to you. But shouldn't the education of US citizens be relevant to the government? Yes, and especially when there are plenty of treaties and government agencies that have established the government's role in Native American education. But somehow the US government has been neglecting the education system on reservations for decades, just like they did to their ancestors and their land centuries ago. The importance of education, problems on the reservation…

    • 1708 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    "The teachings are for all, not just for Indians... The white people never wanted to learn before. They thought we were savages. Now they have a different understanding, and they do want to learn. We are all children of God. The tradition is open to anyone who wants to learn," (Don Jose Matusuwa, Huichol). The quote illustrates how Native Americans established the education today. The Native Americans education has a very important role in society today, which the quote reveals. Whites had never wanted to learn until they understood the concept. Since Native Americans allowed them to learn, everyone has the opportunity to learn and pursuit their dreams…

    • 849 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays