Reflection on The Common School

     This section of the book is imperative to understanding the history of education in America. Things moved slowly and were uneven not for lack of trying, but due to ballots failing and no support from people in office. Since the beginning, officials and notable people were making moves to try and get things changed and over time it eventually worked. With more and more people going to school, this led to a need for teachers--and women were the perfect people to fill the job. Women who wanted a career, and didn't want to just settle down immediately. Teaching is sometimes perceived as "women's work" but at the time, it was a big step forward in terms of feminism and things women could do on their own. 

    There were many things covered throughout the section that answered common question many people have. For example, how did America start spelling words differently from England even though we speak the same language? This was something that wasn't covered in any of my history classes. The explanation makes perfect sense--as a new nation, many thought the US was deserving of a new language, that when taught would separate us in another way from Great Britain. This was published by Noah Webster in 1783, called A Grammatical Institute to the English Language, often just called the Blue-back Speller. This predates the Merriam-Webster dictionary and laid the groundwork for American education.

    While ranking the words, I realized I wasn't really thinking about the actual people who were trying to get educated, moreso what I took from the section was that common education was something people wanted for a long time. It was shocking because the general impression that you get is no one was trying to reform the system as far back as the 1780s. However, people were and they wanted not only common education but universal education. While this would be good for some, it would only affect white children, and boys at that; under Jefferson's plan, girls could have three years of education to "prepare for marriage;" African Americans had nothing. After Reconstruction, things changed drastically--people moved and settled across the country and realized how important a school and education was to their livelihood. Towns needed schools to survive.