One of America's founding ideas was that public education played a vital role in American ________________________ society.

_{(from, "Why We Still Need Public Education, 1996)}

Multiple Answers.

"In addition to preparing young people for productive work and fulfilling lives, public education has also been expected to accomplish certain collective missions aimed at promoting the common good, specifically..."

_{(from, "Why We Still Need Public Education, 1996)}

"Public education" is characterized by all of the following EXCEPT ________:

_{(from, "Why We Still Need Public Education, 1996)}

In the "General School Act of 1647," the Massachusetts Bay Colony stated that towns of sufficient size were to appoint someone to teach the children at the expense of their parents.

By the American Revolution, the idea of public education had spread, and the "how" and "who" would be educated and "how it would be funded" was varied, which led to ___________________.

_{(from, "Why We Still Need Public Education, 1996)}

Pick 2.

In the 1600s, religious values and resources impacted the curriculum, schools and grade levels. Children were lucky to receive an education beyond elementary school. "_____________________ and _____________________ usually fixed a child's options." Children from [affluent] families had access to a "classical" education..., and in striking contrast, "children of farmers and day workers were lucky to receive the most rudimentary education."

_{(from, "Why We Still Need Public Education, 1996)}

"After the American Revolution and believing that the survival of the new republic depended on citizens with sufficient education to govern themselves, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, among others, supported the creation of publicly funded schools. Jefferson submitted a proposal to the Virginia legislature in 1779 to create free elementary schools across the state for all white boys and girls, regardless of family income, and to educate the brightest boys from each school through adolescence at public expense. But the conservative legislature did not want to assume the burden of educating the _______________, and the bill was defeated."

_{(from, "Why We Still Need Public Education, 1996)}

Still, in the 1780's, "Jefferson’s ideas about the connection between education and democracy proved influential. The federal Land Ordinance law of 1785, reserved a portion of revenues from land sales to fund public schools..., and Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire enacted general laws to fund tax-supported schools. It would take another 50 years, however, before a broad system of _______________________ public schools became a reality."

_{(from, "Why We Still Need Public Education, 1996)}

"Little by little, public schools took hold in communities, often because the ___________________, rather than the politicians, demanded them.

In the 1830s, the push for public education gained momentum when reformers...promoted the notion of the “common school.” These schools would be publicly funded and locally governed and would offer a common curriculum to all students."

_{(from, "Why We Still Need Public Education, 1996)}

Choose all that apply.

Reformers saw that "public schools would ____________.

"A public investment in education would ultimately benefit everyone, they maintained, and would make schools accountable to the American people."

_{(from, "Why We Still Need Public Education, 1996)}

By the mid-1800s, mostly all states had common elementary schools. By the early 1900s, [secondary] schools "emerged and compulsory attendance became commonplace until the 20th century. As the U.S. became home to larger and more diverse groups of immigrants, national leaders and education reformers called on the public schools to “Americanize” the new arrivals and make them literate in English.

However, the education provided by these schools was far from equal. Schools for African American children were segregated and generally substandard. Schools serving the urban and rural poor often operated in dilapidated facilities with under qualified teachers and overcrowded classrooms. Faced with these realities, reformers turned their attention from access to _______________."

_{(from, "Why We Still Need Public Education, 1996)}

Who said....

"Of all the civil rights for which the world has struggled and fought for 5,000 years, the right to learn is undoubtedly the most fundamental . . . The freedom to learn . . . has been bought by bitter sacrifice. And whatever we may think of the curtailment of other civil rights, we should fight to the last ditch to keep open the right to learn..."

_{(from, "Why We Still Need Public Education, 1996)}

"In 1954, _______________________ ushered in a new era for public education, devoted to expanding opportunities for groups of students that had been inadequately served by public schools in the past."

_{(from, "Why We Still Need Public Education, 1996)}

Choose all that apply.

"During the 1960s and ‘70s, the federal government enacted a series of laws aimed at improving education for [African American children], poor children, as well as ______________________. These laws brought additional funding to public schools, along with new requirements to meet the special needs of particular groups of students.

_{(from, "Why We Still Need Public Education, 1996)}

"American public schools have been expected to fulfill certain public missions that go beyond the purely academic purposes of all schools, public and private."

These public missions can be characterized by six main themes:

1. To provide universal access to free education

2. To guarantee equal opportunities for all children

3. To unify a diverse population

4. To prepare people for citizenship in a democratic society

5. To prepare people to become economically self-sufficient

6. To improve social conditions

_{(from, "Why We Still Need Public Education, 1996)}

Why are you/we here?

What do these "missions" mean for you/us?

What is the significance of knowing the history of public education history?