The "Common School"

Today I would like to talk about education in America from 1770-1900. This time was referred to as “The Common School”. However I would have to say that it was quite selective rather than educating most of the “common” people. Common schools really only benefited poor white children. Up till the 1900s education was largely dependent on the family situation. Wealth, race and gender usually determined the amount of education an individual received. If you were from a wealthy white family and were a boy you probably would have received a decent education. However, if you were a girl, poor, or a person of color your chances for education were very few and limited. 

Interestingly enough, the closest thing to a public school nowadays in the 18^th century was short-term schools in the British colonies. Town meetings voted to open a school for elementary age children for ten to twelve weeks for boys. Parents were charged a fee to cover the expense of teaching their children.

Also, during this period of history education was given little value by the “common” person. Society was largely agrarian and family farms were passed from generation to generation. This situation generally troubled some of America’s founding fathers. How, they asked, could the young republic continue to survive if its population wasn’t educated in the fundamentals of its principles? So common schools were the answer to the problem. Educate the poor masses and America would become a strong country was the founding fathers’ thought process. I guess the simple question we have now is: did it work? Join me next week when we discuss education from 1900 to 1950!