The unknown history of American public education.
At a time when Americans are debating the future of public education,
Johann N. Neem tells the inspiring story of how and why Americans built
a robust public school system in the decades between the Revolution and
the Civil War. It's a story in which ordinary people in towns across the
country worked together to form districts and build schoolhouses and
reformers sought to expand tax support and give every child a liberal
education. By the time of the Civil War, most northern states had made
common schools free, and many southern states were heading in the same
direction. Americans made schooling a public good.
Yet back then, like today, Americans disagreed over the kind of
education needed, who should pay for it, and how schools should be
governed. Neem explores the history and meaning of these disagreements.
As Americans debated, teachers and students went about the daily work of
teaching and learning. Neem takes us into the classrooms of yore so that
we may experience public schools from the perspective of the people
whose daily lives were most affected by them.
Ultimately, Neem concludes, public schools encouraged a diverse people
to see themselves as one nation. By studying the origins of America's
public schools, Neem urges us to focus on the defining features of
democratic education: promoting equality, nurturing human beings,
preparing citizens, and fostering civic solidarity.
