Nearly every country today has universal primary education. But why did governments in the West decide to provide education to all children in the first place? In "Raised to Obey," Agustina Paglayan offers an unsettling answer. The introduction of broadly accessible primary education was not mainly a response to industrialization, or…

There are six oversized boxes in the New York Historical Society that contain the remains of the Public School Society (PSS), New York City's first experiment with publicly-funded education. They are filled with the detritus of the Society's nearly fifty years: recommendations for prospective teachers from their clergymen, student certificates of…

The French education system was created as a means to uphold the republican principles emanating from the Revolution. The first Article of the 1958 French Constitution says the Republic assures equality before the law of all citizens without distinction of origin or race. Theoretically at least, it is not only forbidden to discriminate, but to…

This report highlights the history and importance of public education in the United States, dating back to its establishment as a necessary institution for the young republic and Horace Mann's efforts to promote a common school for all. The report focuses on how and why the U.S. system of public education came into being; the six core public…

The American public school is a political idea, as well as an educational institution, that is still awaiting full realization. Public schools fail to deliver the promised indiscriminate availability of educational goods and services. Discussions of that failure frequently revolve around the school's educational agenda and questions of pedagogy…

In the last fifteen years revisionists have attacked the ascendency of Ellwood P. Cubberly, and his pietistic picture of the public school, with historical perspectives that relegate public education to being one of many educational functions in American culture and with the view that public schools "miseducate" the American people.…

Seven historical purposes have been proclaimed in American education since the turn of the century. The four familiar purposes are the American "quadrivium." They lead in different directions: one leads to academic discipline, one to social efficiency, a third to individual development, and the fourth to vocational competence. The three more…

The historically changing reproduction of labor is the thread which holds together all African schooling policies in South Africa, where from the beginning the early White settlers set up a labor-exploitative state. (Author)

While the impact of schools in colonial America was soft before the mid-eighteenth century, devotion to education was strong and self-evident. By the early nineteenth century, schooling was well on its way to becoming universal for most children. As the nineteenth century wore on, the state became more and more involved in schooling. As taxation…

Describes the integrated comprehensive school (ICS) in Germany, where, as of 1988, 90 percent of all students attended traditional schools. Traces the history of comprehensive schools in Germany and examines their philosophy and objectives. States comprehensive schooling cannot create equal social entitlements but can encourage all students to…

Mao Tse-Tung's view of education and society is based on the belief that the great masses of people are collectively rational. If the masses do not see what society as a whole objectively requires, however, the leaders must be patient and resort to education and explanation, or the requirements must be altered to meet the objections. By the mid…

This book examines the socioeconomic foundations of work and vocational education (VE), and is divided into the following 6 parts and 18 chapters: (1) nature of work (a sense of purpose; modernism and the evolution of the technocratic mind; power and the development of the modernist economy; good work, bad work, and the debate over ethical labor);…