The American School : From The Puritans To The Trump Era

561 Pages·10·7.738 MB·English

by  Joel Spring

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THE AMERICAN SCHOOL

This current, comprehensive history of American education is designed to stimulate critical
analysis and critical thinking by offering alternative interpretations of each historical period.
In his signature straight-forward, concise style, Joel Spring provides a variety of
interpretations of American schooling, from conservative to leftist, in order to spark the
reader’s own critical thinking about history and schools. This tenth edition follows the
history of American education from the seventeenth century to the integration into global
capitalism of the twenty-first century to the tumul - tuous current political landscape. In
particular, the updates focus on tracing the direct religious links between the colonial
Puritans and the current-day Trump administration.
• Chapters 1 and 2 have been rewritten to take a closer look at religious traditions in
American schools, leading up to the educational ideas of the current U.S. Secretary of
Education Betsy DeVos.
• An updated Chapter 15 further links traditional religious fundamentalist ideas and the
twentieth century free market arguments of the Chicago school of economists to
President Trump’s administration and the influence of the Alt-Right.
Joel Spring is a professor at Queens College/City University of New York and the
Graduate Center of the City University of New York, USA.
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Sociocultural, Political, and Historical Studies in Education
Joel Spring, Editor
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/series/LEASPHSES

Spring • The American School, Tenth Edition
Spring • Political Agendas for Education: From Make America Great Again to Stronger
Together, Sixth Edition
Reagan • Non-Western Educational Traditions: Local Approaches to Educational Thought and
Practice, Fourth Edition
Spring/Frankson/McCallum/Banks, Eds. • The Business of Education: Networks of Power
and Wealth in America
Bowers • A Critical Examination of STEM: Issues and Challenges
Spring • Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality: A Brief History of the Education of
Dominated Cultures in the United States, Eighth Edition
Spring • American Education, Seventeenth Edition
Spring • Economization of Education: Schools, Corporations,World Markets
Martusewicz/Edmundson/Lupinacci • EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse, Democratic,
and Sustainable Communities, Second Edition
Spring • Globalization and Education, Second Edition
For additional information on titles in the Sociocultural, Political, and Historical Studies in
Education series visit www.routledge.com/education
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THE AMERICAN SCHOOL

FROM THE PURITANS TO THE TRUMP ERA

Tenth Edition
Joel Spring

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Tenth edition published 2018
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Taylor & Francis
The right of Joel Spring to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any
form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
First edition published by Longman 1986
Ninth edition published by McGraw Hill 2013
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Spring, Joel H., author.
Title: The American school : from the Puritans to the Trump
era / Joel Spring, Queens College, City University of New York.
Description: Tenth Edition. | New York : Routledge, 2018. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017038189|
ISBN 9781138502918 (Hardback : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781138502925 (Paperback : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781315145136 (eBook)
Subjects: LCSH: Education—United States—History. |
Education—Social aspects—United States—History. |
United States—Politics and government—21st century.
Classification: LCC LA205 .S64 2018 | DDC 370.973—dc23
LC record available at https://www.lccn.loc.gov/2017038189
ISBN: 978-1-138-50291-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-50292-5 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-14513-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
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by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK
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CONTENTS

List of Time Lines
About the Author
Preface
CHAPTER 1 Thinking Critically about History
Interpreting School History: From the Right to the Left
Purposes of Educational History and Its Effect on Public Images and
Emotions Regarding Schools
Themes in American Educational History
Globalization Framework
Religious Debates in U.S. Schools from the Colonial Era to the
Present
Schools and the Culture Wars
Schools as Managers of Public Thought
Racial and Ethnic Conflict as a Theme in School History
The Role in Educational History of Equality of Opportunity and
Human Capital
Globalization: Consumer and Environmental Education
CHAPTER 2 Globalization and Religion in Colonial Education
Education and Culture in Colonial Society
The Role of Education in Colonial Society
Historical Interpretations of Colonial Education
Authority and Social Status in Colonial Education
Colonialism and Educational Policy
Language and Cultural Conflict
Native Americans: Education as Cultural Imperialism
Enslaved Africans: Atlantic Creoles
Enslaved Africans: The Plantation System
The Idea of Secular Education: Freedom of Thought and the
Establishment of Academies
Benjamin Franklin and Education as Social Mobility
The Family and the Child
Conclusion
CHAPTER 3 Nationalism, Multiculturalism, and Moral Reform in the
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New Republic
World Culture Theorists
The Problem of Cultural Diversity
Religion and Liberty
Noah Webster: Nationalism and the Creation of a Dominant Culture
Thomas Jefferson: A Natural Aristocracy
Moral Reform and Faculty Psychology
Concepts of Childhood: Protected, Working, Poor, Rural, and
Enslaved
Charity Schools, the Lancasterian System, and Prisons
Institutional Change and the American College
Public versus Private Schools
Conclusion: Continuing Issues in American Education
CHAPTER 4 The Ideology and Politics of the Common School
Three Distinctive Features of the Common School Movement
The Ideology of the Common School Movement
Workingmen and the Struggle for a Republican Education
How Much Government Involvement in Schools? The Whigs and the
Democrats
The Birth of the High School
The Continuing Debate about the Common School Ideal
Conclusion
CHAPTER 5 The Common School and the Threat of Cultural Pluralism
The Increasing Multicultural Population of the United States
Irish Catholics: A Threat to Anglo-American Schools and Culture
Slavery and Freedom in the North: African Americans and Schools in
the New Republic
Native Americans
Conclusion
CHAPTER 6 Organizing the American School: Teachers and
Bureaucracy
The American Teacher
Revolution in Teaching Methods: Object Learning
The Evolution of Bureaucracy: A Global Model
The Age-Graded Classroom
McGuffey’s Readers and the Spirit of Capitalism
Conclusion
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Multiculturalism and the Failure of the Common School
CHAPTER 7 Ideal
Mexican Americans: Race and Citizenship
Asian Americans: Exclusion and Segregation
Native American Citizenship
Educational Racism and Deculturalization
Citizenship for African Americans
Issues Regarding Puerto Rican Citizenship
Puerto Rican American Educational Issues
Conclusion: Setting the Stage for the Great Civil Rights Movement
CHAPTER 8 Global Migration and the Growth of the Welfare Function
of Schools
Immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe
The Kindergarten Movement
Home Economics: Education of the New Consumer Woman
School Cafeterias, the American Cuisine, and Processed Foods
The Play Movement
Summer School
Social Centers
The New Culture Wars
Resisting Segregation: African Americans
The Second Crusade for Black Education
Resisting Segregation: Mexican Americans
Native American Boarding Schools
Resisting Discrimination: Asian Americans
Educational Resistance in Puerto Rico
Conclusion: Public Schooling as America’s Welfare Institution
CHAPTER 9 Human Capital: High School, Junior High School, and
Vocational Guidance and Education
The High School
Vocational Education
Junior High School
Adapting the Classroom to the Workplace: Lesson Plans
Adapting the Classroom to the Workplace: Progressivism
Adapting the Classroom to the Workplace: Stimulus-Response
Classroom Management as Preparation for Factory Life
Historical Interpretations: Public Benefit or Corporate Greed?
Conclusion: The Meaning of Equality of Opportunity
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