On page 52, the author writes that “Taxpayers were reluctant to pay for education, and towns frequently reaffirmed parents’ responsibility for educating their children. Yet, once schools were established, parents were quite willing to send their children to these schools, rather than teaching them at home.” I thought this was very interesting. It seems that even today, individuals may be reluctant for something, but once it is established and seems to be working fine, then everyone wants to jump on board and be a part of it.
I also found it interesting that during the colonial years, when there were one room schoolhouses, most of the teachers were males. I always thought of women as being the teachers and many years ago, it was uncommon to see males as teachers. Gender roles put women as the teachers, but really, the earliest teachers were men.
As I was reading the chapter, it surprised me how much of the education system is still similar to what it was when it was first created. They talked about classes being 50-55 minutes long and that is still how most high school classes are, even most college courses are 50 minutes long.
Before reading this chapter, I did not know much about the history of education and schools. After reading the chapter, I understand better how school and education were created and the changes they have gone through, but also how some things have stayed the same.
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