Chapter 4 of Rethinking Education

This chapter was about the development of American Schooling, and how schooling went from apprenticeship to universal. Apprenticeship was when parents or other family members taught the children skills they needed to succed in the family business. For example, in the 19th century most people were farmers. The children learn from the older people in the family how do things such as plowing the land. The book says that these children learn from observation, imitation and guided practice. A man named Horace Mann then led a movement that took schooling from families teaching the students to the state being responsible for the schooling. There were many factors that contributed to the shift of schooling that include the printing press, Reformation, the American Revolution, and the Industrail Revolution. The Industrial Revolution changed the role of children. According to Fredrick Carlton, there were only three things that children during the Industrial Revolution 1. work in factories 2. get into trouble on the streets and 3. learning in schools. When the Child Labor Laws came into play, the choice was obvious that children needed to get into schools. The shift went from family to state education. Another part of this chapter that I found to be interesting was how the school system has evolved. Each thing in the school system that has become so routine to us these days really took a lot of thought and time. These things include cumpulsory attendance, graded schools, tests, textbooks, and comprehensive high schools. Things like diversity in chools are making the demands of schools change. Teachers have to work with children who don't speak English, and have to accomodate to students with differnet needs. The chapter ended saying that the schooling system has undergone so many durastic changes in the past, but it is being resistent to the changes that technolgy of today has to add. There will most likely be another change soon to how we know schooling. I think this affects my future as a teacher just in the fact that I have to be ready to embrace change. Things in my future profession will always be moving forward, and I ahve to be ready to learn new things and be able to pass on the information to my students. I thought this was an interesting chapter to see where schooling has come over the years!