Conclusion

Before the Progressive Era, education was a relatively unimportant field. The issues of slavery, women’s suffrage, and labor seemed much more important and worthy of hard work. True, slavery was a grave evil that needed to be addressed. Women had been controlled by men for hundreds of years and the fight for suffrage would affect half the population. Labor reform also affected a large percentage of the American population. These issues justifiably took precedence over the issue of education. However, starting in the late eighteenth century and gathering momentum during the nineteenth century, the education reform movement became one of the most important movements of the Progressive Era.

Important reformers took part of this movement, including Jane Addams and John Dewey, two of the most famous Progressives. The changes that these people and their followers implemented not only changed the lives of children during the Progressive Era, but many of those changes are still in effect to this day. Schooling prior to the Progressive Era consisted primarily of three subjects- reading, writing and arithmetic. Children were shut up in classrooms all day, with little time or allowance to use their imaginations. Desks and chairs were uncomfortable, while teachers often had to teach large roomfuls of children at a time. School was not particularly conducive to learning, especially in the public schools. Since the children of wealthy people often attended private schools, the public schools were ignored.

The variety of subjects that students study nowadays is a direct result of Progressive reform. Art, music, foreign languages, science, history, and technology were introduced. Classrooms underwent physical changes as well- desks and chairs were replaced with more comfortable ones, and their cousins are still seen in classrooms today. The position of school administrator was invented, and the first classroom downsizing (which was recently implemented by the California government) was applied to larger schools. In effect, the students of public schools today owe much of their education experience to the reformers of the Progressive Era.

Back to Home

Michelle Yuen 05/08/2003