Exam 3: School As a Public Institution: The Common-School ERA

What is human capital theory and why is it significant to understanding this chapter?

Analyze the "Irish problem" in terms of nineteenth-century American ideology and political economy and discuss the merits and/or weaknesses of Horace Mann's call for the common schools to solve this "problem." Think about the tensions of the common school era and compare them to the tensions of today. Do you see any parallels in our contemporary system of education?

The curriculum that Mann proposed for the normal schools reflected his concerns about

Present your view of what Horace Mann meant when he called the common school the "great balance wheel of society." Explain how demographic and economic developments affected Mann's ideas.

Common schooling was seen as one solution to the "immigrant problem" because of perceptions that

Orestes Brownson challenged Horace Mann's interpretation of the state's role in protecting social and economic harmony via education. He believed in the right and duty of the local school district to determine "the selection of teachers, the choice of studies and of books…all that pertains to the methods of teaching and the matters to be taught or learned…" How are both Mann's and Brownson's arguments being employed today in education, and over what kinds of issues? How can understanding the past help us understand, and act, in the present? Where do you stand on federal versus state versus local control of the schools?

Johann Fichte's position that "you must fashion [the child]…in such a way that he cannot will otherwise than you wish him to will" is most importantly tied to Mann's support for