In the 19th century, governments in the
United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, and other European countries organized
national systems of public education. The United States, Canada, Argentina,
Uruguay, and other countries in North and South America also established
national education systems based largely on European models.
| . | In the United Kingdom |
The Church of England and
other churches often operated primary schools in the United Kingdom, where
students paid a small fee to study the Bible, catechism, reading, writing, and
arithmetic. In 1833 the British Parliament passed a law that gave some
government funds to these schools. In 1862 the United Kingdom established a
school grant system, called payment by results, in which schools received funds
based on their students’ performance on reading, writing, and arithmetic tests.
The Education Act of 1870, called the Forster Act, authorized local government
boards to establish public board schools. The United Kingdom then had two
schools systems: board schools operated by the government and voluntary schools
conducted by the churches and other private organizations.
In 1878 the United Kingdom passed laws
that limited child labor in factories and made it possible for more
children to attend school. To make schooling available to working-class
children, many schools with limited public and private funds used monitorial
methods of instruction. Monitorial education, developed by British educators
Joseph Lancaster and Andrew Bell, used student
monitors to conduct lessons. It offered the fledgling public education system
the advantage of allowing schools to hire fewer teachers to instruct the large
number of new students. Schools featuring monitorial education used older boys,
called monitors, who were more advanced in their studies, to teach younger
children. Monitorial education concentrated on basic skills—reading, writing,
and arithmetic—that were broken down into small parts or units. After a monitor
had learned a unit—such as spelling words of two or three letters that began
with the letter A—he would, under the master teacher’s supervision, teach this
unit to a group of students. By the end of the 19th century, the monitorial
system was abandoned in British schools because it provided a very limited
education.
| . | In Russia |
Russian tsar Alexander II
initiated education reforms leading to the Education Statute of 1864. This law
created zemstvos, local government units, which operated primary schools.
In addition to zemstvo schools, the Russian Orthodox Church conducted parish
schools. While the number of children attending school slowly increased, most of
Russia’s population remained illiterate. Peasants often refused to send their
children to school so that they could work on the farms. More boys attended
school than girls since many peasant parents considered female education
unnecessary. Fearing that too much education would make people discontented with
their lives, the tsar’s government provided only limited schooling to instill
political loyalty and religious piety.
| . | In the United States |
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Before the 19th century elementary and
secondary education in the United States was organized on a local or regional
level. Nearly all schools operated on private funds exclusively. However,
beginning in the 1830s and 1840s, American educators such as Henry
Barnard and Horace Mann argued for the creation of a school
system operated by individual states that would provide an equal education for
all American children. In 1852 Massachusetts passed the first laws calling for
free public education, and by 1918 all U.S. states had passed compulsory school
attendance laws. See Public Education in the United
States.
| . | EDUCATION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY |
At the beginning of the 20th century, the
writings of Swedish feminist and educator Ellen Key influenced
education around the world. Key’s book Barnets århundrade (1900; The
Century of the Child,1909) was translated into many languages and inspired
so-called progressive educators in various countries. Progressive education was
a system of teaching that emphasized the needs and potentials of the child,
rather than the needs of society or the principles of religion. Among the
influential progressive educators were Hermann Lietz and Georg Michael
Kerschensteiner of Germany, Bertrand Russell of England, and
Maria Montessori of Italy.
| . | Montessori |
Montessori Preschool
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Montessori’s methods of early childhood
education have become internationally popular. Trained in medicine, Montessori
worked with developmentally disabled children early in her career. The results
of her work were so effective that she believed her teaching methods could be
used to educate all children. In 1907 Montessori established a children’s
school, the Casa dei Bambini (Children’s House), for poor children from
the San Lorenzo district of Rome. Here she developed a specially prepared
environment that featured materials and activities based on her observations of
children. She found that children enjoy mastering specific skills, prefer work
to play, and can sustain concentration. She also believed that children have a
power to learn independently if provided a properly stimulating
environment.
Montessori’s curriculum emphasized three
major classes of activity: (1) practical, (2) sensory, and (3) formal skills and
studies. It introduced children to such practical activities as setting the
table, serving a meal, washing dishes, tying and buttoning clothing, and
practicing basic social manners. Repetitive exercises developed sensory and
muscular coordination. Formal skills and subjects included reading, writing, and
arithmetic. Montessori designed special teaching materials to develop these
skills, including laces, buttons, weights, and materials identifiable by their
sound or smell. Instructors provided the materials for the children and
demonstrated the lessons but allowed each child to independently learn the
particular skill or behavior.
In 1913 Montessori lectured in the United
States on her educational method. American educators established many Montessori
schools after these lectures, but they declined in popularity in the 1930s as
American educators stressed greater authority and control in the classroom. A
revival of Montessori education in the United States began in the 1950s,
coinciding with a growing emphasis on early childhood education.
| . | Dewey |
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The work of American philosopher and
educator John Dewey was especially influential in the U.S. and
other countries in the 20th century. Dewey criticized educational methods that
simply amused and entertained students or were overly vocational. He advocated
education that would fulfill and enrich the current lives of students as well as
prepare them for the future. The activity program of education, which derived
from the theories of Dewey, stressed the educational development of the child in
terms of individual needs and interests. It was the major method of instruction
for most of the 20th century in elementary schools of the United States and many
other countries.
| . | Piaget |
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The work of Swiss psychologist Jean
Piaget had a major impact on educational theory in the early 20th
century, particularly in Europe. Piaget wrote extensively on the development of
thought and language patterns in children. He examined children’s conceptions of
number, space, logic, geometry, physical reality, and moral judgment. Piaget
believed that children, by exploring their environment, create their own
cognitive, or intellectual, conceptions of reality. By continually interacting
with their environment, they keep adding to and reshaping their conceptions of
the world. Piaget asserted that human intelligence develops in stages, each of
which enhances a person’s understanding of the world in a new and more complex
way.
| . | POLITICAL INFLUENCES |
Political leadership has affected the
education systems of many countries in the 20th century. In the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics (USSR) under Communism and in Germany under the
leadership of National Socialism, totalitarian systems of
government imposed strict guidelines on the organization of national education
systems. Many other countries during the 20th century—including the United
States—have sought to balance control of their education systems between the
federal government and local governments or private organizations. Most
countries in the 20th century have also taken steps to increase access to
education.
| . | In the United States |
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Local and state governments have retained
most of the responsibility for operating public education in the United States
during the 20th century. Because individual communities often have different
educational priorities and different abilities to finance public education
systems, school systems vary from one region to another. State governments—and
occasionally the federal government—attempt to reduce disparity between regions
by establishing various requirements for school financing, academic standards,
and curriculum. See Education in the United States: Tension Between
Localism and Centralization.
In the early 20th century access to
education in the United States was largely divided along racial lines. State
laws segregated most schools in the American South by race. No such laws existed
in northern states, but school districts there often established district
boundaries to ensure separate facilities for black and white students. In both
northern and southern states, school facilities for African American students
were usually inadequate, public transportation to such schools was insufficient
or nonexistent, and public expenditures per student fell well below that
provided per student in white schools. In 1954 the Supreme Court of the
United States decided in Brown v. Board of Education of
Topeka that separate facilities for black and white students resulted in
unequal educational opportunities, and that such segregation was
unconstitutional. Since then, public school systems throughout the United States
have attempted to desegregate schools and to provide equal educational
opportunity for all students. Integration efforts and
affirmative action programs in American schools have helped enable
African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and other minorities to increase high
school and college attendance rates and to make impressive gains on standardized
test scores. See Education in the United States: Education and
Equality.
| . | In the Soviet Union |
After the Russian Revolution
in 1917 the Communist Party’s Central Committee made the important educational
decisions in the Soviet Union. In the 1920s Communist leader Joseph
Stalin established a rigid curriculum for Soviet education that stressed
science, mathematics, and Communist ideology. Soviet schools attracted large
numbers of foreign visitors, especially individuals from developing countries.
In 1957 the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first
artificial satellite sent into space. To many educators around the world, this
achievement indicated the advanced state of Soviet technological learning.
Soviet educator Anton Semyonovich Makarenko also brought international
recognition to the Soviet education system for his work on the rehabilitation of
juvenile delinquents.
Many observers criticized the rigidity and
authoritarianism of the Soviet education system. In 1989 and 1990 Mikhail
Gorbachev, then the general secretary of the Communist Party and the
leader of the USSR, tried to reform the country’s education system by allowing
schools more local control. However, the nation was suffering from political
upheaval and a weak economy, which hampered efforts aimed at educational
reform.
With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991
the former Soviet republics, such as Russia, Ukraine, and Georgia, became
independent nations that controlled their own political and education systems.
Education in Russia and the other new countries faces especially daunting
obstacles because the struggling economies of these nations often provide
insufficient funds for education. Other problems in educational administration
and schooling stem from tensions between the many different ethnic and language
groups in most of these nations. While Russia has a predominantly Russian
population, over 100 other ethnic groups also comprise its population.
| . | In Germany |
The fall of Communism has also affected
education in Germany. The disintegration of the Soviet Union from 1989 to 1991,
and the tearing down of the Berlin Wall in 1989 helped lead to the
collapse of the Communist government in East Germany. East Germany
reunified with West Germany in 1990 and the West German school
system was extended throughout the reunited nation. The Federal Republic of
Germany follows a joint federal-state system of education. The
Grundgesetz (Basic Law) gives individual German states the major
responsibility for primary and secondary education. In higher education, the
federal government works in conjunction with the states.
The kindergarten, developed by Froebel in
the 19th century, remains popular in Germany. Children begin compulsory
education at age six in the Grundschule, the basic primary school, and
continue there until they are nine years old. When they finish primary school,
German students go to separate secondary schools, such as the Hauptschule,
Realschule, Gymnasium, and Gesamtschule. The Hauptschule offers a
general education, the Realschule prepares students for middle-level careers as
managers and supervisors, the Gymnasium is a university preparatory
school, and the Gesamtschulen is a comprehensive secondary school. German
education also includes extensive vocational, technical, and apprenticeship
arrangements.
| . | In France |
The central government controls most
education in France. A federal department, the Ministry of Education, sets the
curriculum so that all students study the same subjects at the same ages
throughout the country. French schools emphasize careful thinking and correct
use of the French language. The lycee, the traditional academic secondary
school, prepares students to attend universities. The grandes écoles, the
great schools, are universities that train future leaders for government
service, business administration, and engineering. Aside from providing free
elementary and secondary education, the French central government provides
financial aid to Catholic schools. In 1960 the government also began providing
financial subsidies to private schools that meet state standards.
| . | In Developing Nations |
Education in Nepal
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The 20th century has also been marked by
the emergence of national school systems among developing nations, particularly
in Asia and Africa. Compulsory elementary education has become nearly universal,
but evidence indicates that large numbers of children—perhaps as many as 50
percent of those age 6 to 18 throughout the world—do not attend school. To
improve education on the elementary and adult levels, the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) conducts
literacy campaigns and other educational projects. UNESCO attempts to put every
child in the world into school and to eliminate illiteracy. Some progress has
been noted, but it has become obvious that considerable time and effort are
needed to produce universal literacy.
Source:Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
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