hello blog, it's been a while.
I'm no good at writing when I have nothing to say. luckily, I have something to say now. let's try and catch up on some blog entries we didn't quite do on time.
so I choose you, common school movement!
the common school movement interests me. I'm not really sure why I didn't blog about it right away. I love historical things like that, after all. I was probably busy. I'm always busy. back to the point. the common school movement is pretty intriguing. it's just strange to think that there once was a time when there wasn't public education. when children wanted to go to school and it was a privilege to do so. the kids I work with whine, complain, scream, basically do everything they can to make sure we know they do not want to be there. no matter how hard you try to drill into their minds that kids in other parts of the world would love the opportunity for schooling, they just don't get it.
so that's why it's hard to think of a time without school. a time of apprenticeships and where your last name was an indication of your job title ("good morning mr. baker" "oh hello there mrs. smith"). it gets me thinking, what would have happened had nobody had the idea to implement a school system. obviously lessons would still have been passed down through generation and from master to student. but how would it have affected the gap between rich and poor having no common education system.
because of the shift from only rich being able to secure education to everyone getting to go to school (well, we know that "everyone" is subject to the usual disclaimer of "white") the gap between classes narrowed. fewer things separated the rich and the poor. no longer could rich parents boast that their child was more educated because now education was available to the poor children as well.
unfortunately, the education was not quite up to the same standards as private schooling. what did you expect, really. paid teachers are obviously going to be of higher quality than teachers working to provide free education. simple economics. or logic.
but still, despite the obvious differences (clearly the rich would still get better education,) the fact that education of any sort was now available led to an eventual evening out of the playing field and made it easier for those who previously had been stranded to play and even get ahead of their peers.
it's interesting. a lot of what ifs. I think we're lucky that we managed to get this far with education, to be entirely honest.
