How Successful Was The Reform Movement In The 1800s

Reform is a way to change something in order to improve it. The Reform movement of the 1800s changed the United States of America in education, alcohol use, prison conditions and treatment of the mentally ill. The elementary education reform movement particularly was successful in advancing children’s education through strict laws, individual reform leaders and advancing subject material or the environment in which they were taught.

Before men and women really focused on reforming elementary school education, the subjects taught, environment and focus on schooling was poor. There was a big focus on religion, solely learning for religious purposes. During early colonial America, children as young as seven were forced to go to school simply to

On another note, during the period before education reform, almost all schools and majority of families could not afford educating their children. The few public elementary schools that existed struggled to come up with money for books, supplies, or even teacher salaries (Boyer). Failing to provide necessary learning resources contributed to the fact that elementary education was not as successful before the reform. Due to the lack of teacher salaries, poor teacher behavior followed. A number of teachers took violent disciplinary actions towards younger children. Inappropriate actions included strict authority, force, fear and pain (The Struggle For Public Schools). Other gaps proved severe in performance of elementary students. For instance, before the education reform areas of less focus on homework and instruction, poor test scores, lower academic performances than competitors in other countries occurred (Galens). Unquestionably, children did not perform well with the youth education system in place. *The final

As one might predict, less fortunate children struggled to receive superb education and younger privileged individuals were granted better learning environments. Basically the more money a child’s family had the more substantial their surroundings. For starters, poor children learned in protestant voluntary organizations or charity schools, church halls, basements or rented rooms (Finkelman). This type of learning surrounding might have contributed to the fact poorer children were less educated. However, wealthy elementary students would learn in boarding schools, where substantial learning could be taught. Though elementary education lacked fair education environment before and during the early reform classrooms became more spacious and overall stronger learning environment when classes became grade level based. This meant elementary children would be learning with peers who were their age rather than high school student teenagers who were at a completely different learning level (Finkelman). The advancement in poor and rich schooling improved the space of a classroom and in turn, allowed for deeper understanding of teachings. *Even Women started being hired as teachers, opening up job opportunities for them and more elementary learning came out of having more teachers around. As a final remark, there were teachers