History Of The Common School Movement

Schools have been a part of the history of the United Sates since the 1600’s in the colonies. Throughout our history they have taken on many different forms and have gone through many different changes. One of the very first forms they took was called the Common School Movement. The movement was founded by Horace Mann, Mann had many beliefs for the school. One of his major beliefs were to teach basic knowledge to children so that people could function in a democracy. Today that focus has shifted it is now geared towards how long students are exposed to instruction, not how much they have learned as well as teaching towards the test. While some of our core beliefs have shifted we still have some old roots. Such as we are rooted in the belief

Children are not robots, they are all unique and have their own wants and needs. I believe that each child is a puzzle piece, and with the right work you can put all your pieces together to create an amazing work of art. However, no two puzzle pieces are the same, just like how no two students are the same. We as teachers need to understand this before we can start anything else. We need to know and understand that children learn different subjects at different rates, some slower and some faster. Once we understand this, it allows the children to have a voice and become more than just a robot in the

Ferguson, ESES. No Child Left Behind Act and the Dream Act. Each one of these historical points in history have added to our current education system. But one thing we are failing to do is to create and open democracy for our students. Our students in most schools sit in rows of seats which represent a factory line. We are failing to included creativity, and collaboration in our classrooms. Two things that are very important for our children. Which is why I believing that we need to create a different type of philosophy for education. We need to create a philosophy that breaks this one size fits all mold. We know that children have different learning styles, which make different methods of instruction more or less effective for them. We also know that today's new technologies offer the prospect of individualizing education for each child and gearing instruction to the student's particular learning style and most effective means of instruction. We have learned so much about education since today's schools were created. With this new found information we need to use it and create building blocks for our future generations. One which encourages our children to be the best they can