Chapter 11

Jamie Corley Vanessa Lindsey

EDSU 5321 June 2012Dr. McEady

Literacy with an Attitude

History of American Schools• Between the Civil War and World War II public

education in the United States was motivated by the recognition that democracy required a literate electorate.

• Public Education of the poor was also motivated by rapidly growing cities & child labor laws that created thousands of unemployed youth.

Government Power in Education

The beginning of government involvement in the education of the poor in England was motivated by fear.

England did not want an “unruly” working class becoming literate in ways that the ruling class found dangerous to their power and control.

Printing PressWith the invention of the printing press in 1450, books in modern language became available to everyone.

This marked the beginning of self-taught literacy.

Reading Material

By 1600, ten percent of the population of the poor could read.

There were many things available to read, such as news pamphlets, political and religious propaganda, songs and sensations, etc.

TaxesBy 1712, taxes on reading material were

implemented to make it difficult for the poor to access any kind of reading material.

Social Turmoil of the 1800’s

1790 – 1810 – marked the beginning of a social upheaval in Europe and America.

The education of the working class caused a lot of unrest between the upper and lower class.

Rights of ManThomas Paine’s, The Rights of Man, was published and fed fuel to an already revolutionary spirit alive and well in England.

200,000 copies sold in one year.

Corresponding Societies

One materialization of this revolutionary spirit gave rise to corresponding societies that unearthed all over England.

The primary purpose for the societal meetings was to reflect on society and their place in it, to learn the thinking of others, to discuss, evaluate and formulate conclusions and new ideas in the form of correspondence.....what a perfect example of powerful literacy.

Corresponding SocietiesThe societal meetings were well-organized and run very professionally.

Government spies say the opposite - that the meetings were unruly.

Societies advocated for diversity among its members.

London Society

The most famous of these societies was the London Society, formed in 1792.

Men just wanted to meet and collaborate on subjects like politics and reform.

London Society

By 1795, the London Corresponding Society had 5,000 active, dues-paying members and another 5,000 enrolled , but not fully active members.

The British began to panic at the success of the Corresponding Societies.

The Unlawful Societies Act of 1799

Public meetings were outlawed and strict controls were imposed on the printing trade.

State-Supported Schools for Children

The Corresponding Societies of the 1790’s were replaced 50 years later by State-Supported Schools for Children.

Commercial Entertainment and Information Industry

The 1830’s saw the working-class literature shift from education and political text to sensational periodicals and fiction.

This marked the beginning of Commercial Entertainment and Information Industry

References

Finn, P. (2009). Literacy with an Attitude. Albany, New York. SUNY Press.