School Movement: Influences on Cotemporary Essay

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Rather than forming the one, who happens to live in America, into a citizen of this nation, the objective of the 21st century is to make him a citizen of the world. And it is arguable, too, whether the focus is on knowledge as power as it was in Mann's days; focus may have changed to knowledge of technology and business as per power as evidenced by the increasing number of dropouts and increasing stress of corporations and need to make money. Individualism was rubbed into conformism in the attempt to make one patriotic American citizen. It is thought that today we are more individualistic, but the reality may be that Adam Smith may merely have taken center place today, and contemporary conformism centers around money.

Other differences include the shift from nation to individual. In Mann's days the individual existed for the purpose of a common end, and, accordingly, education demanded absolute obedience, attention, and conformism from the individual. He (and it usually was a 'he'), along with others, was slotted into one mold that passed through the furnace and was expected to emerge alike, the purpose being to bring pride and contribution to his country. Today, it is widely acclaimed that the country exists for the individual not the reverse, and huge emphasis is placed on seeking out the individual as qua individual and helping him recognize and use his unique characteristics. We have made almost a total -- if not a total -- U-turn.

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Interestingly enough, the focus of assimilation has changed, too. In Mann's days it was unthinkable for sexes and races to commingle in equal education. Mann's objective of commingling of classes was perhaps the initial step on the route to commingling of far more and severance of far more than class. Today the objective is on desegregation of races and, to that end, we can say that Mann and the Workingmen were the harbinger of this fashion.

Simplistic it seems to us when we see the goals of high schools of those days. These included the belief that a high school education would lead to obedience of the law; that a high school education would undercut the potential for a political revolution; and that high school would result in reduction of crime by teaching moral values. As witnessed from contemporary proclivity of crime in academic institutions nationwide, these theories certainly have not taken root. Mann and his workingmen would have been scandalized by the Berkeley riots in the '60s and would be unable to understand today's rampant atmosphere of delinquency and crime in high schools across the country. Nonetheless, one vision has remained true: high schools do promote the idea that achievement depends on individual responsibility. And the Common School founded by Mann and his workingmen, was the first step to break boundaries between class, race, and gender.

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