History of Public Education ((4 Credits))

Catalog description

This course provides an overview of the struggle for public education in the United States from the 18th century to the present. This struggle has been the means by which new groups – wage earners, slaves, women, immigrants and others–pursued and won inclusion into an expanded (and still expanding) body of citizens in the US. By insisting upon and gaining access to public education, they helped secure their own claims to equality and created new opportunities for advancement for themselves and their descendants. The nature and effect of these struggles, the education opportunities created and lost, as well as the challenges we face educating the next generation of citizens, are central concerns of this course.