[Editor’s Note: This is the 40th in a series of blogs that examine how education developed throughout history until the present. Links to previous blogs are included at the bottom of the post.]
In 1906, the National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education (NSPIE) was formed and became an influential voice in the progressive movement for practical education. Though founded by educators who supported a manual training philosophy, the society was initially supported by business and industry leaders who wanted to link education to employment. The NSPIE soon became involved in advocating for trade schools that would prepare students for industrial and manufacturing jobs. Enrollment was elective, but it wasn’t long before advocates started arguing that students lacking an academic interest or aptitude be channeled into these schools.
Not everyone was pleased with this new development. The policy of maintaining a separate educational system for non-college-bound students flew in the face of the common school idea of moral equality for all students, as well as the curricular equality proposed by the Committee of Ten. In addition, many feared an educational system dominated by business interests, a fear that turned out to be founded when many industrial high schools hired a private board responsive to employers’ needs, not the students.
The idea of separate boards for industrial schools began to spread. In Chicago during the 1910s, it was even named the “Cooley plan” after Edwin G. Cooley, a former city superintendent who advocated such boards. However, education and labor leaders alike opposed the plan, feeling it would permit the public schools to be dominated by a single group’s interests and, ultimately, it wouldn’t help the students, the working class, or society at large. The plan was soundly defeated, and the momentum toward establishing trade schools ground to a halt. Curricular differentiation, though, remained a dominant issue for the next 10 years.
Next week: Vocational Education
To read part 1: Introduction, click here.
To read part 2: Purpose of education, click here.
To read part 3: Prehistory to pre-industrial, click here.
To read part 4: Mesopotamia and the Sumerians, click here.
To read part 5: Ancient Egypt, click here.
To read part 6: Ancient Greece and Rome, click here.
To read part 7: The Greek philosophers, click here.
To read part 8: China, click here.
To read part 9: The Olmecs and the Maya, click here.
To read part 10: The Islamic World: Basics, click here.
To read part 11: The Islamic World: The Golden Age, click here.
To read part 12: The Renaissance, click here.
To read part 13: American Educational System Overview, click here.
To read part 14: European Influences, Jon Amos Comenius, click here.
To read part 15, European Influences, Froebel, click here.
To read part 16, European Influences, Herbart, click here.
To read part 17, European Influences, Herbert Spencer, click here.
To read part 18, Colonial Period, Puritans, click here.
To read part 19, Colonial Period, New England Books, click here.
To read part 20, Colonial Period, Massachusetts Education Laws, click here.
To read part 21, Colonial Period, Harvard College, click here.
To read part 22, Early National Period, Benjamin Franklin, click here.
To read part 23, Early National Period, Benjamin Rush, click here.
To read part 24, Early National Period, Thomas Jefferson, click here.
To read part 25, Early National Period, Noah Webster, click here.
To read part 26, Early National Period, Educational Ordinances, click here.
To read part 27, Early National Period, Dartmouth College/Yale Report, click here.
To read part 28, Common School Period, Horace Mann, click here.
To read part 29, Common School Period, Mary Lyon and Mount Holyoke College, click here.
To read part 30, Common School Period, McGuffey Readers, click here.
To read part 31, Common School Period, Catholic vs. Protestant Education, click here.
To read part 32, Common School Period, Compulsory Education, click here.
To read part 33, Common School Period, African American Education, click here.
To read part 34, Common School Period, National Education Association, click here.
To read part 35, Common School Period, Morrill Land Grant Acts, click here.
To read part 36, Common School Period Wrap-Up, click here.
To read part 37, Leadership in Transition, click here.
To read part 38, A Time of Reform, click here.
To read part 39, School Choice and Structure, click here.
Source:
[1] Urban, Wayne J., Wagoner Jr., Jennings L., and Gaither, Milton. American Education: A History, 6th edition. Routledge: New York, 2019, pp. 178-179.
