Some Thoughts on Chapter 4 of The American School

One of the most prominent arguments for the common school was that the children would be educated in a common school house to create a common culture and reduce class conflict.  I completely understand this argument because educating them with the same political and social ideology should help them to have the same ideals.  However I couldn't help but wonder if there was ever hostility between social groups stemming from the common school or if teaching common beliefs ever made topics more controversial.  If the children were all taught the same ideology in the common school they still had to come home to their families that could have had completely different ideologies.  It seems to relate to what happens in schools today.  A child can be taught something in school that their parents disagree with.  It is often shown that even though a child may rebel in adolescence they often times in the long run follow the ideology of their parents.  The point I am trying to make is that if the student and their family doesn't agree with some of the ideas taught in the school then they will be less likely to learn from them. I find it intriguing that the common school movement had the "belief that human nature can be formed shaped, and given direction by training within formally organized institutions."  I believe this is true but only to some extent because it is not only institutions that form human nature. When people study adolescent development they often look at Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory.  This theory talks about how development is influenced by several environmental systems. For instance the micro-system which directly affects the adolescent is made up of elements like their school, family, and peers.  So the belief of the common school in order to create a single ideology seems impossible to me.  It appears that while schooling can solve a lot of problems it involves a lot of other aspects to change someones ideals.  I would assume if the students are taught common ideals at school and if the families have different ideals from each other this would cause some controversy and inconsistency for the students. Does anyone else see how teaching common beliefs could maybe create tension?

The other part of the chapter which I found interesting was the challenges Mann faced regarding the decisions about religion in education.  It certainly was a thin line to walk in fear of not making people mad.  On one hand he did not want to be opposed to religion in education in fear of being called anti-religious.  But on the other hand if he was linking religion to education he had to choose which religion it would be based off of.  Religion in schools was very important to many people of this time.  So it was obvious that he had to figure out how to add religion into the school teachings. I look at this and think how different it is from our schooling today.  If we had to reintroduce religion into schools today it would be an uproar and is impossible.  It just demonstrates how far we've come in education and how it has differed.

Santrock, John W. (2012). Adolescence. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.