The History of Education in America
During the 1880’s, America education system lead the world. America’s education system was first was highly decentralized. There was no national agency dictating school curriculum or even school structure. This model followed the ingenuity of America’s federalism system as it allows multiple ideas or systems to develop at the same time. Thus, America’s education system flourished as different communities set up schools that meet the needs of their respective children. This differed from the European model, where only the rich children could go to the nationally-based education program.
This highly adaptable system allowed several important developments. The first was the advent of Middle Schools. Middle schools were originally designed to give those kids who wouldn’t go onto high school the necessary skills in order to survive in real life. Thus, middle school focused on many practical classes including home financing. Once high school became more mainstream the schools adapted to prepare students for success at this level. However, the federalist system that allowed for such freedom of adaptability has fallen victim to the balance between freedom and equality. With these freedom, the equality of the schools started to diminish as many suburban schools became very successful, but the urban or rural schools fell behind their peers. It was this very lack of national restrictions that led to the achievement gap.
Hawaii’s education system existed before the arrival of the United States federalist system. King Kamehameha III set up the same centralized system that Hawaii has today. This centralized system avoided the inequality of funding issues that plagued many mainland states. However, this pro is countered by the con that it yields a highly bureaucratic system that eschews family and community involvement with the schools. Governor Linda Lingle has tried to decentralize this system, however she has been stopped by the democratic congress.
According to Historical Development and Outlook document, Hawaii’s education system started with the Missionaries who set up the basic framework of a state-wide school system. King Kamehameha III formalized this in the centralized system and set forth a number of laws. One of these laws was that teachers had to be women. I think limiting to the process of instruction to women I think has contributed to the lack of appreciation of education today. Hawaii represents a very masculine culture, and the fact that education was deemed a second-tier profession I think has lead to a cultural lack of appreciation of education. However, this is just a theory based on a very limited experience with Hawaii culture applied to a few key historical facts.
Hunt, James R., Hawaii Department of Education. Historical Development and Outlook, 1969, Washington, D. C
http://iws.punahou.edu/user/JStevens/project/2006/06/history_of_hawaii_education.html
Claudia Goldin, A Brief History of Education in the United States, NBER Historical Working Paper No. 119, August 1999
