Colleges and Public Education Changes in the Late 1800s

Less than half of American children attended school.
Schools were often one-room schoolhouses with a single teacher for all eight grades.
Rural students often attended only part of the year due to farm work during planting and harvest.
Most students spent about four years in school.
Few students pursued high school or university education.

Reformers believed education was key to a better future and success in the industrial world.
Advocated for lengthening the school year and increasing mandatory attendance.
Between 1865 and 1895, 31 states passed laws requiring 12-16 weeks of school attendance per year for children ages 8-14.
By 1900, nearly 75% of American children in that age range were in school.

More children began attending school at a younger age and staying longer.
The first kindergarten in the U.S. was founded in Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1856.
The first English-language kindergarten opened in Boston in 1859.
By 1900, there were 3,000 kindergartens across the country.
By 1900, most Northern states had mandatory attendance laws through the 6th grade.

The Freedmen's Bureau established schools for freed slaves after the Civil War.
Many schools were segregated or closed during the Reconstruction era.
Remaining schools had poor facilities, materials, and untrained teachers.
In 1880, about 62% of white children and 34% of black children in the South attended school.

Public schools were seen as a way to assimilate immigrants.
Classes were taught in English, and rapid language acquisition was expected.
Some immigrant groups established parochial or church-sponsored schools to maintain religious training.
School days typically ran from 8 AM to 4 PM, focusing on reading, math, and English.
McGuffey's Eclectic Reader was a common textbook that taught reading along with moral values.

High schools became more popular in the late 1800s.
The number of high schools increased from 800 in 1878 to 5,500 in 1898.
Over half a million students were in high school at the turn of the century.
Curriculum expanded to include science, civics, home economics, history, and literature.
Vocational courses like drafting, carpentry, mechanics, and office skills were added.
African Americans were often excluded from public high schools; by 1910, about 3% of African American teens were in schools, often private.

Only a small percentage (2.3%) of young people attended colleges or universities at the turn of the century.
Most college students came from middle or upper-class backgrounds.
Colleges primarily prepared men for business or professional careers.
Between 1880 and 1900, over 150 new colleges were founded.
College enrollment quadrupled by 1920.
Curriculum shifted from classical languages, philosophy, theology, and mathematics to modern languages, engineering, economics, physical science, psychology, and sociology.
Law and medicine schools grew in number.

Wealthy industrialists founded research universities.
Leland and Jane Stanford founded Stanford University with a $21,000,000$ donation.
John D. Rockefeller donated $34,000,000$ to start the University of Chicago and continued to donate over $80,000,000$ over his lifetime.

Some state universities in the Midwest and California began admitting students with high school diplomas without entrance exams.
Several schools were opened for African American students, including Howard, Atlanta, Fisk Universities, and Hampton Institute (between 1865 and 1868).
These schools could not supply enough graduates to serve the African American community despite charitable contributions.
In 1900, there were about $9,200,000$ African Americans in the U.S., but only $3,880$ had graduated from colleges.
In 1910, about 1% of African Americans attended college compared to 5% of the white community.

W.E.B. Dubois was the first African American to graduate from Harvard University with a doctoral degree in 1895.
Dubois advocated for a liberal arts education for African Americans to ensure equality.
Booker T. Washington, a graduate of Hampton Institute, founded the Tuskegee Institute in 1881.
Washington emphasized teaching African Americans skills in agriculture, mechanics, and domestic work.
Washington believed that African Americans needed to work hard to show the white community that they had needed skills, and in time they would be accepted as equal with the whites.

The number of adults seeking education grew rapidly.
Immigrants attended night school to learn English and American history for citizenship.
Employers like Henry Ford offered English classes at his factories.
Ford's "sociology department" aimed to teach workers American ways, the English language, and the "right way to live."
Union activists viewed Ford's efforts as brainwashing to discourage unionization.

A Methodist minister started a summer Bible camp in Chautauqua, New York, in 1874.
It expanded to include non-religious subjects like art, politics, and philosophy.
By the 1880s, 75,000 people attended each summer.
The camp hosted presidents and societal reformers.
Traveling companies reached over 5,000,000 people in 10,000 towns annually by 1903.
The Chautauqua Society's programs became important in American adult education.

In the late 1800s, more children attended school for longer periods.
Curriculum expanded beyond basic skills.
More young adults pursued higher education.
Adults gained skills for work and personal life, moving American society into the twentieth century.