President John F. Kennedy
A black and white photograph of Barnas Sears, an educator and agent from the Peabody Education Fund."Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength of the nation."
President John F. Kennedy
A black and white photograph of Barnas Sears, an educator and agent from the Peabody Education Fund.A photograph of Benjamin W. Arnett, an African-American minister, elected official, and educator.
Though Benjamin W. Arnett was born a free man, he still did not receive the equal education that white children did. He resolved to change this when he was elected to the Ohio General Assembly in 1885. It made him the first African-American to represent a majorly white constituency. He introduced legislation to repeal laws that limited the resources and opportunities for African-Americans. He succeeded in his goals in 1887, when Ohio’s statues regarding education were changed. Ohio was then required to offer equal education for all children, regardless of race.
William Torrey Harris
1906
William Harris was superintendent of schools in Missouri from 1868 to 1880, and during his time he made many radical changes that are still there today. After establishing the first permanent kindergarten in 1873, he went on to expand the other end of education by making high school an essential institution to the individual. High schools would now also include music, art, scientific studies and every high school was required to have a library. As he expanded the public school curriculum, his schools became considered the best in the country. For students who had difficulty learning English, he helped fund the Simplified Spelling Board which made the language easier to learn. He would later on become the United States Commissioner of Education and continue these ideas in schools across the country.
]]>"The great purpose of school can be realized better in dark, airless, ugly places ... It is to master the physical self, to transcend the beauty of nature. School should develop the power to withdraw from the external world."
William Torrey Harris
1906
William Harris was superintendent of schools in Missouri from 1868 to 1880, and during his time he made many radical changes that are still there today. After establishing the first permanent kindergarten in 1873, he went on to expand the other end of education by making high school an essential institution to the individual. High schools would now also include music, art, scientific studies and every high school was required to have a library. As he expanded the public school curriculum, his schools became considered the best in the country. For students who had difficulty learning English, he helped fund the Simplified Spelling Board which made the language easier to learn. He would later on become the United States Commissioner of Education and continue these ideas in schools across the country.
Growing up in a rural farm in Gary, Indiana, William Wirt believed that this upbringing was as elementary to education as many teachings, so when he saw the urbanization movement heading towards students, he implemented a new plan to teaching. It was called the work-study-play system, and it divided students above the primary grades into two platoons – one platoon used the academic classrooms, while the second platoon was divided between the shops, nature studies, auditorium, gymnasium, and outdoor facilities. Also known as the Gary plan, this system ensured school equipment was used all day and was designed to develop the intellectual, manual, and recreational skills of the children. In the early twentieth century, the Gary plan took off in public schools across the nation, ensuring that students learned the values of work, family, and productivity. Gary, Indiana itself had increased population and enrollment due to the success of the plan, and thus gained new buildings, staff, and funding for their schools. In 1925, the National Association for the Study of the Platoon or Work-Study-Play School Organization was founded to help spread the plan across the world to England and Japan.
A black and white photograph of students with their teacher at the Peachland school.
Though schools were still important in the 1920’s, many of them still were kept to one room for one class and one grade. This was because of a lack of a sufficient enough population to warrant anything bigger. For this particular school, it had a back room, library, and an organ for preacher services on Sundays, but still remained a ‘one-room school’ until the 1950’s. After that, the lumber business in Anderson Valley was thriving, which brought more families in and thus required more room to teach. However, it was still not enough when the population rose again in the 1960’s, resulting in the addition of more buildings for kindergarten classes. Today, the original school now serves as a historical museum to show what a typical one-room school was like.