20th Century Classrooms In the United States

Schools

In the early 1900s wealthy children attended private academies. Class sizes were small, with only about three or four pupils in each grade.  One teacher taught several grades in just one room.  In the private schools, girls and boys were not together. They went to separate academies.

Public were free and mostly attended by the kids who were not rich.  Boys and girls were at the same school. There was a class for each grade level with about 20 to 30 kids in each class.

Girls learned reading, spelling, history, arithmetic, geography and penmanship. Some learned manners and dancing, French, drawing and how to walk and act like young ladies.

In public schools, the kids did something wrong, the teachers would hit them with paddles or rulers, or box their ears. Some students could not go to school because they had families to work for.

Segregation

In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the U.S. Supreme Court decided that a Louisiana law mandating separate but equal accommodations for blacks and whites on intrastate railroads was constitutional. This decision provided the legal foundation to justify many other actions by state and local governments to socially separate blacks and whites.

Segregation

In 1954, the case of Brown v. Board of Education there were several black children who sought admission to public schools that had segregation based on race. The students claimed that segregation was unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Accommodating Student’s Needs

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 allowed students to request accommodations.

The Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 brought more attention forward to the needs of students. Students with disabilities were accommodated in classrooms, which changed most classroom dynamics.

TechnologyTechnology was not used in early schools of the United States. Only recently in history (since 1963) have we had the use of computers in our schools through the Vocational Education Act.

In 1975, a few Apple 1 PCs are donated to schools, some schools refused the use of minicomputers.3

By 1986, 25% of high schools use PCs for college and career guidance, K-8 schools buying mostly Apple II and Macintosh computers.

1995 was the year when the Internet and the world wide web began to catch on as businesses, schools, and individuals create web pages; most CAI is delivered on CD-ROM disks and is growing in popularity.

Technology

Technology has caught on since the schools of the early 1900s.

Most schools provide laptops to students in grades 7-12.

You all have laptops.

CreditsSchools Slide 1: http://library.thinkquest.org/J002606/early1900s.html

Segregation Slide 2: http://www1.american.edu/bgriff/H207web/civrights/plessyvfergusoncourt.jpg http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/plessy/plessy.html

Segregation Slide 3: http://www.lawnix.com/cases/brown-board-education.html

Accommodation Slide 4: http://frank.mtsu.edu/~pvpaa/ada/adaleg.htm http://www.tndisability.org/about_coalition

Technology Slide 5: http://www.csulb.edu/~murdock/histofcs.html

Technology Slide 6: http://bindapple.com/macbook-pro-2/