Origins of the Urban School: Public Education in Massachusetts, 1870-1915 (A Publication of the Joint Center for Urban Studies of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University)

Confronted by a rapidly-changing urban-industrial society between 1870 and 1915, educators in ten Massachusetts cities implemented reforms to make the public school a more relevant institution. Marvin Lazerson relates these reforms to those made in similar urban areas and to their ultimate impact on contemporary education. He studies the two-fold burden imposed upon education: 1) the assimilation of masses of immigrants and 2) the preparation of manpower for an industrial economy. Then he discusses the various reforms which were introduced—kindergartens, manual training, vocational education, evening schools, and citizenship instruction. While these changes transformed the schools, the author maintains that by 1900 the consensus was that they had not eliminated the problems of the city or industry. He probes the resulting questions which were raised and analyzes their answers. Contents Introduction Acknowledgments I The Burden of Urban Education II The Kindergarten: Childhood and Social Reform Ill Manual Training: The Search for an Ideology IV Manual Training and the Restoration of Social Values V From the Principles of Work to the Teaching of Trades VI The Politics of Vocationalism VII Vocationalism and Equality of Educational Opportunity VIII The Quest for Citizenship IX The Shape of Urban Education: A Retrospect Bibliographic Note Index Lazerson Marvin : Marvin Lazerson is the Howard P. and Judith R. Berkowitz Professor at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania.