Reflection on Part Two: 1900-1950, As American As Public School

New Jersey City University

Department of Literacy Education

Going Public: Literacy and History of American Education 

Class Assignment

             In class, we were paired in three groups to reflect from the reading of Part Two: 1900-1950, As American As Public School to speak about what we agree, argue, assume, and aspire and our reason why. Based off the group reflections, there were very good points of what students chose as what was the most important to the least important of what matters to their four A’s (agree, argue, assume, and aspire) from the reading.

During the 1900-1950, America had many immigrants living in the country to become Americanize and being successful in the public schools. Many of these immigrants had to be divided due to the lack of education based off their living conditions. It is upsetting to know that during those times in the beginning stages when public schools where trying to figure out what would work best for all students, they would divide students into different categories of 20 percent of students would be pared for higher education, another 20 percent should be pared for skilled work, and the remaining 60 percent would get a life adjustment education, which is a program that is focused on basic skills of everyday living, such as family life and consumer choices. This type of setup would only give a small percentage a better advantage of having not only a better education but also better job opportunities. Many students left school early due to the lack of encouragement from family and the school system and just work in factory jobs being that school was not in their suit of specialties.

Many students in class had agree that the educational curriculum status was not fair and unequal to many young students. Most of the educational curriculum was based off I.Q. testing starting from the age of 5 years old. When the child reach age 10 whatever I.Q. that child had would determine their lifestyle because at that age their I.Q. would stabilize for life. Having these I.Q. testing to determine a child intelligence was just unfair for all students because it did not give any of them an equal chance to wanting to become successful. Only those who scored high had the most advantages of having better privileges then those who scored low. Most of the students that scored low were immigrants who could not speak English well. Most teachers would already know that students who had problems with speaking English would not get far in life in being successful. What aspired me and I thought could had gone far was the Gary Plan because it was met for all students to have more of an active learning. Students would not only just sit for hours in a class but they would also have the opportunity to have more engaging subjects that leads to practical learning. The Gary Plan was set up to have students be more active and have more of an open mind for other opportunities that was out there and it would lead them to being more prepared and obtaining a job. The work-study-play as what they summarized it would have implemented perfectly and got many of the American immigrants a wider opportunity in life to succeed if America would had agreed to that plan.