PART 1: Awakening the Progressive Giant
I wrote a paper on the topic of public education for a class a couple years ago, which I am heavily excerpting from for this article. The main purpose is to explain some of the 19th Century factors that went into the whole-hog acceptance of compulsory public education, and a little bit of analysis of how to roll some of this back. Part 1 addresses the religious circumstances in the 19th Century that led to compulsory public school. Part 2 will address the secular circumstances leading to compulsory schooling. Part 3 addresses implementation of compulsory schooling and the effects on society. Part 4 will address long term effects and rolling back compulsory schooling.
The Second Great Awakening
In the early 19th century, the United States was going through a massive theological change. The nation was in the midst of the Second Great Awakening, and revivals swept the countryside. These revivals led to the growth of Methodist and Baptist evangelical denominations throughout the country. One of the doctrines of major importance in this Awakening was the doctrine of postmillennialism.
While postmillennialism is not popular in today’s church, it was a major part of antebellum Protestant doctrine. Postmillennialism taught that Jesus’ second coming would occur after a millennium of peace and justice, which had to be initiated by the Christians. Therefore, these evangelicals worked to root out conflict and injustice, such as slavery and moral decay. The clergy found themselves walking a fine line between destroying the unity of the nation that they believed would bring a millennium of peace and justice and actually promoting that peace and justice. If they pushed too hard on slavery, it would result in the dissolution of the Union, but if they didn’t push hard enough, there would still be societal sin in slavery.
As it turned out, they could not achieve this balance, and the evangelicals largely took the side of the Union during the Civil War. Some ministers, however, condemned this secular and religious concept of America’s perfectibility as idolatry, and tried to steer those impulses toward the betterment of the Church. Although the Civil War and the friction between different ministerial factions slowed down the revivalist nature of the Second Great Awakening, it also laid the foundation for the Social Gospel movement of the late 19th century.
The Social Gospel
The Social Gospel was an evolution from the postmillennialist Second Great Awakening toward the idea that churches were responsible for social action and the eradication of societal ills. This Social Gospel was not particularly theologically deep and was primarily a codification of New England liberalism with an appeal to “teachings of Jesus.” The Social Gospel was, in a sense, a mix of the prophesies of the Bible with the burgeoning public understanding of the science of evolution and its application to societal progress.
In order to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth, and specifically in America, Social Gospel preachers such as Baptist pastor Walter Rauschenbusch believed that the nation needed a spiritual regeneration. The initial push of the Social Gospel movement was government-neutral, but the movement evolved. By the second generation, which was defined by the temperance issue, the Social Gospel had come around to using government for its advantage. Rauschenbusch recognized the change that was afflicting his movement. He saw the tendency of the Social Gospel to drift away from its mooring and eventually secularize as they gained wider acceptance. He warned against the movement sagging down “from evangelical religion to humanitarian morality.”
However, despite his best efforts to prevent it, the Christian-led Social Gospel already had cracks of secularism forming. The Southern Progressives united their message with the Social Gospel being preached in the South, relying on the religiosity of southerners as a connection between faith and politics. As those sympathetic to the Social Gospel waded into secularism through the Progressive movement, they put the Christian revival and spiritual betterment of society on the back burner. The Progressive Era had been born, a secular manifestation of the populist energy that had been created by the Social Gospel, the muckraking labor movement, and Teddy Roosevelt’s trust busting.
The Social Gospelers were one voice among many in the Progressive movement, and the Progressives’ ideas gradually transformed away from the Social Gospel due to the “irrational hatreds of certain groups such as foreigners.” This was, in part, due to a second side of the Progressive movement, the Social Darwinists.
(to be cont’d… Same Bat-time. Same Bat-channel.)
Comments
40 responses to “A History Of American Public Education: Part 1 of 4”
Postmillennialism is weird. And hard to spell.
I had postmillennialism all lined up for when the Millennials cut their beards and stop getting tattoos.
Good stuff. Thanks.
Wait a serious article? Shit, where’s the fainting couch?
You’re rapidly becoming SP’s favorite person, you know.
*Wipes away tear*
Well done, garbage man. This it a great piece.
(And I know the other theee parts are solid, as I got to see them before anybody else did.)
Can’t wait to see the discussion.
Elitist! Can’t wait for the other 3 parts.
Sloop since others here have made some requests as to the build out here I am emboldened to do the same.
What do you think about a back to the top button and the end of the thread ?
What do you think about me being beaten by my wife if I ask her to do “just one more thing” for no pay?
Depends on the nature of that relationship, I suppose.
Really though, Great work to all of you. I will be chipping in when money becomes not tight.
I will be chipping in when A. you take bitcoin or B. you have a 501c3.
Home key does the same thing.
I’ve heard that American children only have homework thanks to Sputnik, I haven’t done the digging to support it. Can anyone confirm that?
I remember laying on a chaise lounge with my parents watching Sputnik go by in the night sky. I also remember that the Russians were beating us in education. Whether that’s why we had homework, I can’t say.
I may be jumping the gun here, but did the mass immigration of Germans in the mid 19th century, and subsequent immigration of eastern and southern European populations in the late 1800’s play into this?
I get that the Progressive movement was the secularization of the old Yankee puritanism. Just curious how Jewish and Catholic immigration could have contributed? Were progressives hostile toward non-protestant populations?
Looking forward to the following parts.
You’re gonna love part 2! BTW, the title of my research paper was Tempted by the Tree of Knowledge: Progressive Era Protestants’ Anti-Catholic Push for Compulsory Education
Was the research paper for a college class or for publication?
College class. The good ones were supposed to be groomed for publication in a law journal, but some things *cough*prostitutes*cough* got in the way of the prof teaching the class to conclusion.
He taught a liberal arts class and couldn’t get a couple of college groupies instead of hookers? Revoke tenure immediately.
Well done. Public schools are my biggest reason to home school.
Okay, the public schools are the second biggest reason. The charter schools in my area are hardly better and, as soon as I can afford it, he’s going to private school.
Good stuuf, Trsh.
…shameful. I can spell.
OT: So, was reading through reason comments today, and it seems that most of the names are new or new-ish. Is this where all the cool kids left to comment?
Yep.
11:24am Central Time: 330 comments at these her AM links; 109 at the other site.
Yea, noticed that as well. Thought they might be all getting ready for some raucous President’s Day celebrations.
Let us simply enjoy this site, and not worry about others…
Don’t mention the war!
Ha ha, just having a little fun.
I mentioned the war a little bit, but I think I got away with it all right.
Cool Kids.
Another great contribution trshmnstr, how much do you guys think it would cost to get Dan Carlin to do the voice over?
Look forward to the rest. Don’t wanna jump ahead with questions.
Same here. I want to see if Hoarce Mann figures into the next volumes, if at all.
There is some light treatment of Horace Mann, but I wrote the paper on more of a movement level. I also think that a trained monkey could’ve taken Mann’s place, and the populist movement would still have dragged compulsory education across the finish line.
Can’t wait to see the rest.
COMMENT
This sounds strangely familiar
This looks REALLY familiar.
Was the paper you’re using as a basis published or am I suffering from timeslip or deja vu?
Unless you’re one of two people, you’ve never seen this content before. The only people who have seen it are my prof and a friend who helped me proofread it.
YOU’RE A LIAR11!!
Sloopy commented above he’s read the whole thing.
When are you gonna post the rest ?
Sloopy commented above he’s read the whole thing.
When are you gonna post the rest ?
He only thinks he has! There are 35 pages he hasn’t read yet. Granted, they’re much more boring and theologically focused.
The other three parts should be going up at the same time in the next 3 days, I believe.