The+One+Best+System+Part+V+217-268


 * Return to Reading Response and Discussion**


 * The One Best System Part V 217-268**


 * Summary:**

In addition to discrimination against blacks and the immigrant's fight to preserve their cultures, women teachers in the late 1800's became increasingly determined to win over equal rights against male teachers. The one best system still was shaping and reshaping to become that true system where everyone benefits educationally. However, problems naturally arose between school authority who wanted the classroom setting to be one of a factory and teachers who believed the school system is a democracy and the students should be given the opportunity to learn in a free environment. One principal enforced that the students be very afraid of their instructors and highly respect them, standing up to speak and sitting back down when finished. Many teachers, however, believed that they should be like a friend to the students; to give them an education that was free of strict discipline and more of a desirable environment. "Two ideals were struggling for supremacy in American life: one the industrial ideal, dominating through the supremacy of commercialism, which subordinates the worker to the product and the machine; the other, the ideal of democracy, the ideal of the educators, which places humanity above all machines, and demands that all activity shall be the expression of life" (Tyack 257). Many teachers felt that if the teacher is bound to a strict code of instructing rules, then how can the child grow as an individual and be free to form their own opinions.

This problem of deciding what should constitute the one best system came into play along with many other obstacles during this time. The low pay of teachers was one of the many problems in the educational system. Especially for women, unskilled municipal laborers on the street and sewer work earned more in a year than beginning teachers" (Tyack 258). But not for long, soon came the reform movement of women whose determination aided them in the fight against the belief of the time that women were inferior to men.

Margaret Haley, organizer of the Chicago Teachers' Federation (CTF)

"When a number of black educators bitterly attacked such acquiescence to racism, they were joined by a few white allies who refused to believe that the promise of American education did not extend to Negroes. Indeed, such leaders believed that the victimization of blacks presented an agenda for reform, not of education alone but of the entire society" (Tyack 217). MR, KB
 * Key Passages:**

"Again and again blacks expressed ... their sense of rejection in schools dominated by a white power structure over which they had little influence ... Segregation was a denial of democracy and could produce only unending hatred and conflict" (Tyack 228) MR, KB

"In order to achieve at even modest levels in an urban-industrial society citizens need to acquire certain kinds of common competence: to manipulate language and numbers, to follow clock time, to fill out forms and thread bureaucratic processes, to learn styles of thinking and affective expression congruent with the demands of complicated, interdependent society." (Tyack 235) SM

"Many observers, commented that the position of parents and children were becoming reversed, as fathers and mothers depended for guidance on the young, who knew English and could interpret the workings of American society." (Tyack 237) SM

"To be sure, school people did make adjustments in the system to fit immigrants' children in certain ways: steamer classes for older children who did not speak English, a new stress on hygiene and civics, new opportunities for after-school recreation and continuation schooling for example. But by and large they believed that the child had to fit the system, and that when whole ethnic groups were misfits, they should shape up." (Tyack 254) SM

"Two ideals are struggling for supremacy in American life today: one the industrial ideal, dominating thru the supremacy of commercialism, which subordinates the worker to the product and the machine; the other, the ideal of deomocracy, the ideal of the educators, which places humanity above all machines and demands that all activity shall be the expression of life."(NP,GB)

"It is woman's natural field and she is no longer satisfied to do the greatest part of the work and yet be denied the leadership."(NP,GB)

Students of the early nineteenth century "who had not passed the seventh grade by reason of mental retardation" (Tyack 220) MR, KB
 * Important Terminology:**
 * __"Retarted"__**

The act of combining white and black children together in schools (MR, KB)
 * __Integration__** p 228

The act of separating white and black individuals on the basis of race (MR, KB)
 * __Segregation__**

Is the modernization of immigrants to the behaviors and beliefs that Americans have been living by during the past century. Many schools adopted this idea in the early 1900s. It was supposed to make America into one cohesive ethnic community. (SM)
 * __Americanization__**

Is a term used to express the ideals of Americanization. It means to make the people of America as one. (SM)
 * __e pluribus unum__**

A good example of this type of school is Leonard Covello's school, which Tyack mentions. Covello's school brought the school system and the immigrant community together in order to help the students and their family feel like proud Americans, but at the same time still making them proud of their heritage. (SM)
 * __Ethnic parochial school__**

__**Contadino**__ The average South Italian immigrant, this also meant peasant. (SM)

__**Chicago Teachers Federation (CTF)**__ Fought for higer salaries, pensions, and tenure; opposed administrative centralization of power and worked to establish teachers' councils. (NP,GB)

Organized by Kate Hogan, the IAWT won important allies among labor unions, the mass media, womens association, civic and religous leaders, and most important, politicians in the city and in the state legislature. (NP,GB)
 * __Interborough Association of Women Teachers (IAWT)__**


 * Discussion Guiding Questions:**
 * 1. "Should schools prepare Negro students for careers not yet open to them? If they did not, how could blacks ever extend their scope of employment? Was it the task of schoolmen to fight racism in the community?" (Tyack 224**) MR, KB


 * 2. Do you agree with the idea that separate buildings for Negros and black children was a positive idea as it would have given "better opportunity [for the colored child] to move at its own rate of progress... [and enable] the Board of Education to give employment to a group of deserving members of the colored race" p227** (MR, KB)


 * 3. Do you believe that the growing numbers of immigrants during the 1900 greatly shaped the school system we have today? And if so, how? (SM)**


 * 4. Is it the responsibilty of the teacher to conform the immigrant child into American society? If yes, what's the best way to do this without breaking down the child's heritage? (SM)**


 * 5. "How can the child learn to be a free and responsible citizen if the teacher is bound?"(Tyack 257-258)**(NP,GB)


 * 6. "How can an autocratic school teach the process of democracy?"(Tyack 258)** (NP,GB)