home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Newsgroups: misc.education
- Path: sparky!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!torn!csd.unb.ca!UNBVM1.CSD.UNB.CA
- From: Don Soucy <AB47@UNB.CA>
- Subject: Re: School choice
- Message-ID: <21AUG92.00029767.0065@UNBVM1.CSD.UNB.CA>
- Lines: 37
- Sender: usenet@UNB.CA
- Organization: The University of New Brunswick
- References: <9g28oB2w164w@incam.new-orleans.la.us> <exukjb.80.713804906@exu.ericsson.se> <1992Aug17.053150.11871@src.umd.edu> <1992Aug20.215145.733@clipper.ingr.com>
- Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 04:01:39 GMT
-
- In article <1992Aug20.215145.733@clipper.ingr.com> ald@clipper.ingr.com (Al Date) writes:
- >In article <1992Aug17.053150.11871@src.umd.edu> tedwards@src.umd.edu (Thomas Grant Edwards) writes:
- >
- >>I don't believe that the U.S. would be be able to educate all of its
- >>kids by eradicating public education. But I'm not sure. There is only
- >>one way to find out, try it.
- >>
- >
- >We already did. It was called the 19th Century. The literacy rate
- >was fairly stable at 90% throughout the century, in spite of the
- >addition of millions of impoverished immigrants, many of whom
- >didnt speak a word of English.
- >
- >The Lancaster Schools are an interesting historical
- >example of innovative education accomplished at low cost.
- >The basic idea was that the older kids
- >learned how to teach certain subjects to the younger ones. This
- >reduced the number of teachers required. Of course, the public
- >schools wont have any of this, as they are run by the NEA.
- >
- - The Lancaster schools (also known as Bell, Madras, or
- monitorial system) was built on rote learning and regimentation.
- That is how monitors were able to "teach" their charges, who in
- turn were able to pass on what they memorized to other students
- below them. Interesting, yes -- but certainly not a solution
- we would want to resort to.
-
- >Public schools did not become universal and compulsory until
- >the early 20th Century. Prior to that time, public schools were
- >the exception rather than the rule.
- >
- > - Depends where you are taliking about and how you define
- "universal." For much of the eastern U.S. and Canada, common
- / public schools were the rule by the 1860s.
- >.
- >.
-
-