The Main Provisions Of The 1944 Education Act And 1988 Education Reform Act

Over the last 25 years many policies have been introduced in education. Some critic’s say that an education market has been created but others disagree and say that the policies have helped create equality of opportunity.

Expansion of education is closely related to idealistic views of democracy. In developing and wealthy nations, education is valued because it helps the individual mind to develop capabilities. In contrast, education has also been seen as a way to promote equality. Having access to public education, in theory, has the potential to reduce poverty and promote equality. If all are entitled to the same public education, not to mention they are required by law, why do school systems seem segregate their students? Researchers have searched for the answer and have theorized that economic background, tracking, and hidden curriculum are a few things that help contribute to the imaginary lines drawn between students in society.

The Scopes trial, writes Edward Larson, to most Americans embodies “the timeless debate over science and religion.” (265) Written by historians, judges, and playwrights, the history of the Scopes trial has caused Americans to perceive “the relationship between science and religion in . . . simple terms: either Darwin or the Bible was true.” (265) The road to the trial began when Tennessee passed the Butler Act in 1925 banning the teaching of evolution in secondary schools. It was only a matter of time before a young biology teacher, John T. Scopes, prompted by the ACLU tested the law. Spectators and newspapermen came from allover to witness

On January 20, 1925, a Tennessee state senator named John A. Shelton proposed a bill to make the teaching of evolution in the state’s public schools a felony, or a criminal act. Fundamentalists had been supporting and pushing the passage of laws such as this for years, because the teaching of evolution and Darwinism contradicts the religious beliefs of creation in Christianity. Popular evangelist, Billy Sunday, undertook an eighteen-day crusade in Memphis in support of the prospective bill. Night after night, Sunday’s audiences grew until more than two-hundred thousand people heard him preach against the evils of evolution. The bill, known as the Butler Act, was officially passed on March 21, 1925, just 3 months after its proposal. Just as state legislators suspected, the ink had hardly dried on the Butler Act before its first challenger emerged.

The 1920’s was a time of prosperity and change in the United States, but with change comes disagreements. One of the largest debates during this time period, and still today, was the debate between science and religion. Many people were Christians in America during this time and they believed that the story of how God created the Earth should be taught in public schools. These people were called “fundamentalists.” They believed nothing could compare to or be as powerful as God’s word. The other side to this debate were the Modernists, or the ones who believed in science rather than religion. Modernists wanted to teach the theory of evolution in public schools instead of the Creation story the Fundamentalists believed in (“United States in History”). All of these different opinions led to one of the most famous trials known as the Scopes v. State of Tennessee trial. John Scopes was a substitute teacher in Tennessee who decided to teach the theory of evolution to a science class. Scopes was accused of violating the Butler Act, which states that teaching anything that

Religion and science both face off in ¨The Scopes ‘Monkey’ Trial,” the case that America went “bananas” over. Two men duel to prove their points about evolution and whether it defies state laws or not. The conflict of John T. Scopes defying the Butler Act, an act prohibiting public school teachers from denying Biblical accounts of man’s origin, was temporarily resolved with Scopes being fined, but this compromise was not entirely settled until the Butler Act was repealed years later.

The Education system of England and Wales underwent a number of important changes since 1944. This essay seeks to concentrate on these major changes describing the rationale and impact they had on the British education system.

In the “Monkey Trial” William Jennings Bryan spoke as the leader of the Christian fundamentalist, what him and his followers wanted to do was for the people and court to find out how unfair it was for something that they perceived as “materialistic and anti-religious be taught in the very same classrooms from which all religious instruction had been banned” (Thomas, 2009 p. 25). This situation created a lot of debates among the people. Many things changed in the American public schools that arise because of the evolution theory and religion.

In 1900s about 18 percent of all American workers were under the age of sixteen. The educational reformers of mid-nineteenth century were convicted to be native-born population that an education from the school was a necessity to them. That led to several states to establish minimum wage for labor and a minimal requirement for school attendance.

Educational policies are the rules, guidelines and or boundaries that have shaped my career as student, a teacher and most recently as an educational administrator. Throughout my career I have not questioned always questioned the reasons for the development of these policies. From the readings in this course, I have begun to examine the how and why of policy development and beginning to understand role the policy analysis has in the evaluation of educational policies over time. The role of the state, the role of the individual within the state, changes to political ideologies and the development of globalization have all directly impacted policy development and the directions that education has taken over the last century.

In the 1997 article, “Public Goods, Private Goods: The American Struggle over Educational Goals” by David Labaree, Labaree describes three goals that have been at the core of educational conflicts over the years. The first goal mentioned is democratic equality, which is meant to create good citizens and enable educational access to all. The second goal is social efficiency, which creates workers and is viewed by taxpayers and employers as a goal to prepare students for market roles. Lastly is the third goal of social mobility, where individual success for attractive market roles is the main purpose. This primary goal of education has been ever fluctuating. The argument of this essay is that social mobility has now triumphed over democratic equality and social efficiency as the primary goal of education due to parents. This view of social mobility by parents is negative to due its numerous consequences, significantly the growing disparity between the wealthy and the underprivileged, and additionally, the health of children, their behavior, and the degree to which they learn educational material are all affected.

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), brain child of President Johnson, was passed in 1965. ESEA was intended to mitigate disparities in access to quality academic services and learning outcomes endured by underprivileged and minority students by federally funding schools serving their communities. ESEA, later revised as No Child Left Behind, was to be one element in a larger reform agenda focused on urban redevelopment, vocational training and “EDUCATION AND HEALTH” (Thomas & Brady, 2005). In his 1965 State of the Union, Johnson proclaimed, “No longer will we tolerate widespread involuntary idleness, unnecessary human hardship and misery, the impoverishment of whole areas… ” Nevertheless, this intractable problem remains, as illustrated by recent National Assessment of Educational Progress findings:

The government would now provide education for children from any class from the age of 5 until 13. This act helped children learn to read and write, many who may have never had this opportunity previously. It also gave a broader audience to publishers to create reading material for. Many publishing firms began to establish a juvenile department to print books for this growing audience. This act and the materials being published did not go without criticism.

Bowles and Gintis felt it was important to write this article, because they believe that the politics of education are better understood in terms of the need for social control in an unequal and rapidly changing economic order. This point is illustrated on page 396 when the authors say, “The unequal

There were two changes that happened and established youth as a group with certain needs and problems. The first one was Butler’s education act of 1944, and that raised the school leaving age from 12 to 14. Further changes were made in 1947 raising it to 15 and 16 in 1972. Which meant that it allowed children to go to secondary school. The second change was the development of youth services such as youth clubs, which made these young people do something useful in their leisure. (Osgerby, 2005) B