There is nothing more essential to the mind than one’s education. Education, for many, is what allows one to grow and develop to their fullest potential. Education enriches the mind and the soul and make the individual more aware to their surroundings and the world around them. It must be said that education as we know it today has drastically changed over the years. Much like other important components to the basic survival of the individual, education needed to mold and shape with the changing times, it needed to be readily available to men, women, and children alike. While it seems like an easy goal to accomplish, it took years of struggling and years of battling to make the education system as we know it today possible. Women, throughout the nineteenth century, were influential and very outspoken about the need to change policy, change society, and change personal and public lives. This, they felt, came down to education. If a man could be educated then a woman should be too. They understood the importance of the matter and added it to their list of societal norms that needed changing. With this in mind, the individual can clearly determine that with the importance of education at the forefront and the foundations of education reform set by Horace Mann, white women reformed education to better suit their needs and desires for social acceptance.
As mentioned, the idea of educational reform had already been set in motion. Based in Massachusetts, state senator Horace Mann decided to establish a public-school system that would be funded through the use of property taxes and opened to the public. Through this idea, Mann was trying to keep religious teachings, the teachings of the past prior to the reform, from the public instruction where religious beliefs would not be forced upon an individual. According to Ted Brackemyre, author of Education to the Masses: The Rise of Public Education in Early America, Mann “spent considerable time travelling throughout Europe studying school systems there”. Through his travels, he became so fond of “the Prussian view that all people should receive the same level of education” he decided to keep that idea in his mind. With this concept now in his arsenal, Mann came back to the United States and settled back into Massachusetts ready to establish “Common Schools” rather schools that were meant to serve individuals of all social backgrounds and religions. With this new form of public schooling, Mann, much like Thomas Jefferson before him, believed that this new public education was essential in creating an “educated public that could actively and successfully participate in its democracy” (Brackemyre). While this idea was well thought out, it wasn’t as easy to achieve for all as many might have thought.
As mentioned, women were at the forefront of many mass reforms during the nineteenth century. Education was no difference. As stated, Mann got the notion of education reform started with his establishment of public schooling. For women, however, this seemed too farfetched. Mary Wollstonecraft is noted as saying, “The neglected education of my fellow-creatures is the grand source of the misery I deplore” (Wollstonecraft, 325). For many, education prior to reform was based on location and background. If you were a woman in New England during the revolutionary period “half of white women could write while 90 percent of white man could” (DuBois, 325). If you were a woman living in the South, schools were rare. In addition to this idea, pre-reform education for women consisted of “ornamental skills such as needlework and dancing” (DuBois, 145) and domestic chores such as cooking and maintaining of the family unit. The pre-reform education of women in the United States spanned across the idea of the domestic sphere, the home and family life and that was all. This idea became known as “Republican Motherhood”. In Republican Motherhood, the idea that “women had vital roles in educating their children for their duties as citizens” (DuBois, 121) was at the forefront. This, according to Faye E. Dudden, author of Women’s Rights, Abolitionism, and Reform in Antebellum and Gilded Age America, became a “dictated educational role for mothers who would exert their influence within the home” (Dudden). With all of this in mind, it’s easy to see that the earliest forms of education for women in this country were very constricting and binding to a single idea. The breaking free from this preset notion doesn’t arrive until women stood up for battle.
As mentioned, in order for a reform to take place the women needed to rise up and speak out against their oppression. In order for American women during the nineteenth century to achieve any form of education, they needed to fight against the pre-revolution and pre-reform ideology known as Republican Motherhood. One of these women that became a notorious advocate against this notion was Abigail Adams. In one of her many letters to her husband, President John Adams, Abigail always made sure to include something about the ladies and the rights of women. In a written record, Abigail is noted as saying “If we mean to have heroes, statesmen, and philosophers, we should have learned women” (DuBois, 121). In addition to that statement, Abigail Adams was trying to get the notion across that the ideology of pre-reform years hindered women’s rational and moral influence over their husbands which prohibited the possibility of women contributing to civic culture and order. In addition to Abigail Adams and other women, some men did try to voice their battles on the issue. One of these men was Dr. Benjamin Rush. Dr. Rush, in addition to signing the Declaration of Independence, published an essay titled Thoughts upon Female Education. In this essay, Dr. Rush offers his arguments as to why women needed to be educated, “The influence of female education would be still more extensive and useful in domestic life” (Rush, 147). In this example, Dr. Rush is essentially combining the two arguments and making it into one solid compromise. He, in addition to the above statement, also offers this statement, “He might with more propriety have said, let the ladies of a country be educated properly, and they will not only make and administer its laws, but form its manners and character” (Rush, 147). With this argument, Dr. Rush is arguing that women could, if educated like their male counterparts, could keep the country they live in running smoothly like the houses they run. Dr. Rush and Abigail Adams were not alone in their battles over the need for educational reform, Judith Sargent Murray was also a very vocal advocate. In her essay titled Observations of Female Abilities, Sargent Murray mentions the talents that women have that are unfortunately unseen due to the lack of freedom to express them. In this, Sargent Murray mentions that a woman “are calculated to shine in other characters than those adverted to, in preceding essays; and with proper attention to their education and subsequent habits, they might easily attain that independence” (Sargent Murray, 149). In this excerpt, Sargent Murray, who is alluding to Mary Wollstonecraft, mentions that if women were free to be educated like their male counterparts, they would gain the independence they so desperately sought for during this struggle for reform. These people and their writings, no matter how helpful they were to the reform cause, were often subjected to public reactions.
Like any big reform, the reaction and the toll it has on the public is important to understanding the impact the reform had on history and the time period of which it took place. During the battle for reform, women were in a height of battling for other rights. In the matter of education, however, women began to see small but gradual improvements to their educational path. These small but gradual improvements, however, came with some inequalities. In 1883, Oberlin College, an “evangelical Protestant institution” (DuBois, 325) in Ohio began to admit a small number of women in “regular baccalaureate” courses (DuBois, 325). While this was an improvement to the pre-reform educational restraints, most women students were “educated in special ladies’ programs with easier language and mathematics requirements than those of men” (DuBois, 325). While this was a norm toward the beginning of the reform period, it certainly dissipated during the 1860’s. During the 1860’s “the Morrill Land Grant Act provided federal lands to states and territories for the support of public institutions for higher education” (DuBois, 325). In these new institutions, a rapid spread of “coeducation” became ramped. This idea of mixing the sexes in a classroom setting began to unsettle people who asked questions like “would such easy associations between the sexes coarsen women students and distract men” (DuBois, 325). While these ideas were all public panic at this new change, Women began to thrive in their newfound freedom. The women’s educational reform had offered the American women more freedom to achieve the potential that they longed to achieve, these can be seen in a series of pictures seen below in the appendix. Each of the photos seen depict women students in their new environments. It only enhances the idea that public response and the achievements this movement gained were essential to the betterment of American women during the nineteenth century.
Reform is always met with scary notions, what will this achieve? Can it be achieved? Is it even worth it? While all of these questions are warranted, many need to understand that reform is essential to the betterment of society. If reforms had never taken place, the unfortunate reality would be we would still be writing on walls in caves. The education reform of the nineteenth century, in all, was very influential in shaping the modern-day classroom and modern-day school setting. Education is an important tool that allows and individual to achieve their fullest potential. Women, unfortunately are recent newcomers to this idea. During the nineteenth century, women’s educational reform saw the change from domestic and ornamental education for the betterment of the household and family unit to that of exploration and freedom that allowed a women’s personality, intelligence, and newfound freedom to appear and be on full display. This reform, no matter how successful it was, was not free from tough and strenuous battles fought by men and women alike. It must be noted however that the battles and the reactions were essential to the cause because through the understanding of education’s importance at the forefront and the foundations of education reform set by Horace Mann, white American women were able to achieve their need and desire for proper education that would aid them down their long and tiresome road for social acceptance.