Political Aspect
Early education in America was primarily based on religious or private system, which brought schooling and literacy to the country before the public school system has been established as it is known today. The number of immigrants rose, which resulted in opening public schools, since the newcomers had different religions and cultures. Social order and mainstream were the main aim of the public schooling to ensure the immigrant children into a common school setting. Among the parents mistrust was common with the advance of public schools, as the report of 1851 in The Massachusetts Teacher suggests, that in most cases the parents were not suitable supporters of their own children and children needed to be forced into education.
Over the last one and a half centuries the forced children and skeptic parents into common schools has brought different results. Nowadays, some of the children receive a decent education, whereas, others, in particular living in rural areas, receive poor education. Public schools have separated the population, creating a gulf of learning opportunities that is simply too wide for many parents to cross.
The gaps of school choice are connected and education is returned to its American roots by enabling all parents, regardless their financial condition, with opportunity and latitude of choosing a better education for their children.
Bibiliography: http://www.chesapeake.edu/Library/EDU_101/eduhist.asp
Racial Aspect
Speaking about Early History of America one can understand that it is about the time period between 1607-1754 years when the North America was a colony of the England and was divided into 3 geographic areas: New England, Middle, and Southern. Every of this region was famous for its particular field of manufacture. New England mostly for forestry and fur trading, Middle is for farming and keeping livestock, and Southern part for growing tobacco, rice, and indigo. Of course all this manufactures required a lot of physical power and slavery was widely used in North America at those ages. While the white young people were studying in the school their black peers were working in the plantations. It was prohibited to black people to attend the schools that is why most of them could not read and write, though some of the were learning from playmates. As slavery was legal in the most states, people owning slaves did not want them to get educated, because it would be not easy to keep them as slaves.
Later there were opened some schools for black people too, but the funding from the government was much more less than for the schools for white people. The black schools had fewer books, worst and smaller buildings and low paid teachers.
http://www.google.com/imgres?biw=1366&bih=600&tbm=isch&tbnid=kT-
6tZYS83tP4M:&imgrefurl=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/
tea-party-tennessee-textbooks-slavery_n_1224157.html&docid=6u6CaG-
5oVWnaM&imgurl=http://i.huffpost.com/gen/474945/thumbs/r-SLAVERY
-IN-SCHOOL-TEXTBOOKS-large570.jpg&w=570&h=238&ei=-
ei9Ucb5M5SBrQHvoYCwBQ&zoom=1&ved=1t:3588,r:84,s:0,i:
341&iact=rc&page=5&tbnh=145&tbnw=348&start=75&ndsp=
Bibliography:
http://americanhistory.about.com/od/colonialamerica/a/colamoverview.htm
Globalization Aspect
Before writing about the globalization aspect in the education of the early American History I would like to give a short definition of word “globalization”. Globalization is a fast assimilation of the ideas, approaches, values and attitudes beyond the geographical borders. This globalization aspect can be easily distinguished in the education of the American early history.
By the „American Early History“ we can understand the time when immigrants from “old world” – Europe started to move to North America for better life for themselves and their families. Starting from those times many people with different cultural, educational, social background and historical heritage came over to live together in one land. Education at those times began with home education, when parents were teaching their children themselves, but later schools were established. Though at those times immigrants from different countries were establishing their own schools, for example people from England were teaching mostly on English styles. Those people who could afford to send their children to England to study were doing so, because the educational system was not very well organized in North America at the Colonial Time. By the development of the states and dividing them into geopolitical areas, the schools become compulsory education according the laws. By this the schools were using approaches of the more successful schools from “old Europe”. So the ideas, values and methods which were prioritized in the Europe were common to American society too.
Bibliography: Wikipedia, The History Education in United States
2) Ethnographic Notes. a)Media and American Society and Culture
Article, „The factory in the Living Room“ by Sut Jhally describes the advertising in kids TV shows is the same as using a child labor. The lecturer states that children are being exploited by the media. The big companies are using children in increasing their sales by placing the ads within kids TV programs. By this media “zombinize” kids, so that in its turn they will make their parents to buy these products. Besides this idea, the author emphasizes that in nowadays children get too much information from the media, rather than by interaction with people. They fewer and fewer play active games and more and more sit before TV.
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=kids+with+TV+head&um=1&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=600&tbm=isc
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=kids+watching+tv&start=106&um=1&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=600
The ideas forwarded in the article are very interesting, especially because that we see that media designed for children is designed not as informative and useful for children but more as profit field for its producers. Unfortunately, besides kids are used by the companies to sell their products they are also bombarded with big flow of information, which has no use and meaning for children. Instead of playing with their peers in the fresh air, children are getting more isolated from each other. And this fact is used by the manufacturers to push their product.
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=kids+playing+games+than+in+outside&um=1&hl=en&biw=1366&
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=kids+playing+games+than+in+outside&um=1&hl=en&biw=1366&
Work cited: http://www.sutjhally.com//
Gendered Aspect
The tendency of having the gender equity in education nowadays is accepted as a norm although it was not the common concept in early ages of American civilization.
In colonial days the wealthy families’ children attended “dame schools”, where they have been taught reading, writing, simple math, poems, and prayers. In “dame schools” boys were preparing for town schools, from where, sons of wealthy planters were sent to England to get higher education. Unless daughters even if they were from the wealthy and influential families did not have a chance to study abroad due to the belief that the basic knowledge of reading, writing, art, music and household skills were quite enough for a woman.
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=dame+schools&sa=X&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbnid=hKwak5
In the first half of the 19th century the new era was generated for women in the education sphere. The academic movement, led by Catherine Beecher, Emma Willard, and
Mary Lyon, gave an opportunity to establish the first women’s colleges in the United States including Georgia Female College, Mount Holyoke Seminary, and Elmira Female College. Later the high ranked universities like Harvard, Columbia, and Brown set the affiliations giving a chance to female students to choose their majors at these universities. The students of both genders could study together but ladies were under control and separated from men.
Even though ladies positions were supported by law yet the freedom of choice of the desired majors were limited to four categories: secretarial, nursing, teaching, or motherhood. In 1972 United States Department of Education issued the Passage of IX protecting women’s rights against discrimination in public schools and all related educational system aspects, widening the fields of majors adding math, science, and athletic programs in 1974.
Bibliography:
- http://www.mcrcad.org/Web_Madigan.pdf
- http://www.chesapeake.edu/Library/EDU_101/eduhist_earlynat.asp
1) Ethnographic Notes A – Who Rules America?
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=who+rules+america&um=1&sa=N&biw=1366&bih=600&hl=en&tbm
I learned that America is ruled by the most successful large companies that hold the vast amount of funds that support presidential campaigns financially, assign the role plays in the government and create the political strategy of the country. The coalition of CEO’s and most powerful owners of the country work together sometimes arguing with each other. The topic mentions about the wealth and income distribution of the rulers calling it “Top 1%” that has the highest portion of income, mostly gained from paychecks, among all classes which is quite shocking.
The author illustrates Bohemina Grove the place for the relaxation and meeting new actors, entertainers as the unity of the power elite. The initial idea of gathering in this meeting to meet new and old candidates who have an intention to support and be one of the Republicans.
Despite the world of Republicans looks like a space for land of opportunities with non boundaries it has the opposition to the power structure, in the face of Democratic Party that is under risk to be transformed into a nationwide liberal-labor-left coalition.
Work cited: http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/
2) Ethnographic Notes B – An American Ethnic Group. Italian Immigration
The largest group of immigrants to America is considered to be Italians. Many Italians had no choice but to immigrate to America due to a number of reasons, such as poor conditions for living and increase in poverty, lack of food and living space as the birth rate overtook the death rate. Natural disasters such as eruption of Mount Vesuvius and Etna had also contributed to worsening the living conditions of Italians at that time by destroying the fertility of the land.
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=Italian+Americans&um=1&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=600&tbm=isch&tb
This had resulted Italians keep leaving their lands and relocating to America, starting with the Southern part and then later on to the Northern part as well. The earliest Italian immigrants became well-known as fruit sellers mainly in the North America. They had also taken a large portion of construction jobs in the market mainly in New York City and Chicago. “Italian immigrants were particularly likely to take heavy construction jobs. About half of all late 19th century Italian immigrants were manual laborers, compared to a third of their Irish and a seventh of their German counterparts. Contracted out by a professional labor broker known as a padrone, Italians dug tunnels, laid railroad tracks, constructed bridges and roads, and erected the first skyscrapers. As early as 1890, 90 percent of New York City’s public works employees and 99 percent of Chicago’s street workers were Italian.
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=Italian+Americans&um=1&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=600&tbm=isch&tb
The Italians did not plan to make America their permanent home place, instead they were into earning money for betterment of their life back in Italy, help their families and improve their living conditions in their motherland. “Rather than seeking permanent homes, they desired an opportunity to work for a living, hoping to save enough money to return to a better life in the country of their birth.” They were great at establishing networks and community ties and as such grow their businesses and their well-being respectively.
Works cited:
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/italian_immigration.cfm
Socio-economic class aspects
History reveals that the educational system in early America segregated students by gender, race, ethnicity and social status. Colleges and universities welcomed white males who originally had European descendants with high influential financial class but at the same time only sons of poor white ministers and teachers from the poor population had a chance to be admitted to get the knowledge at institutions as well.
The situation started to melt down from Jefferson’s days to our own, fighting for the rights of poor but talented. Jefferson believed that equal opportunity was the important attribute in a democratic society; he stated “the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them….” 
http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&tbnid=VmPKjG8JVl6kuM:&imgr
The statistics testifies that the diversity of higher education by the social class in the period of 1880 and 1920 was mainly native born undergraduates that consisted 98 percent of students and that 91 percent of fortunate students’ parents were immigrants from the Western Europe. At that time the public universities were not open to all than were private institutions and tuitions were not provided by universities. University of Virginia was the most aristocratic state University.
The tuition cost was one of the major concerns of all students as in those days likewise nowadays. The affordability was number one question. Between 1971 and 2003 the level of tuition cost in national currency of dollar rose from $7,966 to $18,273 at private schools and from $1,646 to $4,081 at public schools. Debates between writers and lawmakers discussing whether the tuition is high or not came to the mutual conclusion that the students from median families are in need of financial aid.
http://www.google.com/imgres?start=168&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=600&tbm=isch&tbnid=Uh96dwqzn4
Researchers state that the progress of students those who are from families with high income showed better results than those from low-income families. That makes them to think that the financial freedom gives more opportunities to children to attain better high schools and become more prepared for universities. Besides it these students get more support from the family members who spent less time and less energy to find financial resources for paying bills, especially from those parents who previously attained educational institutions.
Bibliography:
http://www.mellon.org/news_publications/announcements-1/details/questforequity.pdf
1) Ethnographic Notes A – Without Sanctuary
http://www.google.com/search?psj=1&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.47883778,d.cGE&biw=1366&bih=60
The planet Earth is the planet of humans with different ethnicity and race. Word “race” means biological and physical attributes person stands for. Such as for example, color of skin and body structure. Whereas Ethnicity is determined in a more social basis considering person’s religion, culture, language and dressing.
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=american+diversity+in+traditional+clothes&start=270&um=1&hl=en&biw
In the land of America, Race and Ethnicity contributed a lot in forming people’s views on black people. White people get extremely violent with black people because they are of the opinion that blacks are lower society and they have to be treated accordingly. It is a pride for Whites to beat them and often mocking them up publicly. Moreover, lynching African Americans is a common practice among Whites, as this way of punishing is a common way of execution. During lynching, African Americans are subjected to beating in most brutal ways one can imagine, such as with sticks and fists, and sometimes even with knives. Often for very little things where a black man is found doing wrong, lynching is applied, hung to the nearest tree for everyone even children of the White society were in a tradition of gathering to see how a dead body of a black man is hung from above. For Whites this is a method of overcoming Blacks and as such maintains their self-esteem.
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=without+sanctuary&um=1&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=600&tbm=isch&t
I would cover the point of how White people nurtured the hatred towards the Black population in themselves and passing the same political view to the next generation. The idea of the show in front of all people was to capture minds that this is the normal procedure, presenting the upper class population, to make Whites be proud of them and make Blacks to believe that they have been created to serve the “Upper Class”.
I would try to find out the historical evidence of the first person who established the concept of sublimity over the other races. Because people are the gregarious community and each group needs in the leader and supporters who would give permission or an idea to act the violence.
Works cited: http://withoutsanctuary.org/main.html
2) Ethnographic Notes B – Sexuality, Generation, Class, and Ethnicity in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area
In the PBS Documentary film “ The Lost Children Of Rockdale County” discussion takes place around the impact of Syphilis and how a group of females lives have been affected by it. Often from middle class white families, these females were about 15-14 years old only. Although many researchers were of the opinion that “a Syphilis outbreak does not occur in a middle class white girl”, the fact proved them to be wrong.
Many girls in this documentary film have expressed that participation in sexual activities and losing their virginity were not pleasurable acts as such, nevertheless this is now considered to be a normal and has become a routine in their community. Being social in this community meant to be a part of gatherings where taking drugs and drinking activities are amongst normal things participant can expect.
The film emphasizes the lack of parenting these girls have faced and be there a better interpretation of human values to these young people, they would have been in a different position as regards their self-respect and self-esteem. Young men too have shown no respect to themselves, and to woman’s body considering it as an object of lust and sexual desire.
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=women+not+sex+objects&um
I think we live in the world of illusion when the world is equal and we do not have a gender problem. Sometimes being a woman turns to a heavy burden to follow the society requirements, considering a woman as a sexual object to get a job, to get the acknowledgement and to be accepted by the society. My brother is a designer and when he went to school in United Kingdom they studied the marketing approach to sell the product. The number one psychological principle to sell the product is the sexual image of the item even if you design the product they were suggested to apply some sexual shapes to attract the audience to make them to buy. For example when the designer intends to build a simple ladder if he shapes it with a curve which associates with women body this will attract more clientele.
The mass media bombards the young generation mind with the perfect body and face images distracting from the mental development and seeing the world as a commercial object.
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=real+and+photoshop+image+of+woman+face&start=140&u
Unfortunately this concept works very well and the audience accepts it as a normal tendency which turns to a tragedy for a new not fully developed generation.
Works Cited:
American Life and Culture 
Recent Comments