Despite the fact that many criticize school education for not being inconsisting with modern realities, it is changing quite rapidly. To see this, let's see how studying in the United States was built in the XIX century!
One group for all
Now we are accustomed to division by age and a lot of teachers in all subjects. Previously, this could only be dreamed of - American schoolchildren of different ages studied all together and in the same room. Of course, this created a lot of confusion and hindered the receipt of a quality education.
In a modern American school, students have individual training programs that take into account their knowledge and inclinations when selecting training courses.
Flog and only flog!
If today the maximum that threatens a negligent student is to slap a "deuce" or a remark in a diary, then in the XIX century he would not have goten off so easily. In the educational process, rods, sticks and other tools of education were actively used. Beaten for such terrible crimes as:
- Calling
- Playing cards
- Joint games of boys and girls
- Lie
- Absence or low enough bow
- Climbing trees.
It's hard to be a teacher
The work of a teacher was not considered prestigious, so most of the teachers were young unmarried women who had nowhere else to go. They earned a little and along the way had to perform many other tasks: from looking after children to lighting lamps. Here, for example, is a short list of requirements for teachers of the XIX century:
- Fill lamps with oil, clean the chimney, carry coal and water;
- Do not smoke, do not drink alcohol, do not go to the pool and do not shave in the hairdresser;
- Teachers who marry or find inappropriate behavior are subject to dismissal.
With such requirements, the school could hardly seriously count on the title of the light of knowledge, but there were no other options.
The main thing is to remember
The main subjects of practical value were literacy and counting. The rest of the training was reduced to memorizing various texts, dates and historical events, which could develop only memory. The curriculum included arithmetic, rhetoric, grammar, history, geography, and even theology with philosophy. But the approach itself virtually ruled out the possibility of learning something in fact.
Now schools are trying to teach students to solve problems and tasks that they may encounter in real life. Modern education increasingly focuses on practicality and tries to find an individual approach to each child, take into account his interests and features.
Studying is not the main thing
The attitude to study in the XIX century was quite dismissive. Much more appreciated was the help of parents in the household, crafts and making money. Education at that time had not yet become the driver of growth that it is now, and was presented rather as an abstract scholarship that has no practical meaning.
Since then, much has changed, and a good school has become the basis of a successful career and professional activity.
