8.4 Reforms and Reformers- Many Americans worked for reform in education and other areas.

1. 8.4 Reforms and Reformers-Many Americans worked for reform in education and other areas. EQ: Why did reforms take place in the mid-1800’s?

2. The Reforming Spirit • Reformers wanted to extend the nations ideals of liberty and equality to all Americans. • The nation should live up to the goals set forth in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

3. Utopias • Some reformers wanted to create perfect societies or Utopias. • Cooperation amongst the members rather than competition was stressed. • Few utopian societies lasted very long.

4. The Second Great Awakening • Revival meetings encouraged people to reform their lives and the world. • Increased church attendance and inspired many to do missionary work and get involved in the reform movement.

5. What was the Temperance Movement? • Religious leaders led a war against alcohol consumption. • Alcohol abuse was widespread especially in the West and with urban workers. • Reformers blamed alcohol for poverty, the break up of the family and crime. • They called for temperance, the drinking of little or no alcohol. • Crusaders used lectures, pamphlets and revival meetings to warn people of the dangers of alcohol.

6. Reforming Education • In the 1800’s only New England provided free public education. • In other areas parents paid for their children to attend school, or children attended schools for the poor. Some areas had no schools at all. • Reformers pushed for public schools open to all citizens. • Horace Mann led the education reformers. He lengthened the school year to six months, made improvements in the curriculum, doubled teachers’ salaries and developed better ways of training teachers. • Normal schools were developed to train High School graduates to become teachers, Chico State was originally known as Chico Normal School Established in 1887.

7. How Did Education Change? • By 1850 most states had accepted three basic principles of public education: schools should be free supported by taxes, teachers should be trained, and students should be required to attend. • Most females received little or no education. • Most parents kept their daughters from school because they believed that a woman’s role was to become a wife and mother and didn’t need a formal education. • When girls did go to school they would study music or needlework rather than science, math and history, considered “men’s” subjects.

8. Higher Education • New Colleges and Universities were created during the age of reform. • Most were run by religious groups and only allowed men to attend. • 1833- Oberlin College admitted both African Americans and Women, • 1837- Mt. Holyoke was the first permanent women’s college • 1854- Ashmun Institute was the first African American college

9. People With Special Needs • Thomas Gallaudet developed a method of teaching the deaf. He opens the Hartford School for the Deaf. • Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe worked with the blind. He developed books with raised letters to allow the blind to “read” with their fingers. • Dorothea Dix began visiting prisons to reform the inhumane treatment of prisoners. She discovered that some of the prisoners were not criminals but were mentally ill and not able to function in society. • Dix made her life’s work to educate the public about the poor conditions of the mentally ill and prisoners.

10. Cultural Trends • Changes in society influenced art and literature. • Writers and Artists looked for uniquely American subjects and themes for their works.

11. Who Were the Transcendentalists? • Transcendentalists stressed the relationship between humans and nature, as well as the importance of the individual conscience. • Ralph Waldo Emerson urged people to listen to the inner voice of conscience and beak the bonds of prejudice. • Henry David Thoreau put his beliefs into practice through civil disobedience, refusing to obey laws he thought were unjust.

12. American Writers Emerge • Writers focused on American subjects. • Poet, Walt Whitman, loved nature, the common people, and American democracy, his famous works reflect these passions. • Emily Dickinson wrote simple, personal, deeply emotional poetry. • Women writers were not often taken seriously, yet they were the authors of the most popular fiction. • Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the most successful best seller of the mid 1800’s.