Rethinking Education Chapter 4

I never really thought about how public schools came to be until I read this chapter. I find it especially interesting that the first public kindergarten was in Wisconsin in 1856. I like the evolution of the textbook so that all teachers would be teaching the same material. I never really thought of schools without textbooks, so to think of teachers teaching without them just seems mind boggling to me. I really like how the chapter goes through the history of public school and how it was not needed, then was very much in demand, and how now it is in decline with so many options available. I think that the author did a really great job of making the whole chapter really cohesive in his message. I am fascinated with the idea of compulsory attendance as a way to educate people so that they "make wise political decisions, since the control of the government in this new republic had been turned over to the people." (60) This is another concept that never crossed my mind, that public schools were opened in order to further peoples educations in order to make them better voters, but I can really see how this would be beneficial and very necessary.

Reference: Collins, Allan and Halverson, Richard. Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology. 2009. Teachers College Press. New York.