Amber's Thoughts

When it comes to the second part of the book, I liked it even better then the first part! I had the chance to learn about American public schools, and the way they were portrayed back then in a way surprised me, but not by much. School became a big part of America, and were required to stay in school longer to gain more knowledge, however, usually after elementary school, most children would leave school, and go work with their family, and as a result most children did not have an education past and 8th grade level. In places such as New York, there was a big population of immigrants, and in the schooling system it became mandatory for children to speak, read, and write in English only. Sure this was an improvement for everyone, and it was good for others to learn how to speak English but some people thought they were losing their culture. Another problem that came about was the way education was being taught. Immigrants came to America to live a better life, not for their child

Before I read the book, I thought it was going to boring considering we're learning about the history of the American education system.  What I found interesting was a particular thing I have never payed attention to before. I never realized religion had such a big part to play in the Education system. One thing that I did pay attention to that I knew before was the fact that the amount of education you received was based on race, social class, and religion, which is still slightly true in today's society, and the thought of that honestly makes me cringe The first part of the book pointed out plenty of situations that I found interesting and covered all angles such as the start of the american schooling system in detail, as well as the people who took the time to inspect the schools. What I found amazing was the anti-Catholic bias. This situation left thousands of children without an education and that is just hard to imagine in today's society. It is interesting to learn