7 Ways Education Has Changed Since the 1900’s

By Katherine Sullivan

 

A lot of advancements have been made since the 20th century in America and around the world. That century marked an important time when changes in transportation, communication, culture and schools were made. The importance of education all around the world has grown vastly for the past 100 years. As students, we are getting much better educations to prepare ourselves for our future and college. These are 10 ways schools were affected:

1: Schools are Larger and more people attend

A larger population and more demand for a good education in today’s world has increased the need for more schools and larger schools in urban areas. In the early 1900’s there would be up to 60 students taught in only one room.  According to the article “A Short History Of United States Education 1900-2006“, 7% of children in the United States enrolled for kindergarten during the 1900’s. 8% of the ones enrolled graduated from high school. America realized at the turn of the century that getting an education was very important and necessary and these numbers changed drastically.

2.Bus transportation widened the school districts

During the 1930’s school buses were invented to replace the need for wagons and trucks. Now that there was a faster and more efficient transportation system, people could come to school that lived further distances away.

3.You can choose private schools over public schools

In the 1900’s the option for sending your children to private schools was made available. Then, a private school typically consisted of average houses with rooms used as classrooms. Boys and girls were taught separately and mostly wealthy children could attend to go to these schools. Now, private schools can be religious or offered as an alternative way of learning where classes are usually smaller.

4.Punishment   

Before 1990 corporal punishment was used commonly in schools when anyone misbehaved. Now there is no written law that bans this, but most public and private schools do not use these methods anymore.

5.Technology is more advanced

This is one major change that has affected education. Now in schools we use computers and ActiveBoards, whereas in the past information had to be looked up in a textbook or written on a chalkboard. Technology has improved how we learn because we have the ability to work on group assignments outside of school using internet websites like google drive, ask teachers questions through e-mail, and much more. But it is also a bad thing when we are tempted to use the internet to look up information instead of looking through an article or textbook. 

6.Changes in school year length

The school year used to be only 99 days long. Now a full school year is about 180 days, with breaks in summer, spring, fall, and winter, along with days off for important holidays.

7.Classrooms are no longer tiered

Classrooms used to be tiered because of the large group being taught. It was an easier way for the teacher to see everyone, even if they were all the way in the back of the room. Same goes for the students, so they could see the blackboard. Tiered classrooms looked similar to how a lecture theatre would look.