.6 Pre WWII American Education

The 20th century was the discovery of the Child. Building on the kindergarten, we have been much influenced by a European psychologist, Piaget, whose behavior and development studies became landmarks

Much of what you will study as teachers is child development. You have to be prepared to deal with children at all stages of their development. This is one of the things we have not yet mastered. Now we are discovering the neurology of learning in addition to the psychology of learning.

The First Junior College was established in this century. This is extremely important because it represents a complete change of mind about the nature of higher education. Until the establishment of the junior college, the idea was that you had to go off to the woods to think. And to think properly - to be "higher educated" you had to devote full time to your study. Then someone thought that maybe there ought to be a way for people to get higher education and stay at home. This was a truly revolutionary idea and not readily accepted. The idea that you could pursue a higher education part time was unheard of. Junior colleges allow those that cannot afford a full time scholastic career or who do not have the time due to families or whatever, to complete their course of study at their own pace, often while working full time. This idea is so innovative it still has not been fully accepted. The College of William and Mary, after initiating their own urban campus, decided to discontinue the idea as being too "applied" for their liberal arts reputation and thus Old Dominion University was born. The junior college
ended the idea that higher education was for the rich and that the university was a lofty place somewhere in the woods where elite and wealthy students went off to think.

The twentieth century also saw the inception of the funding of education for the poor.Scholarships for higher education were a product of the New Deal in American politics. The idea that education for the poor was not only necessary, but was also revolutionary. Changes in education began to occur at an exponential rate in the twentieth century. In the 17th century no one would have ever thought of providing education for the poor. But as society progresses, more education became essential for people to contribute as productive members of society. Luckily we have relatively quickly recognized that and have made many necessary changes in our institutions as well as in our thinking. Although, we still find it hard to keep up with the changes we confront. Even as we can be legitimately very critical of the status of current educational practice and cry out for reform, we must give credit to the enormous changes which have taken place and the preeminent role that the United States has played in the development of universal education and the transformation of higher education.

	What are some of the important markers in the development of universal education in the 20th century?	Answer Here
	Janet is a student that attends Tidewater Community College. Her reasons for staying home were simple: 1) she didn't yet know what she wanted to be, and 2) she was not ready to leave her parents yet. How would Janet have gone to school for a higher education before the start of junior colleges such as TCC and how can she benefit from staying home?	Answer Here