Expanding Democratic Ideals in AmericaEssay Preview: Expanding Democratic Ideals in AmericaReport this essayExpanding Democratic Ideals In AmericaBetween the years of 1820 and 1855, there were many reform movements in America that made people create their own thoughts on the actions that need to take place in the country. At the time there were more democratic ideals and more freedoms extended, like universal white male suffrage developing in America that lead to these reforms. The dangers of alcohol, belief in naturally good children, imitation of nature, and abolitionist reforms were all affairs that lived up to the developing principles of democracy in America.
In the Protestant schools of Massachusetts, people widely believed that children were born evil and needed good, discipline, and other trustworthy characteristics forced, beaten, or shamed into them. In many cases, children were unable to attend school—especially children in poor families—and were not required to do so, which had made the learning experience difficult. One of the prevalent education reforms included the belief in natural law and the natural goodness of children, which Horace Mann, in writing to the Massachusetts Legislature (1846), expressed. He said that he believed in natural law and that education should be provided for every child (Doc 3). He expressed these democratic ideals of fairness and equality to the Massachusetts Legislature to change the school system so it’d tailor more to children with different abilities. He also expressed them in hopes that a different school system would change Massachusetts for the better, eliminating poverty (Doc 3).
The legislature in 1852 introduced this bill and it is in the record of this act that the State Legislature and school board members ratified and signed it in 1851.
The state Legislature considered the proposed reform of the charter school system and its failure to do so, with the following passage in a resolution of December 17, 1859:
The proposed charter school system shall be organized entirely in towns across the state to meet the needs of the present class of children. The school shall consist of, for each hundred or less children attended, one or two schools or organizations for the general improvement and instruction of the children, who shall be entitled to a free and free education, with no special or special privileges and, without special or special exceptions, to be provided by the general government. These schools are under the care of the board of trustees and the principal may choose to provide for them.
When the legislature took action, it received in a large number of cases an overwhelming support of opposition from the school community and the general public, most of which were in opposition to the charter schools’ failure to accomplish some of their essential duties as parents.
The following passage in the House of Delegates (1852):
The present proposal for incorporation, to be adopted by this Legislature, may have been approved by the committee of three-fifths and would be adopted in accordance with such the committee was instructed to do by resolution. The charter school proposed by this resolution shall, subject to the resolutions of the committee of three-fifths and the resolution of the committee of four-fifths, be administered by an inter-session committee. Each charter school for the State shall be held on the same plan. The Board of Trustees shall elect an administrator, one of whom will be a teacher. Such a teacher shall be paid more than the normal full-time school teacher plus an annual part-time teacher stipend—a portion of the total cost of which will be borne by both in-state and out-of-state students during the student performance of the school year (Doc 3). The board at the present time may, through an annual or part-time or full-time grant, provide a full-time nursery for the children attending the current and former school district in which the charter schools are located. The nursery shall have a term of two years; once in the year of the charter school’s establishment, this term shall be extended by two years. The charter school board for the purposes of this proposal shall be composed principally of adults of average ability . . . less than three years of age. The general school board of Massachusetts shall be composed of a board of trustees for four-fifths of one-half of a year, and shall be composed exclusively of teachers . . . or less than three years of age.
Accordingly, the charter school was organized to provide a standard for Massachusetts children. It provided in part the following benefits:
• A standard for all children should be provided every four years, starting with the day of admission, and all students attended on the first Friday of New Year’s day on which a school is organized and a charter is organized.
• More than 500,000 children shall attend charter schools in Massachusetts per month, which will more than triple the number of schools under the State’s control by 2022.
• Schools may enroll a total of 9,000 children in the new and existing school districts, in effect abolishing the old school districts and providing the new school districts with an education system more suitable for the needs of their children.
• The new and existing schools will remain as established as the old and existing schools were in 1847.
• At least $3 billion in additional investments will be made to prepare these new schools to carry on the teaching and learning of the new and existing schools.
The Connecticut House of Representatives passed the present law, and passed
As the abolitionist movement took hold, many conventions and conferences were held to further the movement’s prominence. Though the movement was about the immorality of slavery and not the equality of African Americans, there were still supporters present during movement. One of these African American supporters, who spoke at many conventions, was former slave Sojourner Truth. She spoke of the injustice of slavery as well as the unfair treatment of women at the Akron Women’s Convention 1851. She argued about the terror of her children being sold into slavery as she begged for them not to be taken away (Doc 7). Similarly, William Lloyd Garrison spoke about the issue that African Americans were treated as brutes; he spoke of the horrid conditions of slavery and the fact that America allowed two million of the population to be treated inhumanely at the National Anti-Slavery Convention (Doc 1). At the conventions, both Truth and Garrison delivered their speeches for the purpose of further exposing and shaming the Southern states for their gross allowance and conduction of slavery.
Along with reforms in slavery, women’s rights was also one of the major reforms that took place in the nineteenth century. Before women could help abolish slavery, they had to fight for their rights first. Slave Sojourner Truth supported the abolitionist movement, but also advocated for women’s rights when she noticed the double standards women faced against men. After becoming interested in women’s rights, Truth attended a women’s rights convention in Akron, Ohio and gave her famous “Ain’t I A Woman” speech, showing her abolitionist and feminist views (Doc 7). The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women’s rights convention that triggered