Page 311 - American Stories, A History of the United States

working-class urban children did “outwork” in textiles, worked in street markets, and
12.1 scavenged.
One important explanation for the growing focus on childhood is the smaller size
of families. If nineteenth-century families had remained as large as those of earlier
12.2 times, parents could not have lavished so much care and attention on individual off-
spring. For reasons not completely understood, the average number of children born
to each woman during her fertile years dropped from 7.04 in 1800 to 5.42 in 1850. As a

12.3 result, the average number of children per family declined about 25 percent, beginning
a trend lasting to the present day.
Birth control contributed to this demographic revolution. Ancestors of the mod-
ern condom and diaphragm were openly advertised and sold during the pre–Civil War
period, but most couples probably controlled family size by practicing the withdrawal
method or having intercourse less often. Abortion was also common and on the rise.
By 1850, there may have been one abortion for every five or six live births.
Parents seemed to understand that having fewer children meant they could pro-
Quick Check vide their offspring with a better start in life. This was appropriate in a society that
how did notions of childhood change was shifting from agriculture to commerce and industry. For rural households short
during the nineteenth century, and of labor, large families were an economic asset. For urban couples who hoped to send
what difference did that make for their children into a competitive world that demanded special talents and training,
family life?
large families were a financial liability.

The extension of education
Another change affecting children was the growing belief that the family could not
carry the whole burden of socializing and reforming individuals, and that children
needed schooling as well as parental nurturing. To extend the advantages of “family
government” beyond the domestic circle, reformers established or improved public
institutions that were designed to shape character and instill self-discipline. Between
1820 and 1850, the number of free public schools grew enormously. The new resolve
to put more children in school for longer periods reflected many of the same values
that exalted the child-centered family. Up to a certain age, children could be effectively
nurtured and educated in the home. But after that they needed formal training at a
character-molding institution that would prepare them to make a living and bear the
burdens of republican citizenship. Intellectual training at school was regarded as less
important than moral indoctrination.
Sometimes the school was a substitute for the family, since many children were
thought to lack a proper home environment. The masses of poor and immigrant chil-
dren who allegedly failed to get proper nurturing at home alarmed educational reform-
ers. Schools had to make up for this disadvantage. Otherwise, people “incapable of
self-government” would endanger the republic.
Before the 1820s, schooling in the United States was a haphazard affair. The wealthy
sent their children to private schools, while some of the poor sent their children to char-
ity or “pauper” schools that local governments financed. Public education was most
highly developed in New England, where towns were required by law to support ele-
mentary schools. It was weakest in the South, where almost all education was private.
Demand for more public education began in the 1820s and early 1830s as a central
focus of the workingmen’s movements in eastern cities. These hard-pressed artisans
viewed free schools open to all as a way to counter the growing gap between rich and
poor. Affluent taxpayers, who did not see why they should pay to educate other peo-
ple’s children, opposed the demands. But middle-class reformers seized the initiative,
shaped educational reform to fit their own end of social discipline, and provided the
momentum for legislative success.
The most influential supporter of the common school movement was Horace
Mann of Massachusetts. As a lawyer and state legislator, Mann worked tirelessly to
establish a state board of education and tax support for local schools. In 1837, he per-
suaded the legislature to enact his proposals and subsequently became the first secre-
tary of the new board, an office he held with distinction until 1848. He believed teachers
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