ABSTRACT
This book is an introduction to the history of American education, and begins with a simple query: Do schools change society, or does society change the schools? Obviously, the answer is more complicated than this simple dichotomy suggests. Influences run in both directions: Education clearly affects social development, and schools also reflect the larger social context. Still, the question of basic influence remains. Can schools function as instruments of social change? Or are they shaped and therefore constrained by larger cultural, economic, and political forces?
