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Education reform opened opportunities for women. An all female academy started by Catharine was the first college level educational available to women. First medical college for women who were barred from men's medical schools opened in Boston in 1848

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Common school movement wanted all children to learn in a place, regardless of what the background is. A person by the name of Horace Mann became Massachusetts first secretary in 1837. He extended the school year and became the first school of teacher training

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African American Communities          -Nickon

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African American Communities          -Nickon

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Free African Americans usually lived in segregated communities in the North. Most free African Americans lived in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Community leaders were often influenced by the Second Great Awakening and its spirit of reform. Richard Allen was the founder of Free African Religious Society. He soon became a model for other groups that pressed for racial equality and the education of blacks. In 1816 Allen became the first bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. This church broke away from white Methodist churches after African Americans were treated poorly in some white congregations. Alexander Crummel was an influential African American who pushed for the creation of schools for black Americans. The New York African Free School in New York City educated hundreds of children. Philadelphia also had a long history of educating African Americans because Philadelphia was a center of Quaker influence, and the Quakers believed strongly in equality.  The city ran seven schools for African American students by the year 1800. In 1820 Boston followed Philadelphia’s lead and opened a separate elementary school for African American children. The city began allowing them to attend school with whites in 1855. African Americans rarely attended college because few colleges would accept them, however; the Oberlin College in 1835 was the first college to accept free African Americans. Right after, Harvard University started doing the same. Several colleges started opening up in Philadelphia for free African Americans. While free African Americans had some opportunities to attend school in the North and Midwest, few had this chance in the South. Laws in the South barred most enslaved people from getting any education, even at the primary school level. While some slaves learned to read, they read in secret. Slaveholders were fearful that education and knowledge in general might encourage a spirit of revolt among enslaved African Americans

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Teaching people with special needs                  -Nickon

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Teaching people with special needs                  -Nickon

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There were many efforts in order to improve education which helped people with special needs. In 1831 Samuel Gridley Howe opened the Perkins School for the Blind in Massachusetts. Howe traveled widely, talking about teaching people with visual impairment. Thomas Gallaudet improved the lives of people by making the hearing impairments. He also founded the first free American school for hearing-impaired people in 1817.

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Dorothea Dix was a middle class reformer who visited prisons throughout Massachusetts beginning in 1841. She complained the mentally ill were put with criminals in terrible conditions. In response, the Massachusetts government built facilities for the mentally ill and eventually more than 100 state hospitals were built to give mentally ill people professional care nationwide.

Prisons also held runaway children and orphans and younger offenders received different punishments than adults. Some reformers also tried to end the and cruel conditions in prisons. Their efforts led to the creation of houses of correction, which did not only use punishment to fix be. They also offered prisoners education.

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Renewed religious faith often led to involvement in movements to fix the problems created by urban growth. Women and members of the middle class took part in these movements. Women did not work jobs outside the house which gave them time to create groups.

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The temperance movement was a reform effort urging people to use self-discipline and stop drinking hard liquor. During this time many social reformers worked to prevent alcohol abuse because they thought Americans drank way to much alcohol. On average Americans consumed seven gallons of alcohol per year in the 1830s. The reformers thought this led to many social problems. Groups like American Temperance Society and the American Temperance Union tried to get people to limit themselves

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Late in the 1700s, Americans started the second great awakening. The second great awakening is a new Christian renewal act. By the early 1800s this religion interest spread to the south and New England. A big advocate of the second great awakening was Charles grandison Finney. Finney’s style of preaching and his ideas angered some traditional ministers, like Boston’s Lyman Beecher. Many new church members were women and African Americans

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In this period of time education was not at its best. There was few schools in the north and south, and there was also few trained teachers. School houses were small and students of all ages worked in the one room. The textbook they had were Mcgreffy readers because he put British and American literature that showed moral and social values. Education mainly relied on wealth. Wealthier children would go to private schools and get a personal tutor, and on the other hand poor kids would have to go to public schools. Girls would usually not get an education because they were expected to stay home. Most girls did not get chance to learn to read.

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In the 1800s education was poor. Although, in this era, the stage of childhood was viewed as a time where education was needed. Unfortunately a lot of children where working in factories to support and help there families financially. It was considered standard if the children could read the Bible, write, and do simple math problems.