Content Area Literacy

1. Chapter 11
Literacy with an Attitude
Jamie Corley
Vanessa Lindsey
EDSU 532
1 June 2012
Dr. McEady

2. History of American Schools
• Between the Civil War and World War II public
education in the United States was motivated by
the recognition that democracy required a literate
electorate.
• Public Education of the poor was also motivated by
rapidly growing cities & child labor laws that
created thousands of unemployed youth.

3. Government Power in Education
The beginning of government involvement in the
education of the poor in England was
motivated by fear.
England did not want an “unruly” working class
becoming literate in ways that the ruling class
found dangerous to their power and control.

4. Printing Press
With the invention of the printing press in
1450, books in modern language became
available to everyone.
This marked the beginning of self-taught
literacy.

5. Reading Material
By 1600, ten percent of the population of
the poor could read.
There were many things available to
read, such as news pamphlets, political
and religious propaganda, songs and
sensations, etc.

6. Taxes
By 1712, taxes on reading material were
implemented to make it difficult for the
poor to access any kind of reading
material.

7. Social Turmoil of the 1800’s
1790 – 1810 – marked the beginning of a
social upheaval in Europe and America.
The education of the working class caused a
lot of unrest between the upper and lower
class.

8. Rights of Man
Thomas Paine’s, The Rights of Man, was published
and fed fuel to an already revolutionary spirit alive
and well in England.
200,000 copies sold in one year.

9. Corresponding Societies
One materialization of this revolutionary
spirit gave rise to corresponding societies
that unearthed all over England.
The primary purpose for the societal
meetings was to reflect on society
and their place in it, to learn the
thinking of others, to discuss,
evaluate and formulate conclusions
and new ideas in the form of
correspondence.....what a perfect
example of powerful literacy.

10. Corresponding Societies
The societal meetings were well-organized and run
very professionally.
Government spies say the opposite - that the
meetings were unruly.
Societies advocated for diversity among its
members.

11. London Society
The most famous of these societies
was the London Society, formed in
1792.
Men just wanted to meet and
collaborate on subjects like politics
and reform.

12. London Society
By 1795, the London Corresponding
Society had 5,000 active, dues-paying
members and another 5,000 enrolled , but
not fully active members.
The British began to panic at the success
of the Corresponding Societies.

13. The Unlawful Societies Act of
1799
Public meetings were outlawed and strict
controls were imposed on the printing trade.

14. State-Supported Schools for Children
The Corresponding Societies of the 1790’s were
replaced 50 years later by State-Supported
Schools for Children.

15. Commercial Entertainment and
Information Industry
The 1830’s saw the working-class literature shift
from education and political text to sensational
periodicals and fiction.
This marked the beginning of Commercial
Entertainment and Information Industry

16. References
Finn, P. (2009). Literacy with an Attitude.
Albany, New York. SUNY Press.