When looking at the large timeline that is our (United States) educational timeline, there is a lot of change! In general it is fascinating to me how much it changed- as it very well should considering all the growth we’ve had. We moved as a country with little steps in introducing new laws, desegregation, growth in sciences and accessibility. It is curious to me thinking back about how different education looked like. Education used to be religious based, basically making sure you could read, so you could read the bible. Now it is being debated, and has been debated, if religion should even be involved in education!
However what did stick out to me for a few reasons was when The Origins of Species by Charles Darwin was published in 1859. First off- I think my perception of time has been warped- Darwinism to me always felt like it was extremely distant in our “lifetime”, but darwinism was introduced into society just before the Civil War in 1861 (maybe I didn’t pay enough attention in my history and biology classes.) Regardless of my sense of time and history- this idea was published about 163 years ago- and the stigma around the United States education system having the theory of evolution is still being debated! We had the Monkey Trails in the Tennessee courts in 1925, which involved criminal prosecution for teaching evolution, and even today- primarily through social media and news coverage, this is still up to debate typically being put up against religious beliefs. Which in a way I think reverts us back all the was to the beginning of the education system, as said earlier that kids were going to school to learn how to read the bible!
We’ve made tremendous progress in our system which is absolutely essential and beautiful. But sometimes I think we have significant ground to cover. Which is what is so fascinating to me about our history and eduction systems, there is always time to grow and listen to each other. We have time to change! And room to change!
