Movers and Shakers Essay

Submitted By sara063084
Words: 838
Pages: 4

Movers & Shakers in Education
By.
Edu-210

There were many people and events through the United States history that contributed to the development of the education system in America. Many changes have been made through the decades to ensure the continued education, with equal opportunities to all children in the United States. Some were for the well intended, while others have hurt our education system in America. One woman who I have a tremendous amount of respect for in our history is, Maria Montessori. Maria Montessori was an Italian educator, former psychiatrist, One woman who I have a tremendous amount of respect for in our history is, Maria Montessori. Maria Montessori was an Italian educator, former psychiatrist, and founder of the Montessori teaching method. The main practices of the Montessori education are based on “self motivation and auto education”(Maria Montessori. Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition [serial on the Internet]. (2013, Sep), [cited January 3, 2014]; 1. Available from: Literary Reference Center). She believed greatly that children learned best when provided with an environment that suites the child with the tools around to learn.

Another influential change in education in history was the “ Meriam Report”, led by Lewis Meriam; a worker for the several government bureaus led in the investigations of Indian affairs. The Meriam report was a “report to a commission on the rights, privileges, and responsibilities of the American Indian, this document has been enlarged and updated to cover national Indian policy from the early 1900's to present (1964)”(http://www.eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED060978).
It was an outline of the problems of the conditions and administrations for the Indians and what they suffered because of their lack of health care, education, and others resources. It was a change that was wanted for the affairs of the Indian people to improve their overall ways of life and their environment in which they lived and learned in. This has greatly shaped the quality of life for these people and their hopes to achieve and be something greater than what they believe they are to become. Next even in history that has shaped American education is the Goals 2000 Education America Act.

The Goals 2000 was passed in 1994 by President Bill Clinton and was considered to be one of the biggest educational intrusions by the government of time. In the book Politics of Accountability: The rise and fall of Goals 2000 states “ Goals 2000 was a revolutionary attempt to promote educational reform on a national scale….Goals 2000 provided grants to states to develop their own standards and assessments systems linked to these standards”(Superfine, B 2005, 'The Politics of Accountability: The Rise and Fall of Goals 2000', American Journal Of Education, 112, 1, p. 10, ERIC, EBSCOhost, viewed 3 January 2014). This reform did not work primarily because of the states allowance of running the education system was based mostly upon politics rather than actual need of the districts. Finally one of the most influential events that have had a direct effect on our generation was the “No Child Left Behind Act”, signed into law by President George W. Bush in 2010.

It was a set of Education Standards for all schools to go by in order to “ensure” a child is receiving all the same education and meeting the standards provided by the government by a series of testing throughout the year all this in order to maintain and receive federal funds. In summary the bill was “ aimed at