If there is a single area in which Victorian American differs from Victorian Britain, it would surely be the area of children's education. Requirements for general, free, and compulsory publication education for children of all classes were slow to be established in Britain. Conversely, such tenets were part of the basic foundations of America, with public schools and free education being established in the 17th century. One can imagine a great many reasons for this - but perhaps chief among them was the concept that in America, one's station in life would be established by one's abilities, not by one's heredity. Hence, schools were made available to all classes; education was never regarded as a luxury belonging only to the rich and titled. One can also assume that controversies over how children should be educated have raged in this country since the very first school was founded.

Books for Our Children (Atlantic Monthly, 1865)

On the need to develop "our own literature" for the education of the American child.

Education (Atlantic Monthly, 1875)

An overview of children's education in America.

The First Century of the Republic #13: Educational Progress, by Eugene Lawrence (Harper's Monthly, 1875B)

(Read the complete series.)

English Spelling and Spelling Reform (Scribners, 1879B)

The Wilson Industrial School and Mission (Harper's Monthly, 1882A)

An asylum for poor girls of New York.

Handwork in Public Schools, by George G. Leland (Century Magazine, 1882B)

Work created by children of the Hollingsworth School in Philadelphia.

Practical Education in the Common Schools (Century Magazine, 1882B)

The Problem of Spelling Reform, by T.R. Lounsbury (Century Magazine, 1883A)

The Massachusetts Experiment in [Children's] Education, by Charles Barnard (Century Magazine, 1883B)

"The conventional school, with its book-lessons and recitations, is familiar to all; but the new public school, with its realistic methods, its entertaining sessions devoted apparently more to talking than recitation, more to amusement than drudgery, is unknown as yet except to the fortunate children of a few towns. We recently visited a model primary school-room in eastern Massachusetts..."

On the Training of Children's Voices, (Letters to the Editor) (Century Magazine, 1883B)

Over-organized School Systems (Century Magazine, 1883B)

National Aid to Education, by J.B. Peterson (Century Magazine, 1884A)

Hand-Craft and Rede-Craft, by D.C. Gilman (Century Magazine, 1886B)

Subtitled "A plea for the first-named," this article is a plea for teaching hand-crafts in schools as well as "book-knowledge."

English as She Is Taught, by Mark Twain (Century Magazine, 1887)

Mark Twain's delightful introduction to the book by that name - a 19th-century compilation of school-child bloopers that, as Twain points out, is an interesting commentary on the American educational system. (Get the book itself in our Bookstore!)

Industrial Training in the Public Schools (Century Magazine, 1888A)

Manual Training in Common Schools (Century Magazine, 1888A)

Moral Teaching in Our Schools, by Mary E. Beedy (Century Magazine, 1888A)

The Public School Problem, by Caroline B. Le Row (Century Magazine, 1888A)

An argument against "cramming."

Individuality in Teaching (Century Magazine, 1888B)

"The power to think for one's self has too little standing in the schools..."

An Industrial Idea in Education, by Charles M. Carter (Century Magazine, 1888B)

The Democratic Ideal in Education, by Felix Adler (Century Magazine, 1889B)

Manual Training as a Factor in Modern Education, by Francis Newton Thorpe (Century Magazine, 1889B)

The New Movement in [Public] Education (Century Magazine, 1890B)

The Record of Virtue: An Experiment in Moral Chemistry, by Anna Garlin Spencer (Century Magazine, 1891A)

An interesting account of a teacher's efforts to instill "moral training" in his students by the use of a competition encouraging the students to keep a "record of virtue."

Parks and Playgrounds for Children (Century Magazine, 1892A)

The New York Society for Parks and Playgrounds for Children, incorporated in 1890.

The Kindergarten in a Nutshell (Century Magazine, 1893A)

A Boston Schoolgirl in 1771, by Alice Morse Earl (Atlantic Monthly, 1893)

Charming excerpts from the diary of 12-year-old Anna Green Winslow. (Anna thinks quite a lot of nice clothes!)

The Kindergarten Movement, by Talcott Williams (Century Magazine, 1893A)

School Libraries, by H.E. Scudder (Atlantic Monthly, 1893)

American Schoolgirl Life, by M.B. Byrde (Girl's Own Paper, 1894)

Memories of life in an American parochial school.

The Ethical Problem of the Public Schools, by William Frederick Slocum Jr. (Atlantic Monthly, 1894)

The question is whether ethics and morals should be taught in the public schools -- the argument being that these can no longer be relied upon to be taught at home.

Military Drill in the Schools, by Benjamin Trueblood (Century Magazine, 1894B)

This author argues that military drill will not benefit students physically, nor will it actually improve national defense preparedness.

Playgrounds for City Schools, by Jacob A. Riis (Century Magazine, 1894B)

The Reform of Secondary Education in the United States, by Nicholas Murray Butler (Atlantic Monthly, 1894)

Religion in the Public Schools, by Alexander Johnston of Princeton (Century Magazine, 1895B)

Two Ways of Teaching English (Century Magazine, 1896A)

Out-of-Door Schools, by Elizabeth V. Brown (St. Nicholas, 1900A)

On the need to get children out of the classroom to learn from museums, parks, nature, etc.

Children's Libraries in America, by Charlotte O'Conor Eccles (Windsor Magazine, 1903A)

"Free public libraries are a distinctive feature of municipal life in America, and are used by all classes of the community to an extent unusual [in Britain]. In the United States such institutions often become social as well as literary centres." The author doubts that there will be such a demand for libraries in the UK as in the US, where "culture, if superficial, is wide."

• See also Children's Education in Victorian Britain.