EDU 120 Study Exams Questions/Answers Graded A+
2025/2026
Knowledge formation (human capital) for both individual and societal goals - What is the
purpose of education?
1. Political goals of schooling
2. Social goals of schooling
3. Economic goals of schooling - What are the three broad goals of schooling?
What is included in the political goals of teaching? - Maintain political order, prevent
violence, cultivate leaders, etc
ex. Pledge of allegiance
What is included in the social goals of teaching? - Character education, health + sex
education, social clubs, extracurriculars
ex. The food pyramid
What is included in the economic goals of teaching? - Preparing individuals for further
schooling, anti poverty programs, compensatory schooling,
How is education a private good? - One consumes the material; can't have it taken
away
How is education a public good? - An educated individual is good for the public; benefits
to society in productive workforce
Why is school compulsory? - Partly to put young people in schools and out of factories;
safety for the streets; children as a vehicle to educate their families
The weird trend concerning satisfaction with own child's education vs satisfaction with
US schools as a whole - Overwhelmingly parents are around 77% satisfied with their
own child's education BUT simultaneously are only 48% satisfied with US education as
a whole
What did pre- American Revolution (1700s) schools look like? - Agricultural society feat.
"short term schools" (10-12 weeks per year); largely in the British colonies, many
charged fees
Who authored the first bill concerning widespread diffusion of education in 1779? -
Thomas Jefferson authored "Bill for the more general diffusion of knowledge" in 1779
, What would a Jefferson system of schooling look like? - All white males receiving
education until a certain age whereafter the elites would be separated from the regulars
and trained to run the country
What main thing did Jefferson want to teach the American people via education in
schools? - How to self govern; "The qualifications for self-government are not innate.
They are the result of habit and long training. Above all things I hope the education of
the common people will be attended to." --Jefferson, 1824
How were native Americans treated in early schools? - Government funded Indian
boarding schools, often run by missionaries, to assimilate Indians to American
(European) values.
Who was Horace Mann? - "Father of education"; Developed idea of education as state
responsibility funded by national gov; idea of "common education" in the nation and
"equalizing opportunity"; first Secretary to the Massachusetts State Board of Education
from 1837-1848
What role did Horace Mann's ideal school serve in society? (quote) - "It is a free school
system, it knows no distinction of rich and poor... it throws open its doors and spreads
the table of its bounty for all the children of the state... Education, then, beyond all other
devices of human origin, is the equalizer of the conditions of men, the great balance
wheel of the social machinery." --- Horace Mann (1837)
What did Horace Mann's ideal school look like? (characteristics) - -No tuition, funded by
local property taxes
-Governed by local school committees
-Usually up to 8 years of instruction
-Open to all white children
-Taught core values of citizenship (pan-Protestant perspective)
-Basic literacy and numeracy
Was primary schooling always compulsory? - State specific, particularly slow in the
South; Variation in attendance laws, from minimum
of 7 to maximum of 16 years
Were early American schools administrators accepting of diversity? - No; many believed
the "goal of school 'to teach an appreciation of the institutions of this country and an
absolute forgetfulness of all...other countries because of descent or birth."
What were the key features of Progressive education (1890- 1950)? - Critique of the
classical curriculum as irrelevant and not attending to the needs of a changing modern
industrial society; Origin of the comprehensive secondary
school with expanded curricular offerings
2025/2026
Knowledge formation (human capital) for both individual and societal goals - What is the
purpose of education?
1. Political goals of schooling
2. Social goals of schooling
3. Economic goals of schooling - What are the three broad goals of schooling?
What is included in the political goals of teaching? - Maintain political order, prevent
violence, cultivate leaders, etc
ex. Pledge of allegiance
What is included in the social goals of teaching? - Character education, health + sex
education, social clubs, extracurriculars
ex. The food pyramid
What is included in the economic goals of teaching? - Preparing individuals for further
schooling, anti poverty programs, compensatory schooling,
How is education a private good? - One consumes the material; can't have it taken
away
How is education a public good? - An educated individual is good for the public; benefits
to society in productive workforce
Why is school compulsory? - Partly to put young people in schools and out of factories;
safety for the streets; children as a vehicle to educate their families
The weird trend concerning satisfaction with own child's education vs satisfaction with
US schools as a whole - Overwhelmingly parents are around 77% satisfied with their
own child's education BUT simultaneously are only 48% satisfied with US education as
a whole
What did pre- American Revolution (1700s) schools look like? - Agricultural society feat.
"short term schools" (10-12 weeks per year); largely in the British colonies, many
charged fees
Who authored the first bill concerning widespread diffusion of education in 1779? -
Thomas Jefferson authored "Bill for the more general diffusion of knowledge" in 1779
, What would a Jefferson system of schooling look like? - All white males receiving
education until a certain age whereafter the elites would be separated from the regulars
and trained to run the country
What main thing did Jefferson want to teach the American people via education in
schools? - How to self govern; "The qualifications for self-government are not innate.
They are the result of habit and long training. Above all things I hope the education of
the common people will be attended to." --Jefferson, 1824
How were native Americans treated in early schools? - Government funded Indian
boarding schools, often run by missionaries, to assimilate Indians to American
(European) values.
Who was Horace Mann? - "Father of education"; Developed idea of education as state
responsibility funded by national gov; idea of "common education" in the nation and
"equalizing opportunity"; first Secretary to the Massachusetts State Board of Education
from 1837-1848
What role did Horace Mann's ideal school serve in society? (quote) - "It is a free school
system, it knows no distinction of rich and poor... it throws open its doors and spreads
the table of its bounty for all the children of the state... Education, then, beyond all other
devices of human origin, is the equalizer of the conditions of men, the great balance
wheel of the social machinery." --- Horace Mann (1837)
What did Horace Mann's ideal school look like? (characteristics) - -No tuition, funded by
local property taxes
-Governed by local school committees
-Usually up to 8 years of instruction
-Open to all white children
-Taught core values of citizenship (pan-Protestant perspective)
-Basic literacy and numeracy
Was primary schooling always compulsory? - State specific, particularly slow in the
South; Variation in attendance laws, from minimum
of 7 to maximum of 16 years
Were early American schools administrators accepting of diversity? - No; many believed
the "goal of school 'to teach an appreciation of the institutions of this country and an
absolute forgetfulness of all...other countries because of descent or birth."
What were the key features of Progressive education (1890- 1950)? - Critique of the
classical curriculum as irrelevant and not attending to the needs of a changing modern
industrial society; Origin of the comprehensive secondary
school with expanded curricular offerings
