The origins of the American mass public education in the light of the 'Correspondence Theory'

The analysis of the authors belonging to the "Correspondence Theory" leaves little doubt that U.S educational expansion and school reform in 19. century was associated with the growing ascendancy of the capitalist mode of production. Discovered pattern comprehends accumulation in the dynamic, advanced sectors of the economy, the consequent integration of new workers into the wage labor system, the expansion of the urban working class and the reserve army, the emergence of political protest movements and the threat of social unrest, and, finally, the development of movements for educational expansion and reform. While the impetus for educational reform rarely came from impoverished disgruntled farmers or urban working class, the leadership of the movement was in the hands of a coalition of professionals and owners from the leading sectors of the economy who always succeeded in stamping its imprint on the form and direction of educational innovation.