Common, Delinquent, and Special: On the Formalization of Common Schooling in the American States

Abstract

This article proposes that the formalization of common schooling in the American states derives from the sequence of institutional formation beginning with the state asylum, moving to the reformatory, and then moving to compulsory attendance. The analysis of this sequence broadens the conception of American education and demonstrates that it is composed of three worlds: the common, the delinquent, and the special. Although distinguished by their separate institutional settings, the enactment of compulsory attendance linked each world through the criteria that regulated access to the common school. From the early 19th century, these institutional linkages demonstrate an integration of delinquent and exceptional youth within public education. The midcentury formalization of special education categories is one contemporary outcome, inverting the original organization and purpose of common schooling.