Cathedral of Culture: The Schoolhouse in American Educational Thought and Practice since 1820

Abstract

In the United States today schooling is thoroughly identified with the special place in which formal teaching and learning occur. So intimate is the link between schooling and the schoolhouse that in the 1960s “schools without walls,” where pupils learn while associating with adults in everyday environments, were hailed as revolutionary. Americans expect their young to be instructed in separate spaces, and since the inception of public education in the early nineteenth century, they have become increasingly conscious of the appearance, layout, and location of those spaces. They have invested enormous sums of money in the design and construction of schools; in turn, schools have become among the most numerous and easily identifiable public buildings in the United States. The schoolhouse is synonymous with education and a reminder to all of an important time in their lives.