Throughline

The First Department of Education

35 snips
Jun 12, 2025
Michael Studeman, an Assistant Professor of Rhetoric at Penn State, dives into the intriguing history of the first U.S. Department of Education created in 1867 after the Civil War. He discusses its ambitious inception aimed at unifying a fractured nation yet highlights how it was essentially shut down a year later. Studeman reveals how figures like Henry Barnard and Frederick Douglass were pivotal in advocating for educational equity, reflecting on the struggles for literacy among formerly enslaved Americans and the ongoing debates over federal versus local educational control.
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INSIGHT

Fragmented Pre-Civil War Education

  • Before the Civil War, education was localized and fragmented, mostly run by churches and communities.
  • There was no federal role or federal school system in education.
ANECDOTE

Frederick Douglass' Literacy Journey

  • Frederick Douglass learned to read despite laws against Black literacy during slavery.
  • He used creative methods like competing with white children and writing his own pass to freedom.
INSIGHT

Purpose of First Education Department

  • The first Department of Education aimed to collect education data, not control schools.
  • James Garfield believed shining light on education could unify the nation post-Civil War.
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