Michael Studeman

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.