Education reform
Education reform’
is a plan or movement
which attempts to bring about a systematic
change in educational theory or practice
across a community or society.
In western society, this has preoccupied
many famous intellectuals such as Plato[1]
and Rousseau[2]. In fact, Western civilization
developed classical education to economic-
ally teach skills and a framework for all hu-
man knowledge. Historically, many reforms,
such as religious education and universities,
originated to correct real or perceived de-
fects in classical education.
Since the 1850s, most reforms have at-
tempted to either make individuals more per-
fectly developed, or to reduce the costs or in-
crease the effectiveness of mass education.
For example, the Transcendental movement,
Joseph Lancaster’s London poor school, or
Deweyism.
Early history
Classical times
Plato believed that children would never
learn unless they wanted to learn. In The Re-
public, he said, "...compulsory learning never
sticks in the mind." An important educational
debate in the time of the Roman Empire
arose after Christianity had achieved broad
acceptance. The question concerned the edu-
cational value of pre-Christian classical
thought: "Given that the body of knowledge
of the pre-Christian Romans was heathen in
origin, was it safe to teach it to Christian
children?"
Modern reforms
Though educational reform doubtedly oc-
curred on a local level at various points
throughout history, the modern notion of
education reform is tied with the spread of
Compulsory education - education reforms
did not become widespread until after organ-
ized schooling was sufficiently systematized
to be ’reformed.’
In the modern world, economic growth
and the spread of democracy have raised the
value of education and increased the import-
ance of ensuring that all children and adults
have access to high quality and effective edu-
cation. Modern education reforms are in-
creasingly driven by a growing understand-
ing of what works in education and how to go
about successfully impr