How Is American Education Compared To The Twentieth Century?

The twentieth century was a time in America that was not suitable for children. Immigration was something that our country was deeply familiar with. With immigration came children-- children that we were not ready for. While there were a good number of middle class families, the poverty rate was also increasing. You could always find children enduring in child labor, poor or not. These jobs varied from working on the family farm to shining strangers’ shoes. Education began to bloom in the 1900s. The YMCA and Boy Scouts came into the picture to try and free children from child labor. Schooling was another aspect that allowed children to act like children should. The twentieth century made the one room schoolhouse famous. School supplies consisted of chalk, a blackboard, and a few books. No school lunch program, so many children brought lunch with them in a metal pail. The list goes on and on, but it puts it into perspective how different education is now compared to the twentieth century.

Margaret Sanger was that person whose bravery would change how people saw this upcoming generation. Sanger was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse (Biography). These assets helped her in writing her speech, “The Children’s Era”. She gave this speech at a public meeting at Scottish Rite Hall in New York, as part of the Sixth International Neo-Malthusian and Birth Control Conference. In her powerful speech she brings up the issues of parents not being suitablerents not taking responsibility for their children. Sanger argues that parents should be required to go through examinations to determine if they are mentally and physically fit to be the responsibility of the next