Several external factors led to the need for new ways of thinking about education in the United States. Factors such as immigration, the Civil War, and the Second Industrial Revolution all heavily challenged and impacted education in America. During this time, tens of millions of immigrants came to the United States …show more content…
The sloyd system was intended to be taught by individuals educated as teachers and not by artisans of the industry. Principles of the sloyd were that students would be taught to make useful items rather than articles of luxury. The articles the students created would start with simple items and work up in complexity (Gordon, 2014). Woodworking was introduced as part of elementary school as it was seen to help developmental capacity, physical dexterity and an appreciation for work. The process looked to teach the ability to follow directions, cleanliness, development of attention to detail, and an awareness of industry. In the middle of the 1800’s, there was a growing dissatisfaction with the legislative body and its class structure which led to a move away from the state-churches to the formation of independent churches. Subsequently, the well-organized educational system that had been present began to fail and the system was in need of reform. The Swedish government passed school reform in 1842 that funded schools in every diocese, and additional private funded schools were established as well, but did not receive financial support until 1872. The father of the sloyd systems of education was thought to be Otto A. Salomon, who served as the Swedish leader of the system from 1847 until his passing in 1907. In 1872, …show more content…
The first of these acts was sponsored by Vermont Congressman Justin Morrill. According to Scott (2014), the Morrill Act or Land-Grant College Act of 1862 “was one of the most important pieces of legislation concerning vocational and higher education ever passed by Congress” (p. 183). The Land-Grant Act provided each state with 30,000 acres of federal land for each congressional representative for that state (Gordon, 2014). With this acreage, each state was to sell or lease the land in order to establish new schools or support existing schools that would specialize in agriculture, mechanical arts, and domestic sciences (Gordon, 2014; Sarkees-Wircenski & Wircenski, 1999). According to Miller & Gregson (1999), “the Morrill Act and its amendments provided a foundation for present-day agricultural colleges and many of the state universities” (p. 6). One such university was the University of Wisconsin-Madison when it was named Wisconsin’s Land-Grant institution in