Public School System In The Early 1800s

“Familiar structures of rank and privilege no longer existed. The population was literally in motion, with workers moving into cities and mill towns to take jobs in the newly industrializing northern economy; other people migrating westward to settle new land in the territories; and immigrants arriving by the boatload in eastern seaboard cities. There were few social services. Public health institutions were all but nonexistent. The public school system was rudimentary.”
The early nineteenth century proved to be a major turning point for the United States. It was the start of the industrialization era. Factories rose in bigger cities, next to rivers and in the countryside. There was a labor demand during this industrial revolution. They
Orphans are classified as children without parents. This was not the case in this era. Courts took children from poor parents, parents who were neglecting formal education, not teaching trade, were idle, dissolute, unchristian, unfit or incapable. Orphanages were misnamed because of this. These institutes weren’t just for children without parents; only ten to twenty percent of the children were actual orphans.
Religious groups normally founded orphanages. Protestant orphanages increased in the 1860’s, but in 1870 Roman Catholics still outnumbered the Protestants and continued to be the leading founders of orphanages until the 1880’s. The number of orphanages also grew rapidly between 1830 and 1850. In 1830 the United States had a total of twenty-three orphanages, by 1850 just New York had twenty-seven.
By 1830 “an embryonic reform movement had begun”, it removed dependent children from the teeming poorhouses and placed them in large orphan asylums. Many private corporations, such as the New York Refuge (1824) received public funds, due to the Refuge Movement (1824-1857), and cared for the neglected and delinquent children in large institution that separated juveniles from adult criminals and paupers. An anti-institution movement developed in the mid 1850’s, the goal was to place poor city children in country foster placements rather than in large city
By 1879 the Children’s Aid Society had sent 40,000 homeless or destitute children to homes around the nation. The Children’s Aid Society led to orphan trains. Between 1890 and 1930 orphans were put on trains and shipped west to farming families, or to farms for labor. Foster care slowly replaced orphanages. In 1930, most orphanages were turned into small, friendly group homes and had the option of foster care. By 1970 foster care had completely replaced most orphanages.
“Conditions varied, but tended not to be good.” “He came across another story about Jewish kids saying kaddish for their orphanage’s wretched cook - - in the hope that she would