1869: A report on schools in North Carolina

In this lesson, students look at a report on the status of education in North Carolina in 1869 and discuss the reasons given then for why the Governor and Legislature should support educating North Carolina's children. They are provided an opportunity to compare and contrast the 1869 document against their own ideas about the civic duty to attend school through age sixteen and its relative value to the state and the country.

A lesson plan for grades 9–12 English Language Arts and Social Studies

By Victoria Schaefer

Learn more

• Report of 1869 Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of North Carolina

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Related topics

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Legal

Learning outcomes

Students will:

• use the provided guided reading questions to analyse a primary source document.
• be able to explain why it is or is not valuable to the state to require students to attend school until at least the age of sixteen.

Teacher planning

Teacher background

The teacher can use this lesson as a reinforcement tool for students learning their legal duties as citizens versus their civic responsibilities. One of the five legal duties is to attend public school, in most states, until age 16. This lesson serves as an activity to reflect on the historical development of public education in North Carolina by using a primary source from 1869. The selections from the primary source serve as good prompts for questions, essays, and class discussions about the listed objectives. Finally, the discussions regarding public education issues in 1869 can be linked to current events in public education locally, statewide, or nationally, such as local efforts to pass bonds to support the building of new facilities.

Time required for lesson

30-45 minutes

Materials/Resources

• Copies of the Annual Report of the Superintendent Guided Reading
activity — one per student
• Pencils/pens

Students should either have computers with internet access or a copy of the selected pages from the primary source. In addition, students should have a copy of the guided reading.

Technology resources

• Computer lab or individual student computers
• Computer with internet connected to a multimedia projector
• Access to the Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of North Carolina, for the Year 1869 from Documenting the American South

Handouts

Pre-activities

Prior knowledge

Teacher should have taught the lessons on legal duties versus civic responsibilities. Students must know that attending school until age sixteen, in most states, is a legal duty.

Activities

1. To introduce the lesson, ask the students if they know who the State Superintendent of Public Instruction is and what his or her job entails
2. Remind students of their legal duty to attend school.
3. Next, teacher should project the cover of the primary source onto screen, introducing the report. The purpose of examining this document is to obtain a glimpse into schools of the past.
4. Model how to read and analyze a primary source document by discussing the following:
   1. Date of document.
   2. Who is the intended audience?
   3. Who is it from?
   4. What is it?
5. Next, explain the Annual Report of the Superintendent Guided Reading
   activity to the students. Provide students with access to the document — either hard copy or electronically. Next, do one of the following:
   1. Provide students time to work on the guided reading handout and collect the answers when they are finished. This can be either a class work or homework assignment, and it can be completed individually or in teams.
   2. Use the guided reading as a tool to facilitate class discussion as you review the document with the class and model how to analyze a primary source document.
6. Finally, conduct a whole-class discussion about what the students learned while answering questions about this primary source document. Ask them to explain why it is or is not valuable to the state to require students to attend school until at least the age of sixteen.

Assessment

You may assess students’ answers to the guided reading activity for accuracy and completion.

Comments

Inspiration for this lesson comes from the numerous complaints students make about the duty to attend school. Hopefully, this will help them to value their opportunity.