Vocationalism.

As American schools underwent intense transformation in the decade of 1900-1909, probably no aspect of their transformation was more fundamental than the introduction of vocational education into the classroom. Increasingly in these years, the nation's schools assumed the task of training workers who could operate productively in the changing economy. This development happened at a time when many Americans thought it appropriate that the public schools should help enhance the nation's economic growth, and the widespread acceptance of vocationalism by the schools meant they were becoming closely aligned with economic concerns. In fact, the philosophical basis for schooling in the United States increasingly changed as vocationalism became more prevalent in the schools. In earlier times workers learned vocational skills from the family, from apprenticeships, or from other less formal arrangements. In the new educational system in the years 1900-1909, however, it was the...