Prison Reform - Joe M

In 1841 a woman named Dorothea Dix didn’t like the way that inmates and mentally ill people were treated. Dorothea then went before the Legislature of the state of Massachusetts and tried to get them to do something about the mistreatment of the inmates and the mentally ill persons. After hearing Dorothea Dix the lawmakers voted to create public asylums for the insane. After this Dix went to prisons all around the country. After she made reports in favor of the mentally ill more states made more asylums too. She campaigned for the rest of her life.

I think this reform was successful because according to virtualology .com some of her mental hospitals still are still around in New Jersey. To me this proves that this reform was successful.

Education Reform - Lauren

People wanted to make education more available to children for boys and girls of ALL races. The main guy involved in this is Horace Mann. He was lucky to even get to attend school. He saw that kids would destroy the property around them, such as setting fires. Mann wanted these children to have a chance in life and behave well.

When Mann became the supervisor of education in Massachusetts he told about how he wanted to create more public schools and how he thought people should pay taxes to buy schools. The schools before were crowded and the teachers didn’t have motivation to come to school because of little pay and they were uneducated. Mann convinced the people to pay taxes to build better schools, to pay teachers more, and to pay for the teachers to get more education.

Many states started to use Horace’s ideas. White kids especially boys went to a free public school. America didn’t offer education to everyone especially girls and African Americans. Many states voted to keep African Americans out of public schools. Few girls and African Americans attended school. As time went on, girls were accepted into schools more and more but there was still little opportunity for African Americans. Horace Mann wanted to do something about that so he became a president of a college for men and women of all races.

I believe this reform is very successful. According to http://www.jbhe.com/preview/winter07preview.html over the past 16 years black men have improved their graduation rate from 28 percent to 36 percent.

Prison Reform - Joe N

Dorthea Dix began teaching Sunday school at a prison. She was horrified to see inmates in chains and crowed jail cells. She visited 100’s of jails in Massachusetts.

The prisoners were in for meaningless crimes. There were people who owed money and couldn’t work to pay it off. Mentally ill were also treated very bad they were beaten for acting out. They were whipped and thrown in dirty cells.

She went to the Massachusetts legislature and proposed to stop the ill from being beat and clean up prisons. They agreed to make mental hospitals and cleaned up prisons.

According to http://www.hoptechno.com/book36.htm there are there are over 3,000 mental health organizations throughout the country this shows Dorothea Dix reform was successful.

Education Reform - Zach

In the 1800s Education needed improving. There were not many public schools so not many kids could go to school unless they were rich. Teachers didn’t get enough education and schools were overcrowded. Horace Mann wanted this to change so communities weren’t bad. A reform that happened was that girls and African Americans could go to school. According to ask.com there are schools everywhere and rapidly growing.

Women’s Rights - Anna

“And ain’t I a woman?” Women’s rights movements in the 1800's

In the mid-eighteen hundreds, women could not vote, hold office, own land, or have control their own money. Their husbands could abuse or discipline in any way that they wanted. They were inspired by the Second Great Awakening and abolitionists, and women decided to speak out for the rights that they deserve.

Two women, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton met at an anti-slavery convention in London, the year of 1940. After being outraged that women could not speak at the meeting and having to sit behind the curtain, these two women decided to make an active movement on women’s rights. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor, was rejected by twenty-nine medical schools and even when she graduated, top of her class, hospitals refused to work with her. This is when Stanton and Mott realized that women had to team up to defend their rights.

Women met at Seneca Falls, New York on July 19, 1848 for a women’s rights movement led by Stanton and Mott. They used the Declaration of Independence as a model, and made the Declaration of Sentiments declaring that women should have the same rights as men and should be able to vote and work any job that they want to. This Seneca Falls movement helped women like Sojourner Truth speak out with her famous “And ain’t I a woman?” speech.

I think this movement was very successful. According to http://www.womenwork.org/policy/factwomenwork.htm, in 2006, women made up 46% of the workforce. Women can now vote, hold office, own their own land, and protect themselves from abusive husbands.

8th Grade Reform Blog Assignment

Salem Lutheran School's 8th Grade class in St. Louis, MO has an assignment. They have to post a blog about one reform we have talked about in class.


In that report they have to write about what the problem was during the Reform era. Then they have to write about the people involved in the reform. Next they have to explain the reforms that came about as a result of this time period and these people. Another aspect of their post to this blog will be an historical picture they find on the internet. (Extra credit for finding an appropriate video to post on our blog.)


Next, they need to say if this reform movement was successful. They need to find one fact from today that supports their opinion. (Their sentence should start with "According to . . . " so they work on citing their sources.)


The final part of the assignment is to post a comment about someone else's blog entry. That part will need to be done sometime over the weekend and is due by 10:30 on Sunday night (Feb. 28th)


Check back for their writing!


Mr. Akerson - 8th grade teacher

WHO IS THIS MAN? WHAT DID HE WANT TO CHANGE?