The articles explains the evolution of Public Schools in Canada and all over the world.The social-historical perspective is better than the radical revisionist history because they concentrate on power and domination and lack to look at the positive thing that public schools brought. Lastly, social-historical perspective is better than this other perspective because it shows the primary aim of public school which is to create citizens that can lead a full life, participate in civic activities and even job preparation.

1. Running Head: THE EVOLUTION OF PUBLIC SCHOOLING 1
The Evolution of Public Schooling

2. THE EVOLUTION OF PUBLIC SCHOOLING 2
The primary historical perspective that shows how the public schooling system has evolved
is the social-historical perspective. According to Curtis (2015, p.5), the social historical
perspective states that the society is usually made up of very complex web meaning that there are
social forces and institution interactions that explain how the society is ordered. Schools are a part
of the dynamic forces that encompasses a society. The primary reason for claiming that the social
history perspective explains the evolution of schools is that education did not begin with the
Egerton Ryerson system. For instance, Prentice states that education was in existence even before
public schooling was brought to the Aboriginal people through the Indian residential school
system. Prentice claims that education in the early 19th century was formally characterized by
voluntary and informal education. Prentice goes ahead to show the existent of schools in the early
19th century by stating that some larger town had monitorial schools that used to be run by
religious societies (Prentice, p. 12).
The social-historical perspective is best suited for explaining the evolution of public
schooling than the radical revisionist because they show that education is something that individual
had an interest and willingly, they sought enlightenment through education. The radical revisionist
claimed that they viewed schools as a reactive institution that provided a powerful instrument of
social control (Clark, p. 2). The main reason that their perspective does not hold is that focus more
on only power and domination and lack to look at the positive thing that public schools brought
such as the public had benefitted from the public education which kept them informed on new
things. The moderate revisionist perspective at least may be used to compliment the social history
perspective because they explain the reason why the society and the government-funded the
construction of the first school (Ydesen, p. 7). The moderate revisionist claimed that since society

3. THE EVOLUTION OF PUBLIC SCHOOLING 3
had seen the fruits of public education, they were social forces that led both the society and the
government to support the development of public schools.
Furthermore, the social history perspective appeals to me more because it explains the main
reason for public schools. The primary reason for establishing public schools was to prepare a
student for either a job or even to help the child reach his full potential (Ydesen, p. 11). Since most
of the class session involves providing the student with instructional information and textbooks
the public school aimed at informing and transforming the student. The social history perspective
is better than the contemporary historical interpretation because it explains the aim of public
schools which is to inform and transform the people. The contemporary historical interpretation
claim that public schooling evolved through early school inspectors who recommend most of the
things that were taught in these public school (Curtis, p. 13). The main part that the contemporary
historical interpretation fails to look at is that education created thoughtful people meaning that
the early school inspector could not have recommended everything about schools.
The ethnographic history is designed such that it concentrates on certain individual
experiences to explain the evolution of public schools. Ethnography refers to a branch of
anthropology that provides a scientific description of individual societies (Axelrod, p. 24). The
social-historical perspective is better than the ethnographic history when it comes to explaining
the evolution of public schools because the ethnographic history perspective claim that public
schools were established by a small effective bureaucracy which through long bureaucratic
structures public school evolved. The main areas that the ethnographic historical perspective fails
to look at are the cultural dynamic of the people and how education, in general, enlighten people
by helping them to acquire knowledge that would help them get by and be functional adults.

4. THE EVOLUTION OF PUBLIC SCHOOLING 4
In conclusion, the social-historical perspective is appealing when it comes to explaining
the evolution of public schooling since it shows that education is something that existed and
schools are just an outcome of a society force whereby people wanted to get the knowledge that
would help them to be functional people in their day to day lives. The social-historical perspective
is better than the radical revisionist history because they concentrate on power and domination and
lack to look at the positive thing that public schools brought. Lastly, social-historical perspective
is better than this other perspective because it shows the primary aim of public school which is to
create citizens that can lead a full life, participate in civic activities and even job preparation.

5. THE EVOLUTION OF PUBLIC SCHOOLING 5
References
Axelrod, P. (1997). The promise of schooling: education in Canada, 1800-1914 (Vol. 1).
University of Toronto Press.
Clark, L. (2016). The Great Controversy Paradigm for History: Scholarship and Teaching. The
Journal of Biblical Foundations of Faith and Learning, 1(1), 2.
Curtis, B. (2015). The Normalization of Educational Relations in Ontario, Canada. Handbook of
Educational Ideas and Practices (Routledge Revivals).
Houston, S. E., & Prentice, A. L. (1988). Schooling and scholars in nineteenth-century Ontario.
University of Toronto Press.
McCrimmon, A. W. (2015). Inclusive education in Canada: Issues in teacher
preparation. Intervention in School and Clinic, 50(4), 234-237.
McCulloch, G. (2011). The struggle for the history of education. Routledge.
McManis, C. R. (1981). The History of First Century American Legal Education: A Revisionist
Perspective. Wash. ULQ, 59, 597.
Phillips, C. E. (1959). The development of education in Canada.
Prentice, A. (2004). The school promoters: Education and social class in mid-nineteenth century
Upper Canada. University of Toronto Press.
Ydesen, C. (2018). Ruling by schooling Quebec: conquest to liberal governmentality–a historical
sociology, by Bruce Curtis, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2012.