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Аудирование
THE STORY OF AMERICAN SCHOOLS
The first schools in America started in the 1600s. The Puritans, that is people who left England because of their religious beliefs, wanted each person in New England to know the Bible. So they organised schools to teach religion and basic subjects. But in the 19th century large numbers of children did not attend school. The problem of children’s education started a great discussion in America. There were three groups of people who had different ideas.
One group of people said that young people should spend their time at home helping their families. As most Americans lived on farms there was always much agricultural work to be done.
The second group, mostly businessmen, believed that children should work at factories. America’s Industrial Revolution had begun, and this group knew that there would be many jobs in manu-facturing. Some young people were already working at factories. They were children from 7 to 16 years old and their working day lasted up to 13 hours each day.
The third group said that to help create a better society, young people should know how to write and express their own ideas. Therefore each state should develop a system of public schools, called free schools, or common schools. This idea was supported by Thomas Jefferson, the third president and later by Abraham Lincoln who said that education was very important for people.
In 1839 Horac Mann, a Massachusetts — born educator, a lawyer by profession, opened the first common school in the United States. He devoted all his life to this idea and soon a lot of common schools were opened throughout the state of Massachusetts. His example attracted national attention. Before long many states were doing what Massachusetts had done. The free school supporters had won the discussion.
Listen to the text «The Story of American Schools». Formulate your ideas about the prob-lems and place ticks in its corresponding boxes in the chart.
The children should Group 1 Group 2 Group 3
Learn to read, to write, etc. at free schools
Work at factories
Know the Bible
Help their families at home
The winners of the debate
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