Describe the Historical Background of Business Education

      

Describe the Historical Background of Business Education

  

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Faith
Apprenticeship training was the earliest form of business education. An experienced bookkeeper that needed an assistant would train an apprentice. With time that apprentice would become a bookkeeper and eventually find it necessary to take apprentice as well.

Due to business growth, there was need for more bookkeepers than could be supplied by this method. Thus itinerant tutors began traveling around the country giving instruction in bookkeeping and penmanship.
Due to demands for commercial training, early private Latin grammar schools did include bookkeeping, penmanship and commercial arithmetic in their curricula.
In 1821, the 1st public high school i.e. the English Classical schools for boys, in Boston, included preparation of commercial carriers in a curriculum, generally aimed at preparation for college.
Due to the expansion of American business, more workers were needed than apprenticeship tutors or high schools, graduates could provide. As a result of expanding need for office workers, entrepreneurship established private business schools to supply necessary training. In 1832, Bartlett’s Business college in Philadelphia was the 1st to use the name “Business College” and Dolber’s commercials school (1835) in New York was the 1st Institution devoted exclusively to commercial education.
During this period teachers were usually chosen for their abilities in business position. Thus they had to devise their own teaching materials since there were no textbooks. The two main factors that contributed to the expansion of commercial education during the civil war and Reconstruction periods are;
i) The invention of Typewriter in 1868 by Christopher Lathen shoes
ii) The increase in the use of shorthand to record materials to be written
Silas S. Packard offered free tuition to encourage more women in his New York business school to train on how to "type-write". The federal government started to recruit women for its offices.

PUBLIC BUSINESS EDUCATION
Due to taxpayer demand, Business entered the public school in the last part of 19th century. Parents insisted that the public schools provide the business education they would otherwise have to buy it for their children in private business colleges. Business courses such as shorthand, typewriting and bookkeeping were introduced in many district schools. In 1890 a public high school devoted exclusively to commercial education was established in Washington D. C.
With the inclusion of business education in the public high school, business teachers have to meet professional standards for certification. At the beginning, college-trained teachers were not available and other teachers of academic subject had negative attitude toward the 1st high school business teachers. The high school business education as carried over almost bodily from private business school.
The publication of Conants’ had a significant influence on high school business education.
The communication phase of business was acquired from college in form of secretarial. Despite the fact the that communications have expanded, the major orientation of the private business college down to the present has been to provide vocational training for the office occupations and these institution have not generally attempted to train students for the distributive occupation.

Various factors contributed to the business subjects to be included in the public school systems. These factors are: -
(i) Public pressure compiled boards of education to include business subjects.
(ii) Parents also realized the need for business training so no need to send their children to private schools when public schools were available.
(iii) Principals found business training a way of increasing their enrolments and of preventing dropouts.
When business education began its rapid expansion in the Public schools, courses and teachers were merely transplanted from the private Business College and initially these courses and teachers had a rather rough time. Thus business educations was forced to the public schools by public demand and by private business school competition long before educational leaders were ready to admit it as valid part of high school curriculum.

The high school business education was carried over almost entire from the private school. Main features that were similar between the high school business education and those at private school are:
• Same subject were taught,
• Textbooks used were the same
• Tea hers with experience had taught in private school
• Inexperienced teachers who had attended a private school were teaching in public school
• Similar teaching methods were used
• Aim of the high school was identical with the aim of the private school
Thus to prepare students as competent business employee’s was the first and is still the chief objective of business education and we cannot justify the spending of public money on the type of education that pretends to prepare for business jobs but in realty does not produce acceptable results.

In early 20th century, there was tremendous demand for office workers and these made students to start taking business education courses in the public schools.
In 1903 the report prepared by a committee of nine, which was appointed by National Education Association (NEA), recommended that a four-year course of business training be made available in the public schools.

The public secondary school business education was also supported by the federal board for vocational education in 1919, which advocated a plan to promote general clerical training for high school students.
During the same period, another committee of NEA recommended a differentiated business programme for boys and girls. Programs that had been less than four years in length were extended to full four-year programs; and later, graduate education was introduced to provide a more thorough preparation for teachers.
Currently, most good four-and-five year teacher – education programme emphasize a strong background in general-education, business and related subject matter, general professional education work, special professional education and student teaching.
Conferences, in-services training institutes and workshops sponsored by these colleges have also contributed to the educational background of teachers.

BUSINESS TEACHER EDUCATION
In the colonies, there were few qualified teachers and most of the teaching was done by ministers and by those few persons who had been brought over from Europe as teachers. In 1818, a model school was established in Philadelphia as an attempt to provide the education of teachers. Due to the many problems facing the business education at the early time, then business personnel who had an interest in teaching business subject but had little or no preparation for teaching acted as teachers. They used the knowledge either got from the job or from private business schools. Their main aim was to prepare their pupils to master the simple skills that were needed for a job.

With the expansion of business subject offerings in the private business school and the introduction of business subjects in the high school, there grew a demand for qualified teachers of the subjects.

Those normal school graduates who had taken a few extra business courses after completing their preparation for teaching were called upon to teach the business subjects. By the late 1920s, many of the teachers colleges and state universities were providing courses in business teacher education.

Early preparation of business teachers emphasized considerable technical subject matter added to the regular normal school curriculum. Later, more attention was given to broadening the academic or general education background of those preparing to teach business subject matter and professional work.
Certification requirements established by states had their effect upon business teachers – education program and in some cases set the pattern of the teacher- education programs as well as well as the development of strong secretarial training programs though the broadening of the stenographic curriculum. It also recommended the development of a curriculum to train students for career's in selling.
Business education curriculums, in private business school expanded to give breath to the programs, but the programs in the private school had mainly been designed for training for office occupations.


(i) HIGHER EDUCATION FOR BUSINESS
Secondary schools did not offer quality education to meet the needs of a growing nation. Thus colleges were encouraged to offer business courses that were more practical.
In 1862, President Lincoln signed the Morrill Act that created favourable climate for the introduction of business education in the colleges. This act provided for the appropriation of lands in every state to promote education in the mechanics arts, agriculture and the natural sciences.
In 1869, General Robert E. Lee proposed to the trustees of what is now Washington and Lee University that they promote college education for business. This was seen as a boost to business education.

1851, the 1st formal collegiate school of business is the Wharton school of finance of the university of Pennsylvania was established.
New York university began, about 1900, to offer a college level program in business and the Amos Tuck School of Administration and finance at Dartmouth mouth in 1900, was the 1st to put education of business on an advanced level.

Due to the growing demand by students for business education at the college level, the development of college level business programs spread rapidly throughout the nation.


Titany answered the question on December 15, 2021 at 08:58


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