Private companies contracted with prisons to use inmate labor. Companies provided raw materials; prisoners produced finished goods. State made profit; company got cheap labor.

Shoes, barrels, furniture, tools, clothing, chairs, brushes, carpets. Auburn Prison became a factory.

By 1830s, Auburn Prison was self-supporting. By 1840s, it was generating profit for the state.

Democracy requires educated voters who can read, think, and participate. Ignorant citizens cannot self-govern. Schools create informed citizenry.

Industrial economy needs literate, numerate workers. Education creates productive labor force. States with good schools would have economic advantage.

Cities filled with poor immigrants threaten stability. Education assimilates and disciplines. Schools teach obedience, punctuality, respect for authority. Prevention of crime through moral training.

Schools as institutions of character formation. Teaching Protestant values and middle-class morality. Creating virtuous citizens who internalize self-discipline.

Education as pathway to success. Poor children could rise through merit and learning. Alternative to hereditary privilege. (This was the promise, anyway.)

Convinced legislature to double state education budget. Required local districts to provide minimum funding. Built new schools across state.

Established first teacher training schools in America (1839). Created professional standards for teachers. Developed teaching methods and curriculum.

Common subjects: Reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography, history. Plus moral instruction through McGuffey Readers and Bible study. Age-graded classrooms.

Created county superintendents to inspect schools. Wrote annual reports on education conditions. Published Common School Journal to spread ideas.

Pushed for longer school terms — from 3 months to 6 months minimum. Eventually toward modern school calendar.

Better buildings with ventilation, heating, lighting. Blackboards, maps, books for every school. Making school environment conducive to learning.

School bell at precise time. Late students punished. Preparation for factory clock discipline.

Teacher's word is law. No questioning or talking back. Training for hierarchical workplace.

Hours of enforced quiet and stillness. Bodies disciplined along with minds. Preparation for sedentary labor.

Students constantly compared and graded. Winners and losers identified. Meritocracy internalized.

Different expectations for boys and girls. Girls taught domestic virtues; boys taught leadership. Reinforcing separate spheres.

History lessons emphasizing American exceptionalism. Patriotic rituals. Assimilation of immigrants.

McGuffey Readers teaching honesty, industry, sobriety, deferred gratification. Middle-class values as universal.

Needed children's labor income. Couldn't afford to lose their work. Resented middle-class values being imposed. Saw schools as removing children from family economy.

Catholics objected to Protestant instruction. Wanted to preserve native languages. Feared assimilation eroding cultural identity. Irish especially resistant.

Farm families needed children for seasonal labor. Long distances to schools. Preferred local control to state standardization.

Didn't want their children mixing with poor and immigrants. Continued using private schools and academies. Resented taxes for common schools.

Reformers believed the right structure could transform character. But can you engineer virtue? Or do institutions just create compliance?

Reformers claimed universal values but imposed middle-class Protestant standards. Whose morality gets institutionalized?

Were these institutions about helping people—or managing them? About liberation—or discipline? Can reform be both compassionate and coercive?

Reformers removed people from families and communities for "their own good." What is lost when problems are institutionalized?