Review the prompt and the classmates discussion post. Respond to discussion post.

Prompt:

This “age of improvement” held both a collective (public) component and an individual (private) component. That is, the impulse for reform aimed at improving American society by elevating the moral behavior of individual Americans. Discuss this process by examining the various reform movements that defined the age. How did this impulse for reform seek to impact the broader political, cultural, and economic landscape of American society? When responding to your peers, discuss what the reformers hoped to accomplish. What impact did their efforts have?

Discussion Post:

Change was made to improve American society by elevating the moral behavior of individual Americans. Reforms helped shape America. The economic development of the time meant that there were problems that needed solutions. “Troubled by the pains and dislocations of sudden expansion, cities were especially ripe for moral crusades.”[1] Some of these reforms included public education, women’s suffrage, and health.

Most of the American people who were involved in reform, were regular citizens, not leaders.[2] Hundreds of thousands of people were involved in many causes. Many were involved in more than one cause. Men argues that anything more than a 10-hour work day was hazardous to their health. The Working Men’s party were insistent on the need for free public education.[3] Public education would be able to educate journeymen to be able to become masters, employers, and petty capitalists.[4] Equal rights definition did not include women or African Americans. The American Hydropathic Society, which helped [provide a new stage in health reform, endorsed medical training for women who many considered it a sisterhood, not to mention an escape from their families. The effects of health reform helped promote exercise and fresh air and had an impact on the development of school systems. William Andrus Alcott, who favored health reform, promoted the idea that student needed to practice good hygiene, exercise, and be taught the elements of good health.[5]