After School Programs In The 1900's

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After school programs are programs that operate on a regular basis during non-school hours throughout the academic year. They are typically supervised by adults and offer more than one activity. They are group based. (equity campaign) The philosophy and demographics of after school programs have changed since their inception in the 1900’s. These changes coincide with historical events. After school programs were created to provide children with child care and protection during after school hours. The emergence of after school programs can be attributed to two events. The first event is the decrease in child labor during the 19th century (Halpern, 2002). The second is the growth of the education system (Katz, 1976). By 1918, every state…show more content…
These programs were known as boys clubs (Halpern, 2002).These early after school programs were designed by middle class adults to give working class children in major cities a refugee. The early programs provided games and were set up in store fronts and churches (Halpern, 2002). By the middle of the 1900’s, after school programs began to expand in locations and size. The programs were mostly privately funded (Halpern, 2002). Boy’s clubs were the largest funders. Many boy’s clubs had their own buildings, which served 200 to 300 children a day. Fund raising was essential for the maintenance of these clubs. Most after school programs during this time served boys and girls although they were separated (Halpern, 2002). The after school programs in the early 1900’s offered clubs and activities of interest to the children. These early programs were created primarily for children from immigrant families. After school programs during the 19th century had two distinct goals. One was to provide care and protection the other was to create greater opportunity for play (Halpern, 2002; Hirsh,…show more content…
This can be attributed to an increase of women in the workforce. From 1960 to 2002, employment rates for women with children rose to over 60 percent. This was an increase of 40 percent from the first part of the 1900’s (Gardner, Roth, Brooks-Gunn, 2009). This resulted in a greater need for child care after school. During this time, funding for after school programs also increased. The Federal Child Care and Development Program in the 1990’s provided some public funding for after school programs. In 1994, the federal government passed the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program (CCLC) (Hirsh, 2011; Halpern, 2002). The program provided funding for after school programs. By 2003, the CCLC had a budget of $1 billon supplied by the federal government (Hirsh, 2011). A greater demand for after school programs, and an increase in funding increased the availability of after school program. In 2003, 75 percent of public elementary school reported having some kind of after school program onsite (After School Alliance,

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