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After-School Education

After-school education consists of structured time outside of formal schooling at youth-serving agencies that offer academic activities (homework help and tutoring, field trips, community service) as well as nonacademic activities such as cooking, sports, crafts, and unstructured playtime. Frequently aimed at low-income, minority urban youth, after-school programs incorporate both enrichment and protectionist aspects and function either independently of (or supplemental to) school activities. This entry recalls the history of after-school education and current issues related to practice.

Nineteenth-Century Programs

After-school programs began in the United States during the nineteenth century in response to the following social trends: (a) the increasing population of children, (b) the gradual decline in the need for child labor, (c) the growth of schooling resulting from the passage of compulsory education laws, and (d) immigration. There was, in particular, a growing fear of children who lived in tenements and slums who had nothing to do and nowhere to go except the streets. During this period, “the street” became known as a gathering place for working-class and immigrant boys and, eventually, girls.

Most early programs were informal, unstructured, and not particularly educational, although some provided religious and moral instruction along with a good dose of middle-class values such as cleanliness, punctuality, and honesty. During the Progressive Era, children's out-of-school time made the transition from unstructured time spent on the street to semistructured opportunities created by social reformers intent on rescuing children from the physical and moral hazards of the streets.

Most after-school programs shared the following aims: to protect children and control their activities, to provide order and a safe space, to socialize children and enrich their lives, to Americanize immigrant children and support their pride in “home” cultures, to reinforce the work of schools, and to nurture children's individuality and help them adjust to societal demands. On the one hand, social reformers wanted to protect children and families from the rampant poverty, dangerous working conditions, and poor health that accompanied urbanization and industrialization. On the other, they were influenced by the child study movement, which, during the late nineteenth century, considered childhood to be a distinct stage of life. John Dewey and other Progressive educators argued that, as a result, children needed real-life problems and interaction with the social environment. In addition to focusing on the individual, Progressives expressed a concern for society. After-school programs were supposed to keep society safe from boys and girls who would otherwise engage in crime, sex, school truancy, and other socially unacceptable behaviors.

Boys' and Girls' Clubs

By the late 1890s, nascent after-school programs generally expanded to include playrooms and gymnasiums. Around 1900, continued worry about unsuper-vised and undersocialized working-class boys prompted the addition of “boys' work” or manual training and shop classes. Between 1900 and 1920, boys' and girls' work continued to expand, sponsored by settlement houses, private sources, and churches. In 1905, approximately fifty local after-school programs in Boston formed a national organization that came to be known as the Boys' Clubs of America, with reformer Jacob Riis as its first president.

By the late 1920s, 120 boys' clubs in 87 cities were members of the Boys' Club Federation. Most of the programs operated five or six days a week, from after school until the evening. A nominal membership fee was charged, and Saturday activities (particularly field trips) were common. Activities were arranged in terms of “classes” or focused group activity, or clubs (photography club, history club, science club, dance club, etc.). In order to keep children busy by involving them in constant activity, some classes lasted only twenty minutes. There was some attempt to separate older and younger children because of their different interests. Most boys' clubs originally had playgrounds as well as a game room and other activity rooms. Then as now, the gym was the center of activity and basketball was a popular sport.

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