Final answer:
The industrial revolution influenced children and learning by molding them into disciplined laborers and teaching values of hard work, discipline, and conformity to social norms, overshadowing individual development while creating a competitive, bureaucratic learning environment.
Step-by-step explanation:
The passage suggests that the industrial revolution had various impacts on children and learning. It seems that children were often conditioned to fit into the labor market from a young age. This period socialized children into discipline, hard work, and conformity, preparing them for specific roles in society, often as laborers rather than professionals. Educational systems also transmitted values such as competition, teamwork, and acquiescence to bureaucracy and rules, reflecting the society's requirements for its members. However, this approach often neglected personal development and individuality, and in some cases, disparaged children's traditions and languages. Moreover, by gathering diverse groups of children in close quarters, schools became breeding grounds for infection due to exposure to illness and poor living conditions.
Despite the strict discipline in schools, it was perceived that understanding one's role and functioning within societal structures was integral to success. This ideology was promoted in the United States as part of the 'hidden curriculum', where children learned about winners and losers, and cooperation through structured play and academic competition. Children from middle-class families were those who notably benefited from this system, receiving education and engaging in 'self-improving' activities, shaping them to adhere to the middle-class values of cleanliness, morality, and good manners, which were key to social mobility.
Overall, the industrial revolution's approach to education was characterized by a focus on practical training for the labor market, rigidity in the enforcement of discipline, and an indoctrination of values aligned with the period's economic and social structures.