Toward the end of the nineteenth century American sexual attitudes were beginning to undergo a fundamental alteration, for the dominant sexual ideology of sex as restraint was being challenged increasingly by the hitherto radical doctrine of sex as pleasure. The implications of this change in ideology extended far beyond the simple gratification of a temporal impulse to the very formation of character and the organization of society, for, as Freud wrote, the manner in which an individual responds to sexuality is often “a prototype for the whole of his other modes of reaction to life.” In turn, the nature of society is significantly influenced according to whether society chooses to resolve the conflict between Eros and Ananke by the repression, renunciation, or acceptance of sexuality.

The ragged school movement in England spanned the period from 1840 to 1870, but the number of years during which the schools were being founded and expanded is deceptively brief in terms of their contribution to the care of the neglected juvenile. Of the three types of institutions conceived for the children of the destitute and delinquent classes — reformatory, industrial, and ragged schools — only the last proved to be a temporary phenomenon and failed to secure permanent government recognition. Their aim was nothing less than the civilization and conversion of an entire segment of the urban poor, a task too large for the resources of private charity. The schools were intended for a class of juveniles as yet unreached by any other institution, an urban group brought into existence by the rapid and unplanned growth of England's larger cities. They were the children of costermongers, pig-feeders, rag dealers, part-time dock workers, in fact of all those whose work was menial, irregular, and ill-paid. Also included in this category were the offspring of those who laid claim to no job whatsoever, the lowest mendicants and tramps, and persons who get their living by theft, who altogether neglect their children; the children of hawkers, pigeon-dealers, dog-fanciers, and other men of that class. A great proportion of the children are those of worthless and drunken parents, and many others are the children of parents, who, from their poverty, are too poor to pay even a penny a week for schooling.

Students of early American culture often seek its sources in the experiences of England's religious and political dissenters. One example is the thesis that England's dissenting academies stimulated Colonial colleges to become, as John Brubacher and Willis Rudy express it, “broader and more modern in outlook.” Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker calls the academies' influence “a matter of profound moment in the history of American education,” while Richard Hofstadter, Lawrence Cremin, Brooke Hindle, and Francis Broderick emphasize the academies' “direct and strong” impact on college curricula. Usually this influence is defined in terms of promoting the study of modern science and mathematics, although the academies also added new subjects like English composition, English literature, modern languages, and modern history, modified traditional subjects like Latin and ethics, and adopted new teaching methods like free discussion and the use of the vernacular.