The historical shifts in United States discourses of school architecture as they relate to reforms and inventions of new pedagogical techniques are examined using Michel Foucault's conceptualization of "governmentality" and related scholarship. The purpose is to question assumptions underlying two claims currently being made about school architectural design. The first claim is that the space of the school needs to be more democratic, like a community, and the second is that the space of the school has become more oppressive and controlling. Common school design discourses in the United States incorporated some disciplinary aspects of British monitorial schools. However, in the 1800s, common school discourses governmentalized the "American" school-house with the aim of self-government. Four historical junctures in discourses of school architecture are identified that provide the contingent conditions and reasonings upon which the current debates about reform of school design seem reasonable and make sense. (Contains 65 references.) (GR)