History of Education in the US, part 1

A brief look at theory and practice.

Introduction

President-elect Trump proposes to abolish the Department of Education. The tl;dr summary of these three posts is: that’s an excellent idea. By the mid-20^th century, when the federal government got heavily involved in education, some very bad ideas about pedagogy were accepted. It’s those ideas the federal government has been promoting. For the educational system to be fixed, the federal government needs to get out of it, so that better ideas can be explored.

These posts give an overview of education, at first very broad, then zooming in on the US. I’ll look briefly at who is educated, what is taught, how teachers are educated, and who runs the schools. I aim to lay out the major trends and turning points in education, with excerpts to make what theorists propose clear and vivid.

The entries making up these posts are from Timeline 1700-1900, which I’m currently issuing (one decade per month) on Substack. Most of the entries come from the Education category of the Timeline. Since education doesn’t happen in a vacuum, I’ve also included half a dozen entries from the US Politics & Culture category.

Because I consider integration both essential and delightful, there are frequent cross-references to other entries in the Timeline. Those appear in curly brackets, for example: {1701 Phil}. Category abbreviations used in the cross-references in these posts are: Econ = Economics, Educ = Education, Esth = Esthetics, Nonfic = Nonfiction, Phil = Philosophy, Sci = Science (subcategories: Animals & Plants, Technology), US = US Politics & Culture, World = Worldwide.

Prelude: Antiquity & the Renaissance

In the Greek and Roman world, education was intended to train a child's attitudes, values, and method of thinking. It achieved that by teaching specific subjects (grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy), with emphasis on rote learning and imitation. Based on Aristotle's writings, some argued that certain subjects could train one’s mental faculties (geometry for reason, history for memory), and that the habits, processes, attitudes, and/or values taught in one faculty could transfer to another. Hence the goal for the Greeks and Romans was teaching both content and method.

During the Renaissance, study of Greek and Roman antiquity was added to the curriculum. The Jesuits (est. 1540), who were the most prominent teachers in Europe, taught the same subjects, but stressed that teachers must present materials in a certain order, so the students would understand them rather than just repeating by rote.

18th century

1700-1800: Education in the British colonies in North America and the early US. By 1700, boys are usually educated; girls sometimes, depending on the religion and heritage in which they are raised. In New England, for example, education is a high priority because Puritans are expected to be able to read and interpret the Bible. Children are either taught at home or (for a fee) at local one-room schools. In such schools, all levels are taught by a single teacher who concentrates on reading, writing, and arithmetic (the "three Rs"). Textbooks are usually imported from Britain. The most popular is the New England Primer (a.k.a. the English Protestant Tutor), which focuses on religion and involves much rote memorization. By the time of the Revolution {4/19/1775 US}, Americans have a literacy rate of about 80% (50% or more for women), far higher than the British (at about 40%), the French (about 30%), or the Russians (about 10%).

1701 (Oct. 9): Yale Collegiate School (later Yale University) is est. in Connecticut, by Puritans. It is the 3rd institution of higher learning in the English colonies in North America, following Harvard (1636, est. by Puritans in Massachusetts) and the College of William and Mary (1693, est. by Anglicans in Virginia). In the 18th c., university education in America is mostly aimed at training ministers; lawyers, physicians, and other professions learn via apprenticeship. College courses focus on Greek, Latin, ancient history, geometry, logic, ethics, and rhetoric. Of the 89 men who sign the Declaration of Independence and/or participate in the Constitutional Convention {7/4/1776 & 5/25/1787 US}, 36 attended college in the British colonies.

1762: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, or On Education. The goal of education, says Rousseau, is to enable the "natural man" {described in Rousseau’s Social Contract, 1762 Phil} to survive the corrupting influence of society and become a good citizen. Rousseau's book is condemned and burned in Paris, but eventually leads parents to take a new interest in the education of their children. Among the educators inspired by Rousseau are Webster, Pestalozzi, Froebel, and Dewey {1783-1785, 1801, 1844 & 1897 Educ}. Rousseau’s writings form the core of Jacobin ideas during the French Revolution {7/14/1789 World} and play an important role in the Romantic movement in literature {1798 Esth}.

Rousseau, Emile {1762 Educ}: Complete ignorance with regard to certain matters is perhaps the best thing for children; but let them learn very early what it is impossible to conceal from them permanently. Either their curiosity must never be aroused, or it must be satisfied before the age when it becomes a source of danger. Your conduct towards your pupil in this respect depends greatly on his individual circumstances, the society in which he moves, the position in which he may find himself, etc. Nothing must be left to chance; and if you are not sure of keeping him in ignorance of the difference between the sexes till he is sixteen, take care you teach him before he is ten.

Rousseau, Emile {1762 Educ}: It is a mistake to classify the passions as lawful and unlawful, so as to yield to the one and refuse the other. All alike are good if we are their masters; all alike are bad if we abandon ourselves to them. Nature forbids us to extend our relations beyond the limits of our strength; reason forbids us to want what we cannot get, conscience forbids us, not to be tempted, but to yield to temptation. To feel or not to feel a passion is beyond our control, but we can control ourselves. Every sentiment under our own control is lawful; those which control us are criminal.

1783-1785: Noah Webster, A Grammatical Institute of the English Language (a.k.a. "Blue-backed Speller"). In the 1780s Webster, who is heavily influenced by Rousseau's Emile {1762 Educ}, opens a private school in New York. He is so dissatisfied with available textbooks, which are mostly British {1700-1800 Educ}, that he writes his own texts for grammar, spelling, and reading. Reading is based on a version of phonics: the student progresses from the sounds of vowels and consonants to syllables, words, and sentences. Webster, a fervent patriot, aims not just to teach but to provide an intellectual foundation for the new American nation by helping to educate future citizens. To that end, his texts include speeches by the Founding Fathers and a timeline of important dates in American history, from Columbus's discovery of America to the recent Battle of Yorktown {9/28/1781 US}. Beginning in the 1790s, Webster’s texts dominate US schools, eventually selling some 100 million copies. The profits allow Webster to spend years writing his dictionary {1828 Nonfic}. After 1836, Webster's texts are gradually supplanted with McGuffey’s Readers, which also emphasize morality and duty to one's nation.

Webster, Grammatical Institute {1783-1785 Educ}:

Q. What are the other good effects of industry?

A. One effect is to procure an estate. Our Creator has kindly united our duty, our interest and happiness: for the same labor which makes us healthy and cheerful, gives us wealth. Another good effect of industry is, it keeps men from vice. Not all the moral discourses ever delivered to mankind, have so much influence in checking the bad passions of men, in keeping order and peace, and maintaining moral virtue, in society as industry. Business is a source of health; of prosperity, or virtue, and obedience to law. To make good subjects and good citizens, the first requisite is to educate every young person, in some kind of business. The possession of millions should not excuse a young man from application to business, and that parent or guardian who suffers his child or his ward to be bred in indolence, becomes accessory to the vices and disorders of society, he is guilty of "not providing for his household", and is worse than an infidel.

1790: Judith Sargent Murray, "On the Equality of the Sexes." Murray, one of the 1st American proponents of equality for women, challenges the idea that women are inferior to men. She blames differences on women’s lack of education.

Murray, “On the Equality of the Sexes" {1790 Educ}: [Some women say:] "But our judgment is not so strong—we do not distinguish so well."—Yet it may be questioned, from what doth this superiority, in this determining faculty of the soul, proceed. May we not trace its source in the difference of education, and continued advantages? Will it be said that the judgment of a male of two years old, is more sage than that of a female's of the same age? I believe the reverse is generally observed to be true. But from that period what partiality! how is the one exalted, and the other depressed, by the contrary modes of education which are adopted! the one is taught to aspire, and the other is early confined and limited. As their years increase, the sister must be wholly domesticated, while the brother is led by the hand through all the flowery paths of science. Grant that their minds are by nature equal, yet who shall wonder at the apparent superiority, if indeed custom becomes second nature; nay if it taketh place of nature, and that it doth the experience of each day will evince.

1792: Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Like Murray {1790 Educ}, Wollstonecraft advocates changing the current educational system so that women are taught to be capable rather than frivolous, and can become equal partners with men. Vindication is a founding document of the women's movement {7/19/1848 US}.

Wollstonecraft, Vindication {1792 Educ}: Should it be proved that woman is naturally weaker than man, from whence does it follow that it is natural for her to labour to become still weaker than nature intended her to be? Arguments of this cast are an insult to common sense, and savour of passion. The divine right of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is to be hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger, and though conviction may not silence many boisterous disputants, yet, when any prevailing prejudice is attacked, the wise will consider, and leave the narrow-minded to rail with thoughtless vehemence at innovation.

In tomorrow's post: US education in the 19th century, including separation into grades, segregated education, Dewey, and more.