The Educated Citizen “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be.” - Thomas Jefferson

The Founders were The Founders were deeply influenced by deeply influenced by Enlightenment Enlightenment thoughtthought

They believed that a They believed that a republic could survive republic could survive only if its citizens only if its citizens were educatedwere educated

European Thinkers who influenced American Education John Locke

1632 – 1704 Tabula Rasa Children should learn

through their five senses (Empiricism)

Children learn through imitation

Children are rational creatures

Jean Jacques Rousseau 1712-1778

Critical of educational practice

Education should be consistent with the natural conditions of a child’s growth They are not ready to

deal with abstract ideas imposed upon them through books

European Thinkers who influenced American Education

European Thinkers who influenced American Education Jean Jacques Rousseau

1712-1778 EmileEmile The story of a boy’s

ideal education from infancy to maturity

Experiences in harmony with nature and natural conditions

European Thinkers who influenced American Education Johann Pestalozzi

1746-1827 He is often referred to as

the “father of child centered schools.” “At age five we make all

nature vanish before their eyes and pen them like sheep, whole flocks huddled together, in stinking rooms; pitilessly chain them for hours, days, weeks, months, to the contemplation of unattractive and monotonous letters.”

The National Era

1780-1830

Educating a New Nation Literacy prior to

the revolution White men White women Blacks

Slave Free

Native Americans

After the Revolution Economic changes

Commercial economy

Improved transportation

A more mobile society meant a need for improved communication

After the Revolution Political changes

Political, economic theory

Locke Rousseau

Calls to action Pamphlets

Common Sense Broadsides Newspapers

A Republic demands an educated citizenry

The task was to build a nation out of 13 colonies

Eliminate all things British

Thomas Jefferson History instead of

Scripture “Geniuses raked

from the rubble” “The people are

the only safe depositories”

University of Virginia

Noah Webster Connecticut

teacher Goal- eliminate

British textbooks

Noah Webster Blueback speller Became

America’s greatest lexicographer

The first American Dictionary

Benjamin Rush Founder of Dickenson

College “Thoughts upon the

mode of education proper in a republic”

“Thoughts upon female education”

Benjamin Rush Jefferson’s

personal physician Gave medical

advice to Meriwether Lewis prior to the Lewis and Clark expedition

Invented “the tranquilizing chair”

The Lancastarian System 1800-1830

Systematic Education

The Lancastrian system

A course of study Units of work

Textbooks McGuffy readers Blueback spellers

The Lancasterian System System of education in which

children could be educated very cheaply

One teacher was in charge of large numbers of students

Monitors were used as a method of "crowd control," hence the schools came also to be known as monitorial schools.

More advanced students had the responsibility of assisting in teaching those students below them

The McGuffy Reader The most popular schoolbook in the

nineteenth century was the McGuffey Reader, introduced in 1836.

Based on landmarks of world literature, the set of six readers, which increased in difficulty, were the basis for teaching literacy, as well as basic values such as honesty and charity.

The readers gave the teacher flexibility she lacked before, allowing her to more easily teach a classroom of pupils of different ages and levels.

Tens of millions of copies were sold in the nineteenth century.

In rural America the McGuffey Reader was often the only exposure people had to world literature.