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EDUCATION

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The history of American education reflects the history of the nation as a whole. It represents the best intentions and principles of a democratic people but is plagued by the same problems and contentiousness that are characteristic of a free society. Despite the heated debates as to the form education should take, particularly for children, Americans created a system that would introduce millions of children to the joys of literature. During the colonial period the ethnic and religious diversity of settlements was expressed in schools. From New England's ambitious system of "public" primary and secondary schools to the middle colonies' religious and private schools to the South's tradition of home tutors, the colonists had tried it all.

Diverse educational experiments seemed to make sense at the time, but following the American Revolution they were found to be inadequate in a number of ways. Americans realized their sons and daughters needed an education that would prepare them for civic responsibilities in the new Republic and provide them with the skills and values necessary to become successful. Moreover, the new nation needed an educational system that would be "within the reach of all," not just the fortunate few who by virtue of their birth had access to good schools. "Universal" public education certainly would not be achieved during the nineteenth century, but the idea of free public education was launched in that era.

The common school appeared to be the answer to the educational needs of the new Republic. Initially supported by generous federal land grants to states under provisions of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, these schools were to be maintained and controlled by local communities. In one-room schoolhouses scattered throughout the countryside, children of all ages learned to read, write, and cipher—what some called the three "R's"—reading, 'riting, and 'rithmitic. Moreover, common-school teachers quietly pursued the vision of the Founding Fathers by embracing a curriculum that would nurture a love of God and country as well as the values of hard work, determination, and competition.

THE McGUFFEY READERS

The centerpiece of the common-school curriculum was often a reader—most notably the McGuffey reader. By requiring students to read, memorize, and then recite poetry, literary passages, speeches of Revolutionary War heroes, moralistic tales, and Bible verses, the McGuffey readers helped to nurture a common culture and the basis of a literate society. Although not all common-school children during these years read the Eclectic Readers of William Holmes McGuffey (1800–1873), these popular books were representative of the materials available to students. The Eclectic Readers sold more than seven million copies by 1850 (Clifton, p. 75). During the middle decades of the nineteenth century they provided the basis of the common-school curriculum in many parts of the country. The original series, published in 1836, was revised slightly in 1857 and then revamped significantly in 1879 (Westerhoff, p. 17).

The Eclectic First Reader (1836 edition) contained forty-five selections or lessons. It was illustrated and included a list of new words following each lesson. The Eclectic Second Reader was slightly larger and more complex than the first and also included "discussion questions" that could provide the basis for review and examinations. The third reader in the set was more comprehensive with about twice as many selections as the first two. It was designed primarily for the "fifth or sixth grade level." Finally, the fourth and fifth readers were more difficult and were reserved for the most advanced elementary school students. In fact, McGuffey thought these volumes were appropriate for secondary school students. These readers included selections from literary classics, including excerpts from Shakespeare, Dr. Johnson, and "contemporary" writers, such as Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Louisa May Alcott.

THE CURRICULUM: LOVE OF GOD

In addition to classic and contemporary secular literature, the readers also included stories that emphasized the love of God and country. The late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century predecessors of the early readers were the "primers," a term that originally referred to a book of prayers and devotions. The early primers, such as the ubiquitous New England Primer, typically included the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and a selection of psalms. And since the primer often was the only book a family owned besides the Bible, it usually included an alphabet for instructional purposes.

As early primers evolved from instruments of religious and moral teaching to their more secular function of instructing young children to read, some of their religious content remained. McGuffey's Eclectic First Reader, like other readers of this period, placed great emphasis on God and teachings from the Bible. Of the forty-five lessons in this reader, ten directly mentioned God, and another two referred to the Bible. They informed young students that God gave human beings food, clothes, the sun, and the rain. In one lesson, "Thick Shade," students were told that God not only made the shade but also created the rich man and the poor, the dark man and the fair, the wise man and the fool. Moreover, God saw everything, including the good and bad deeds of little children. In "The Little Chimney Sweep," students were warned that to lie was to sin against God. In "Good Advice," students were told that sins must be confessed to God for forgiveness. Finally, children were encouraged to pray at bedtime and were instructed never to use profanity nor drink alcohol (pp. 95, 78, 48, 130).

The McGuffey readers also embraced secular values. Young students were reminded of the secularized axiom "honesty is the best policy." Similarly, temperance was often featured in the readers. In one selection, "The Whiskey Boy," little John got "tipsy every day," and by the age of eight he had become a drunkard. Eventually he was found drunk in the street and was brought to a poorhouse. John had now become a burden to society, and perhaps as punishment for his actions, he died within "two weeks." The lesson ended with the rhetorical question: "How do you think his father felt?" (Eclectic First Reader, pp. 143, 141).

THE CURRICULUM: INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY AND KINDNESS

While religious teachings were important parts of the Eclectic First Reader, responsibility was also a major theme of this and more advanced volumes. In fact, this value was the central focus of at least seventeen of the forty-five lessons in the first reader. Other basic themes emphasized here were kindness and obedience.

Kindness was perhaps the most important value presented in the Eclectic First Reader. Children were instructed to be kind to animals specifically: cows, oxen, cats, dogs, lame dogs, bluebirds, young birds, goats, bees, and even flies. By understanding that cruelty to animals (and even insects) was a sign of selfishness, children would comprehend the limits of their own self-interest. Indeed there was more to life than what the individual child wanted to do. In "The Cruel Boy," for example, George Craft pulled the wings off a fly. Like many other boys, George found this kind of activity amusing and entertaining. Eventually, however, another boy—a good boy—explained to George that it was cruel to act in such a way, even if it was "fun" (pp. 78–80).

Building on these ideas, McGuffey introduced the general lesson of kindness to people, especially those who were less fortunate. Specifically the readers mentioned an old man, a sick man, a blind man, and a handicapped war veteran. Finally, McGuffey encouraged kindness to friends, brothers and sisters, and of course teachers (Eclectic First Reader, pp. 15–18, 32–34, 96, 106–107, 130–132). By emphasizing the importance of controlling one's self-interest, considering the feelings of others, and avoiding self-indulgent cruelty, McGuffey set the stage for more complex ideas including love of community and love of country. By promoting the idea that one's self-interest must sometimes be subordinated, the principles of civic virtue were developed at a very early age.

THE CURRICULUM: LOVE OF COUNTRY

In the early readers children were taught to obey their parents and teachers. Once these lessons were learned, children would understand the concept of obedience to higher secular authorities, such as the police, the town council, their employers, and even the federal government. Sometimes these lessons were rooted in biblical teachings, but more typically they were expressed in a secular context. If students understood the importance of secular deference, they would be more likely to respect the laws of the land.

As students progressed to more advanced readers, McGuffey gradually introduced another important curricular theme: love of country. Of course, this value reflected the burgeoning nationalism of Americans following the conclusion of the War of 1812. In fact, the term "nationalism" first appeared in American schoolbooks in the early 1820s (Elson, p. 101). Typically the readers took the position that the people of each nation had collective national personalities that differed dramatically from one another. For example, the Juvenile Mentor, another popular nineteenth-century reader, included a number of stories that portrayed the cruelty of Spaniards as a national character trait (Elson, p. 101).

This and other stereotypes strengthened nationalism. It also would seem that they helped encourage the strong nativist impulses that have plagued America since the middle of the nineteenth century. In the case of the Spanish, it may also have helped make possible the country's eager acceptance of the Spanish-American War in 1898. The British, however, were an exception. Although anti-British feelings were clearly reflected in some late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century readers, this sentiment gradually diminished by mid-nineteenth century as Americans began to emulate British agricultural and industrial practices. By then American schoolbooks often boasted of British roots, a heritage that provided a glorious past full of "virtue and prestige but purified in the American environment" (Elson, p. 123). Besides the English, the only other national groups portrayed favorably in the early readers were the Scots (for their frugality) and the Swiss. Perhaps because there were relatively few Swiss immigrants to this country and because of their republican heritage, the image persisted. One of their countrymen, William Tell, figured prominently in many readers at this time. His story, the famous episode where he shot an apple off the head of his young son, was seen as both an act of heroism and a defiance of tyranny. In this story, Tell placed service to his country even above parental love. This was a magnificent expression of intense nationalism to be emulated by all true republicans (McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader, pp. 219–232).

But while the English, Scots, and Swiss sometimes exhibited positive values, Americans were seen as the most virtuous of all. To reinforce that point, the readers of this period typically included many selections about America's Founding Fathers, such as Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Paul Revere. Rousing tales of their accomplishments and inherent values provided an essential element of the common-school reading curriculum. For example, the story of young George Washington and the fabled cherry tree was presented to virtually every school-child during this period. The mid-nineteenth-century version of this story was published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine in February 1856. In this story George "tried the edge of his new hatchet upon his father's favorite cherry tree . . . (but later confessed) Father, I can not tell a lie: I cut the tree." George's father responded and "tears gushed into his eyes. . . . I had rather lose a thousand trees than find falsehood in my son!" (Abbott, pp. 290–291).

Students were encouraged to celebrate the great success of patriots in the American Revolution, but the violence and divisiveness of that struggle as well as the writings of controversial and "radical" writers were minimized or even omitted from readers. Works by Thomas Paine (1737–1809), for example, were rarely included and then only when prefaced with a warning. One reader devoted an entire lesson to Paine's atheism, noting with outrage that he had claimed in The Age of Reason that "the Christian fable (was based on) ancient superstition (and) . . . mythologies" (McGuffey, Eclectic Fourth Reader, p. 166). The "exorcism" of Paine from the pantheon of American Founding Fathers by these readers demonstrates their awesome power in defining and shaping the attitudes and values of nineteenth-century American schoolchildren.

By avoiding conflict and controversy on matters pertaining to God and country, the primary school readers of the mid-nineteenth century promoted a national consensus, however illusionary it may have been. The goal of the curriculum was to create what Benjamin Rush called patriotic "republican machines" (p. 14). That goal met with a great deal of success in common-school classrooms. These ideals, blended into a disciplinary framework that emphasized the values of hard work, achievement, and accountability, reflected the unique republican worldview of nineteenth-century America. In addition the United States was quietly becoming a nation of readers.

THE GRADED SCHOOL

During the second half of the century, it had become clear to educators that a new form of school organization was needed to deal with soaring enrollments and an ethnically diverse student body. The answer was the graded school. These schools also reflected the idea among educators that students of different ages had diverse needs and learning styles. Gradually students were grouped according to grade levels, introduced to a distinctive curriculum, and taught by teachers who had formal training. Despite these organizational changes, however, the basic reading curriculum remained virtually unchanged until the late nineteenth century.

Although the American people embraced the idea of the graded public school, they were slower to accept the concept of the public high school. In fact, most secondary schools during this period were private academies outside the jurisdiction of local school boards. As a result, enrollments in high schools were limited to the wealthy. This tradition was challenged by the landmark Michigan Supreme Court Kalamazoo decision of 1872 that allowed high schools to be operated by school districts and funded through taxation.

With the high school now in place, a number of American cities began to embrace the concept of the "educational ladder"—elementary and high schools integrated into unified school districts. In some districts, schools were combined for organizational simplicity, whereas in others each step of the educational ladder was separate—often occupying different buildings. The modern public school was taking shape.

COLLEGES

When graded schools and high schools were ostensibly linked to American colleges and universities, the concept of the educational ladder was complete. American colleges had always been separate from the primary and secondary schools of the nation. Their history, moreover, was very different. As early as 1636 Harvard College emerged as America's first institution of higher learning, followed by the College of William and Mary and Yale in 1693. By the eve of the American Revolution, a number of other important colleges had been established, including the College of New Jersey (Princeton University), the College of Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania), King's College (Columbia University), Rhode Island College (Brown University), Queens College (Rutgers University), and Dartmouth College. These early institutions focused primarily on the training of clergy, and most had direct religious affiliations.

Between the American Revolution and 1800, a number of institutions of higher learning were established, and during the next half century hundreds of colleges emerged to meet the specific challenges of the nation. For example, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point developed an early engineering program, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute focused on science and civil engineering. Similarly a number of medical schools and law schools were established. By the middle of the nineteenth century, several "normal schools," including Mount Holyoke and Troy Female Seminary, were founded to train teachers for America's growing student population. Although most colleges of this era excluded women, Holyoke and Troy enrolled women and established a rigorous academic curriculum. Also notable was Oberlin Collegiate Institute, which was America's first coeducational college and also its first racially integrated institution of higher learning. By the late 1860s, a number of all-black colleges, including Fisk University and Atlanta University, were established to meet the needs of the nation's free African American population.

Institutions of higher learning played an important role in the development of the young Republic but did little to directly promote an appreciation of American literature. Colonial colleges were concerned primarily with the training of ministers. Theology was therefore the centerpiece of the curriculum in even the most prestigious institutions. By the late eighteenth century, as colleges underwent a gradual secularization, there also was a growing emphasis on the classics in Greek and especially Latin, but little if any required reading of more contemporary literature. In addition, other colleges of the early Republic typically had a practical focus such as engineering, medicine, law, or teacher training. The United States was indeed a pragmatic nation that sought to solve the "practical" problems of the day. Reading contemporary literature for fun or interest (or even as a component of a well-rounded education) was simply not the focus of these early schools.

To fill the growing demand for literature in colleges, a number of literary societies were formed beginning in the late 1780s. Students established these literary societies to provide a forum for literary and debating activities. Groups such as Princeton's Whig and Clio Societies provided an important "extracurricular" literary outlet. These societies often purchased their own books and established their own libraries. Members of such societies sometimes lived in their own residence halls. By the late nineteenth century, literary societies were eclipsed by the rise of Greek social fraternities, and by the time of the First World War, only a few survived. Nevertheless, they played an important role in introducing "contemporary" literature to thousands of college students.

ANTI-INTELLECTUALISM IN AMERICA

The pragmatic nature of American higher education was in some ways paralleled by a persistent anti-intellectualism bound up with the ideas of rugged individualism and frontier democracy. Many Americans were either uninterested in "book learning" or actively hostile toward it. In fact, as one intellectual of the time lamented, "It was not the want of learning I consider as a defect, but the contempt of it" (Faragher et al., p. 289). Even in larger cosmopolitan communities such as New York, Boston, and Philadelphia there was surprisingly little general interest in literature. Even though most Americans were literate, their taste in reading gravitated toward trade journals and religious tracts. The North American Review had a national circulation of only three thousand. Agricultural journals such as Northern Farmer and the Cultivator, however, had hundreds of thousands of readers, and the Methodist Christian Advocate boasted a circulation of over twenty-five thousand at mid-century (Faragher et al., p. 289).

Literature and literary criticism also took a back-seat to the growing "penny press" of this period, so-called because the price of the newspaper typically was one cent. In 1833 the New York Post began publishing sensationalist stories that fascinated the American people. Similarly Police Gazette's stories of swindlers, murder, and mayhem often titillated readers. The growth of these newspapers at mid-century was dramatic. On the eve of the American Civil War, one writer noted discouragingly, "No narrative of human depravity or crime can shock or horrify the American reader" (Faragher et al., p. 360).

Of course, there were communities of intellectual activity scattered throughout the country. This growing body of educated men and women eagerly embraced American literature. A handful of novels achieved commercial success. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) sold more than 300,000 copies in a single year (Faragher et al., p. 421). In addition to converting thousands to the cause of abolition, Stowe (and other women authors) helped transform what was disparagingly called "parlor" literature into an important literary form and attracted thousands of new American readers.

LYCEUMS AND LIBRARIES

Two informal movements influenced Americans' reading habits. The first was the lyceum, and the second was the public library. These two institutions sought to bring culture and literature to the people, and slowly they began to achieve their goals.

The lyceum movement was a system of adult education that emerged during the late 1820s in New England. It was a broad-based and very ambitious enterprise that promoted public education as well as the establishment of libraries and museums. Sometimes seen as the forerunner of the modern university extension system, the lyceum was the educational product of working-class "mechanic institutes" of this period as well as educators and intellectuals such as Josiah Holbrook of Millbury, Massachusetts.

By the 1830s, the lyceum had spread throughout the northern states, bringing speakers on a variety of subjects to small cities and rural communities. The lyceum recruited a number of important figures, such as Daniel Webster, Henry David Thoreau, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, William Lloyd Garrison, and Susan B. Anthony. Ralph Waldo Emerson, a regular speaker on the lyceum circuit, delivered more than fifteen hundred lectures to packed houses in twenty states between 1833 and 1860 (Faragher et al., p. 290). The lyceum movement not only provided broad support for public education but also helped nurture an appreciation of literature for hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Throughout this period, books were relatively expensive, and despite improvements in the American standard of living during the nineteenth century, families rarely owned more than a handful of books. As a result, libraries were critical in nurturing an appreciation of literature. There were a number of private subscription libraries established during the colonial period modeled on the Library Company of Philadelphia, which had been organized by Benjamin Franklin. There were subscription libraries in Charleston, South Carolina; New York; and Newport, Rhode Island. Also notable were Boston's Athenaeum and the fabled "coonskin library" established in frontier Ames, Iowa. Free lending libraries, however, were much slower to develop. In 1833 the first of these institutions was established in Peterborough, New Hampshire, and Boston established the first public library in the country supported by a municipal tax at mid-century. It was not until the end of the nineteenth century, however, that libraries became commonplace. This was the result of both philanthropy and a growing sense of civic responsibility in America. Andrew Carnegie, for example, endowed more than seventeen hundred free libraries by 1900 with his generous matching grants. A number of states, led by New Hampshire, mandated that each township support a public library.

CONCLUSION

By formal and informal means, Americans struggled to embrace the new literary world. In addition to reading religious tracts, trade magazines, agricultural journals, and the penny press, Americans were beginning to embrace the great literature of contemporary authors from James Fenimore Cooper to Melville and Hawthorne; from Washington Irving to Stowe, Thoreau, and Walt Whitman. The common school had provided the foundation of literacy in the new Republic and had introduced generations of young Americans to the joys of literature. Colleges and universities did their part as well by building on the traditions of a growing literate culture and nurturing an appreciation of the classics in Greek and Latin. The informal intellectual movements of the lyceum and the emergence of the public lending library brought a greater appreciation of reading to the masses and allowed them access to that literature.

See also Colleges; Curricula; Literacy; Lyceums

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Works

Abbott, John S. C. "George Washington." Harper's New Monthly Magazine 12 (February 1856): 289–315.

Burton, Warren. The District School as It Was. Boston: T. R. Marvin, 1852.

McGuffey, William H. The Eclectic First Reader, for Young Children. 1836. Milford, Mich.: Mott Media, 1982.

McGuffey, William H. The Eclectic Fourth Reader. 1838. Milford, Mich.: Mott Media, 1982.

McGuffey, William H. The Eclectic Second Reader, for Young Children. 1836. Milford, Mich.: Mott Media,1982.

McGuffey, William H. The Eclectic Third Reader. 1837. Milford, Mich.: Mott Media, 1982.

McGuffey, William H. McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader. 1879. Compiled by Alexander Hamilton McGuffey. New York: New American Library, 1962.

"The Old Deluder Law of 1647." In American Education: An Introduction through Readings, edited by Tyrus Hillway, p. 200. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1964.

Rush, Benjamin. "A Plan for the Establishment of Public Schools and the Diffusion of Knowledge in Pennsylvania." 1789. In Essays on Education in the Early Republic, edited by Frederick Rudolph, pp. 3–23. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1965.

Taylor, J. Orville. The District School. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1834.

Secondary Works

Bailyn, Bernard. Education in the Forming of American Society: Needs and Opportunities for Study. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1960.

Clifton, John L. Ten Famous American Educators. Columbus, Ga.: R. G. Adams, 1933.

Cohen, Sol, comp. Education in the United States: A Documentary History. New York: Random House, 1974.

Cremin, Lawrence A. American Education: The National Experience, 1783–1876. New York: Harper and Row, 1980.

Elson, Ruth Miller. Guardians of Tradition: American Schoolbooks of the Nineteenth Century. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1964.

Faragher, John Mack, Mari Jo Buhle, Daniel Czitrom, and Susan H. Armitage. Out of Many: A History of the American People. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2000.

Ford, Paul Leicester, ed. The New England Primer: A History of Its Origin and Development. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1962.

Graff, Harvey J. The Literacy Myth: Literacy and Social Structure in the Nineteenth-Century City. New York: Academic Press, 1979.

Katz, Michael B. The Irony of Early School Reform: Educational Innovation in Mid-Nineteenth Century Massachusetts. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968.

Lockridge, Kenneth A. Literacy in Colonial New England. New York: Norton, 1974.

Mosier, Richard. Making the American Mind: Social and Moral Ideas in the McGuffey Readers. New York: King's Crown, 1947.

Parkerson, Donald H., and Jo Ann Parkerson. The Emergence of the Common School in the U.S. Countryside. Lewiston, N.Y.: E. Mellen Press, 1998.

Parkerson, Donald H., and Jo Ann Parkerson. Transitions in American Education: A Social History of Teaching. New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2001.

Reese, William J. The Origins of the American High School. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1995.

Spring, Joel. American Education. 8th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 1998.

Westerhoff, John H., III. McGuffey and His Readers. Milford, Mich.: Mott Media, 1982.

Donald H. Parkerson Jo Ann Parkerson