The Educational Philosophy of Alexander Kinmont

Abstract

EDUCATIONAL THEORY in America has been characterized by great diversity. There have been vigorous cults that have threatened to en gross the whole of the educational enterprise; and there have been re calcitrant and individualistic school masters who have withstood the en thusiastic reformers. The first half of the nineteenth century saw the struggle for free schools in this country and, along with it, a s s o r ted proposals for developing new content, new methods for an education. One of the schoolmasters who rebelled against discarding the classical curriculum was Alexander Kinmont, who conducted an academy in Cincinnati from 1827 to 1838. Although he has remained an obscure figure in the history of American education, he contributed to the variety of patterns in the mosaic of educational thought in this coun try. And his zeal for the Greek and Latin classics probably did much to retain them in the curriculum of the schools. Since Kinmont is not a familiar name in the histories of education, it may be well to sketch a brief biography of him before we proceed to a discussion of his philosophy. Born in the parish of Marytown, Angus shire, Scotland, on January 5, 1779,1* Kinmont's childhood was not unlike that of many other schoolmasters. Poverty, precocity, and Presbyterianism were three familiar components in his background. When Kinmont was eight years of age, his father died, and a few years later he lost one of his arms in a threshing mill. This disability, as well as his talents, directed him to the profession of teaching, and he began his preparation under a Mr. Calvert at the Grammar School in Montrose. Working incessantly, he made outstanding progress in Lat in, a subject that was somewhat infra-academical in the eyes of the Uni versity although it was a requirement for admission. With a view to obtaining a scholarship at the University of Aberdeen, he prepared a Latin poem and a treatise on the inseparable particle, re. The profes sors praised the purity of style in which the treatise was written, but they detected two grammatical errors and refused to award him the scholarship. Sorely disappointed because he failed to receive a scholarship at the University of Aberdeen, Kinmont rode the night mail coach to St. An drew's,where he entered the Great Hall of the University the next morn ing in time to hear the announcement of the subjects of the themes pro