Early American Education Research Articles

Towards a Legacy of the Scottish Tradition: The Democratic Intellect in America

This paper addresses one of the themes of the 2018 CSSP Conference: understanding the legacy of the Scottish tradition. In doing so I suggest that we find some Scottish heirlooms in early American education. To make this case I will start with a text that has been largely refuted and establish a starting point for a legacy of the Scottish tradition with what I believe to be the weakest case: the almost unknown Glaswegian philosopher George Jardine (1742–1827).

Rousseau, the Enlightenment and early American education

Rousseau and the Enlightenment should have been profound influences on early American education. Rousseau especially was widely read in the new nation, and Émile offered a powerful model for child-rearing in a young republic which professed to prize individualism, liberty, and citizenship. But in fact Rousseau had no such impact. He was little followed by the pedagogues of the new republic, and he has not been credited with any consequential effect by subsequent scholars. The implication of his lack of influence is plain. The new American nation was never as Enlightened—as hopeful about human nature or as suspicious of authority, as devoted to liberation or as hostile to tradition and parochialism—as American myth would have it. The resistance to Rousseau suggests that early Americans prized freedom and individuality less than conformism and collective, even coercive, control.

Correction: Nathan Smith and Early American Education

Corrections2 November 1999Correction: Nathan Smith and Early American EducationFREESearch for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-131-9-199911020-00029 SectionsAboutVisual AbstractPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail A book note on Improve, Perfect, and Perpetuate: Dr. Nathan Smith and Early American Education(1) neglected to mention that, in addition to founding medical schools at Yale University, Bowdoin College, and the University of Vermont, Nathan Smith also founded (in 1797) and ran Dartmouth Medical School.Reference1. Murray J. Review of Improve, Perfect, and Perpetuate: Dr. Nathan Smith and Early American Education . Ann Intern Med. 1999;130:459-60. LinkGoogle Scholar Comments0 CommentsSign In to Submit A Comment Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsSee AlsoImprove, Perfect, and Perpetuate: Dr. Nathan Smith and Early American Education Jock Murray Metrics 2 November 1999Volume 131, Issue 9Page: 717KeywordsMedical education ePublished: 15 August 2000 Issue Published: 2 November 1999 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 1999 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...

Improve, Perfect, and Perpetuate: Dr. Nathan Smith and Early American Education

Improve, Perfect, and Perpetuate: Dr. Nathan Smith and Early American Education

Introduction: Explorations in Early American Education

Introduction: Explorations in Early American Education

French Colonial Policy and the Education of Women and Minorities: Louisiana in the Early Eighteenth Century

In speaking of the settlement of America, Lawrence Cremin observed that is [the] fact of empire that holds the key to the dynamics of early American education.' This was as true of French colonial efforts in the New World as it was those of the English, though French colonial motivation was tempered by the vague notion of for the glory of the King, which revolved around defensive military needs while giving lesser consideration to economic imperialism. And with the French, as the English, education played a significant and necessary role in colonial policy which attempted to achieve social and cultural dominance. Within a scant decade of the establishment of New Orleans as a permanent settlement in the Louisiana Territory in 1718, provisions were made the education of the females of the area-white and minority. While meager efforts had been made to provide education the male youth, those efforts were not well received by the small local population and ultimately were short lived. Consequently, the first lasting element of institutionalized education in French colonial Louisiana, the Ursuline school and convent, put a unique emphasis on female and minority education. How this unusual development merged with, and reflected, colonial political goals is the central concern of this essay. Contrasting the efforts of the French in colonizing America and the role of education in those efforts with the better-known English patterns not only reinforces elements of accepted interpretations of English success in these efforts (for example, those of Cremin), but, more importantly, identifies the reasoning behind French colonial political policy and at the same time contributes to an understanding of why the French failed in the end. That ultimate failure to achieve social and cultural dominance

The Allen School: An Alternative Nineteenth-Century Education, 1818-1852

In this account of an experiment in early American education, Judith Strong Albert draws upon the 1818 to 1852 journals of a distinguished New England teacher, Lucy Clark Ware Allen. Ms. Albert describes a nineteenth-century parsonage school that stressed the "innate goodness" of a child's nature and placed emphasis on practice and experience in education. She contrasts the educational philosophy held by Joseph and Lucy Allen, founders of the Allen School of Northborough, Massachusetts, with the views of the leading educational idealist of that era, Bronson Alcott, and provides an illuminating study of an early model in alternative education.

Bibliotherapy for the LD Adolescent

The belief that reading can change an individual’s attitudes and behavior is not new. Ancient civilizations considered books an important influence in shaping the values of youth. The classics’ primary objective was character training. Indeed, the basic objective of early American education was the inculcation of desirable character traits and moral values. Today, reading programs, although reflective of behavioral expectations, have generally moved away from the concept of actively changing attitudes. The learning-disabled adolescent, however, brings special attitude problems to the classroom. These result from his experiences of academic and social failure, from the increasing pressures of secondary education, and from adolescence itself. Teachers of this age group are aware of these problems, but they often lack effective emotional support and relief techniques. We are offering the concept of bibliotherapy as a possible classroom method to help meet these personal, social, and emotional needs.

Early American Education

Early American Education