Themes for Next Week ’ s Response-Ability

1. Themes for Next Week’s Response-Ability • Horace Mann - Organized the first state public educational system, in Massachusetts • The early history of Oberlin College in Ohio, from the 1830s to the 1870s - Oberlin was the first college to admit women, and the first college to admit African-Americans

2. What Did You Learn? • About Benjamin Rush? • About Republican Motherhood? • About Anthony Benezet? • What surprised you about early American education? • What familiar themes did you find in early American education that correlate to education in America today?

3. Some Themes You Found: • Emphasis on patriotism, reading, writing, arithmetic – moral and practical aspects of education • Conflicts between religion and education, especially in terms of added burdens for those doing both simultaneously • Time management • Primacy • Split in how young men and young women are educated – content, time spent in schooling, career trajectories

4. Some Themes Found by students in previous years: • Assumption that some people don’t need, or would not benefit from, education (working class) - social stratification seen as permanent, and beneficial to the workings of society • Education for moral betterment - education reduces crime • Repetition/rote learning - and whether similar techniques are used in schools with students from lower socio-economic status. • A high percentage of apathy about schools in the general population • Economic considerations constitute a major reason for schooling - giving students employability

5. Some Common Themes: • Role of religion in education • Differential access to educational resources based on wealth • Difficulty of funding schools from a tax base • Situation of the new nation of the United States

6. Some Common Themes found by students in previous years: • Regional differences in access to education • Rural/urban differences in education • Lack of resources to schools • Low salaries for teachers • Gap between high-flowing rhetoric in support of education, and paucity of tangible, material support for education • Desire for local control of education • Desire for parental oversight and involvement in their children’s education

7. Benjamin Rush (1745-1813) • One of the Founding Fathers, signer of Declaration of Independence • Medical doctor • Surgeon general for Revolutionary Army • Professor of Chemistry, author of Chem textbook • Experimentation on lower classes, yet advocate for abolition of slavery

8. Benjamin Rush • He supported education for women, albeit separate • Women were caretakers, could instill patriotism and ethics in their children • Dickinson College, first new college in U.S. 1783

9. Education in the Early American Republic 1775-1830 Religion, Citizenship, and Capitalism

10. Time Line • 1730-1760 - First Great Awakening (religious revival that stressed individual salvation and evaluation of preaching, thus encouraging literacy) • 1750-1784 - Anthony Benezet’s career as an educator • 1775-1783 - American Revolution • 1787 - Benjamin Rush’s Thoughts Upon Female Education • 1789 - Current US Constitution becomes effective • 1800-1850 - Second Great Awakening • 1812-1815 - War of 1812 • 1837-1843 - Severe Economic Depression, known as the Panic of 1837 (over 25% of banks failed)

11. Protestantism & Literacy Basics of Protestant Christianity: • A person is saved by his/her faith alone • One’s faith is based on the Word of God (= Bible and Jesus) Therefore, Protestant Churches insist that adherents be able to read and comprehend the Bible, in order to make a fully informed commitment to its truth claims.

12. Field Guide to Protestants • Prominent Protestant denominations in the American Colonies included: Congregationalists Methodists Baptists Anglicans (a.k.a. Church of England) Dutch Reformed (Calvinist) Quakers • Protestant Churches encompass most forms of Christianity outside of Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and (later) Latter-Day Saints. Congregational Church, Massachusetts

13. Structural Advantages to Religious Education • Shared text in Scripture • Sense of urgency in learning to read (road to salvation, fear of mortality) • Congregation is explicitly a learning community • Institutional resources and continuity • Educated and literate clergyman as an exemplar & authority • Connection between church and home leads to reinforcement of lessons learned and continued study. Family reading the Bible, Scotland, 19th century

14. The Quakers: A distinct community, a distinct contribution • Egalitarian belief that all people shared God’s “Inner Light” enabled women, the poor, and the uneducated to speak at Quaker meetings • This same belief propelled them to educate women, slaves, ex-slaves, and other marginalized people. • Their sense of self-reliance led them to eschew classical education (such as Latin and Greek) as pretentious, elitist, and impractical. Quaker woman preaching to a meeting in London

15. The Quakers: A Guarded Education • Quakers were persecuted in their early history; this and their peculiarities kept them apart from other groups. • This led them to develop a system of high schools for Quaker youth, under the hope of providing “a guarded education” from the temptations of the world • However, because these high schools educated women as well as young men, they were leaders in educational equality across gender lines. Quaker woman preaching to a meeting in London Moses Brown School

16. Anthony Benezet (1713-1784) • Quaker and an abolitionist Taught classes out of his home for both slaves and free Blacks, and taught women/girls Writer against slavery, pamphleteer Benezet’s home in Philadelphia Benezet was friends with Benjamin Franklin.

17. Anthony Benezet (1713-1784) • Benezet was a prominent Quaker educator, and early Abolitionist. • Benezet was a pioneer in three areas of educational equity: education of women, education of the poor (servants and slaves), and education of African-Americans. • Benezet organized the first school for free Blacks in Philadelphia, and also organized the first society for the Abolition of slavery. Benezet’s home in Philadelphia Benezet was friends with Benjamin Franklin.

18. Anthony Benezet (1713-1784) “I can with truth and sincerity declare, that I have found amongst the negroes as great variety of talents, as among a like number of whites; and I am bold to assert, that the notion entertained by some, that the blacks are inferior in their capacities, is a vulgar prejudice, founded on the pride or ignorance of their lordly masters; who have kept their slaves at such a distance, as to be unable to form a right judgment of them.”

19. Revolution, Liberty & Literacy The American Revolution required the rebels to think for themselves, against tradition and against aristocracy. The availability and accessibility of writings such as Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” and the Declaration of Independence, worked as recruitment vehicles for the Revolutionary Army.

20. Republicanism, Citizenship & Education Because of widespread white male suffrage, the new American nation sought to encourage educated voters. Kaestle summarizes Jefferson’s position: “Citizens must choose leaders wisely…and protect liberty by keeping a vigilant eye on government. All citizens should have a chance not only to vote but to be elected. The government needs…educated and virtuous lawmakers.” (6) Constitutional convention, 1787

21. Republican Motherhood • What of the women, who could not vote? • They, too, needed to internalize the values of the revolution, to educate their sons and daughters to self-sufficiency and patriotism. Judith Sargent Murray, a leading proponent of Republican Motherhood

22. Capitalism, Numeracy & Literacy Capitalism requires basic mathematics. Capitalism, as an economic system, maintains impersonal, even abstract, exchanges that need to be recorded and accounted. The large distances in the United States, and the resulting extensive trade networks, made accounting skills even more valuable. Accounts from Continetnal Congress, 1776

23. Education and Upward Mobility Capitalism, as a system, claims to reward individual initiative and self-regulation. Self-improvement - whether through education or improved efficiency - is encouraged. Education thus became a means for the poor to elevate their station in life, or at least that became the mythology, even when this was the exception rather than the rule. Note the story of Stephen Allen, the poor apprentice who, through dint of hard work and self-education, became mayor of New York in the 1820s (Kaestle 31)

24. Aristocracy and Meritocracy • Aristocracy: Government by a privileged few, usually upper-class, usually by inherited wealth and prestige • Meritocracy: Status and prestige • are based on • demonstrated talent, especially intellectual skills.

25. Necessary Resources Privileged Resources Valorized Resources • Authoritative Resources Food, Shelter, Health Care, Clothing, etc. Luxury Items, Wealth, Servants/Slaves, Art Education, Literacy, Numeracy, Art, Prestige, Fame, Happiness, Success, Privacy Positions of Leadership Access to Resources: Who’s Got What, Who Gets Left Out?

26. Aristocracy and Meritocracy • American educational ideology claims to be merit-based? But is it, really? • Consider some success stories, and also some glaring contradictions.