Soc/EDS 126: Topic #1

• The Democratic Conception of Education

Announcements

• If you are new today, see me, and pick up syllabus and assignments

• New People need to be assigned to groups to write reflections

• Sections: Thursdays, starting today, 1:00-2:00 or 3:30-4:30, Pepper Canyon 304

The Political Economic Context in Colonial

Times• US: An Agrarian Society (90%)

• South: large estates (slave labor)• North: Small Family farms

The Family was the Productive Unit•Families were self sufficient--•Faith in the individual hid

commutarian processes* Patriarchal

The Government

• Representative, decentralized– Jefferson: If democracy was to succeed, the citizenry must be rational, well informed

– Faith in Reason, power of persuasion and negotiation (Influence of Enlightenment)

The Jeffersonian Educational Ideal (1787--1820s)

• Public Education:3 Tiers-- Elementary school, grammar school, university

• Caveat: Education Proposals applied only to free, white males

Ideas Not Actualized Nationally in his Lifetime

1st Tier: Elementary School: State Supported

Available to the mass of the population (males)Duration: Three yearsCurriculum: "3 Rs" reading, (w)riting,

(a)rithmetic, Purposes:

Practical: to engage in commerce, buy & sell goodsCitizenship: Communication, Read and understand governmental proposals,

announcements, newspapers

2nd Tier: Grammar Schools

• Best students promoted/Selected from Elementary Schools

• boarding schools• tax free enrollment• boys only• 1/3 dropped out• prepare future governmental

leaders• curriculum: college prep:

3rd Tier: University

• “Natural” civic virtue--Yield qualified citizens and leaders• Courses• Languages (Greek & Latin),

Government, Ethics,

• Faculty psychology: mind strengthened by "exercise"• General cognitive skills, not specialized

vocational skills

Curriculum & Instruction: Elementary School

• Reading and writing in the service of religious/ moral trainingContent of instruction in colonial schools

was primarily religious & authoritarian• New England Primer (for complete text

see: • http://www.gettysburg.edu/~tshannon/his341/

nep1805contents.html

New England Primer

Religious & AuthoritarianCurriculum & Instruction

Alphabet: guide to spelling, followed bystatement: "Now the child being entered

in his letters and spelling, let him learn,

these and such sentences by heart, whereby he will be both instructed in his duty and encouraged in his learning”

Religious & Authoritarian Instruction

Memorize verse: “I will fear God and honor

the KING, I will honor my Father and

MotherI will obey my superiorsI will submit to my elders

Alphabet of Lessons for Youth

An alphabetic listing of statements containing religious and moral maxims that the student was required to memorize:– A: "A wise son makes a glad father, but a

foolish son is the heaviness of his Mother”– B: "Better is little with the fear of the Lord,

than great treasure and trouble therewith”– C: "Come into Christ all ye that labor and

are heavy handed and He will give you rest"

Short Catechism (memorize questions and answers)

• Q: What is the end of man?• A: Man’s chief end is to Glorify God and

to enjoy him forever• Q: What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?• A: The word of God, which is contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testament, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him

Summary• The function of education in Colonial

times--education of citizens for democracy

• The structure of education: one-room school house

• Learning: – memorization: authoritarian--– Teacher/TEXT: (God) is the authority;-- Students are “empty vessels, “blank slates”

• CONTRADICTION?-given Jefferson’s beliefs and ideals???

Summary--Continued

Lessons: --Teach duty to family and God; --Origins of “recitation script” --Teacher Initiates,

Students Respond, Teacher Evaluates (I-R-E)--Moral lessons connected to “academic” lessons

Reading and writing in the service of religious/moral training defined in explicitly Protestant terms