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Primary Sources on American Education in the 19th
Century
How did Americans of the 19th century view education? One good way to find out
is to look at primary-source documents.
In this essay, you will find two kinds of documents. Document Sets 1 and 2
contain writings about the importance of education. Document Sets 3 and 4
illustrate the kinds of materials that were used in classrooms. Together, these
documents reveal some of the teaching philosophies and methods of early
American education.
Document Set 1: Joseph Lancaster Promotes Education Among the Poor
Early education in the United States was often based on a teaching method that
featured one teacher working with a few students. This method was expensive,
and it was unavailable to many children.
Englishman Joseph Lancaster experimented with teaching large numbers of poor
children. In 1818, he brought his techniques to the United States.
Lancaster’s plan was to gather a large number of students—as many as 1,000—in a
single room. The students were lined up in rows. Quiet and discipline were
strictly enforced.
In Lancaster’s schools, older students served as unpaid monitors. The monitors
went from row to row with a highly organized manual of instruction to coach the
large mass of students.
Lancaster’s model meshed well with American beliefs in equality of opportunity
and the importance of education. His schools convinced some people that
education could be affordably offered to a mass audience. In this way,
Lancaster helped lay the foundation for offering free, public education to all
American children.
Here are some passages from a book Lancaster wrote in 1803. The passages
describe some of his methods. Imagine being a student, a mentor, or a teacher
in a Lancastrian school. As you read, think about what your daily life would
have been like.
Lancaster on Books to Be Used in His Schools
The books made use of in this school, as reading lessons, are the Bible,
Testament, Turner's Introduction to the Arts and Sciences, Trimmer's
Introduction to the Knowledge of Nature and Reading the Scriptures, Martinet's
Catechism of Nature, and Watts's Hymns for Children.
Lancaster on How to Educate Many Students at the Same Time
Now these twenty boys, if they were at a common school, would each have a book,
and, one at a time, would read or spell to their teacher, while the other
nineteen were looking at their books, or about them, as they pleased: or, if
their eyes are rivetted on their books, by terror and coercion, can we be sure
that the attention of their minds is engaged as appearance seems to speak it
is. On the contrary, when they have slates, the twentieth boy may read to the
teacher, while the other nineteen are spelling words on the slate, instead of
sitting idle. The class, by this means, will spell, write, and read at the same
instant of time. In addition to this, the same trouble which teaches twenty
will suffice to teach sixty or a hundred, by employing some of the senior boys
to inspect the slates of the others, they not omitting to spell the word
themselves…. This experiment has been repeatedly practised by 112 and 128 boys
at once.
Lancaster on a System of Rewards for Students
Commendation [praise], joined to a consciousness of merit, has a powerful
effect; of this I was aware, I therefore engaged the bookbinder to make some
leather tickets, gilt and lettered differently, expressive of the various
degrees of merit they were intended to distinguish; these were suspended, by a
small piece of ribbon, from the button of the wearer's coat, as a badge of
peculiar approbation [approval]….. We have near two hundred of these tickets.
As to the method of distributing them, I inspect the writing, arithmetic,
&c. and distribute paper tickets, No. 1, 2, 3, &c. according to merit.
This number, one, two, three, &c. is a small, square piece of paper,
numbered, corresponding with a similar number of the gilt commendatory ticket
the bearer is to receive: he carries this to the monitor appointed for that
purpose, who gives him the ticket he is entitled to, and registers it in a
book. When a scholar has, by merit, obtained a fixed quota of those numbers and
commendatory tickets, he is entitled to a prize of an appropriate value…. The
prizes consist of bats, balls, and kites, &c. &c. in great variety;
—thus they are kept on the tip-toe of expectation.
Enrichment Activity for Document Set 1
Answer these questions:
| 1. |
Who was Joseph Lancaster? |
| 2. |
Why did Lancaster’s schooling ideas appeal to Americans?
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| 3.
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Imagine you are a student in one of Lancaster’s schools, or one
based on his ideas. What might a day be like for you? |
Document Set 2: Horace Mann Speaks Out
Horace Mann was an important advocate for free public schools. Here are three
passages from a report he wrote in 1848. As you read, think about this
question: How did Mann believe that education could improve the nation’s social
and political life? If one class possesses all the wealth and the
education, while the residue [rest] of society is ignorant and poor, it matters
not by what name the relation between them may be called: the latter, in fact
and in truth, will be the servile dependents [servants] and subjects of the
former. But, if education be equally diffused [spread], it will draw property
after it by the strongest of all attractions; for such a thing never did
happen, and never can happen, as that an intelligent and practical body of men
should be permanently poor….
Education... is a great equalizer of the conditions of men—the balance wheel of
the social machinery. [It] gives each man the independence and the means by
which he can resist the selfishness of other men. It does better than to disarm
the poor of their hostility toward the rich: it prevents being poor.... The
spread of education, by enlarging the cultivated class or caste, will open a
wider area over which the social feelings will expand; and, if this education
should be universal and complete, it would do more than all things else to
obliterate [erase] factitious [artificial] distinctions in society.
[The] establishment of a republican government, without well-appointed and
efficient means for the universal education of the people, is the most rash and
foolhardy experiment ever tried by man. Such a Republic may grow in numbers and
in wealth.... Its armies may be invincible, and its fleets may strike terror
into nations on the opposite sides of the globe, at the same hour.... But if
such a Republic be devoid of [without] intelligence, such a Republic, with all
its noble capacities for beneficence [ability to do good], will rush with the
speed of a whirlwind to an ignominious [shameful] end; and all good men of
after-times would be fain [eager] to weep over its downfall, did not their
scorn and contempt at its folly and its wickedness, repress all sorrow for its
fate. Enrichment Activity for Document Set 2
Answer these questions:
| 1.
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Who was Horace Mann?
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| 2. |
List four reasons, using Mann’s own words, that explain why
education is important. |
Document Set 3: McGuffey Readers Enter America’s Schools
William McGuffey was a teacher and a preacher who created readers (a kind of
textbook) for use in grade schools. The readers taught young people the value
of patriotism and morality along with reading and vocabulary.
First published in the 1830s, McGuffey’s readers were used by millions of
students during the 19 th
century. Here are some pages from one of McGuffey’s readers. How are they
similar to materials you have learned from? How are they different?
Enrichment Activity for Document Set 3
Answer these questions:
| 1.
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Who was Williams McGuffey? |
| 2. |
What themes did his readers promote? |
| 3.
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What moral (lesson) was McGuffey trying to teach in
the story of John Lane? |
Document Set 4: Elocution Exercises
Public speaking was considered an important citizenship skill in the 19th
century. In public schools, students were expected to study and memorize
speeches as a part of their training. They polished their skills through
elocution (clear speaking) exercises.
Here is an example of a beginning elocution exercise. After mastering basic
sounds, students went on to more advanced lessons in pronunciation and clear
speaking.
Another publication that aimed to develop public speaking skills was the Columbian
Orator. (An orator is a public speaker.) The Orator first
appeared in the late 1700s. It provided examples of actual speeches for
students to study. New editions of the Columbian Orator are still
published today.
Here is a page showing part of a speech that 19th-century students studied as a
model:
Enrichment Activity for Document Set 4
Answer these questions:
| 1.
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What are elocution exercises? |
| 2. |
What was the Columbian Orator? |
| 3.
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Are teachers and parents still concerned about
elocution? How do we teach about elocution today?
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