Founding Fathers: On The Importance of Public Education

by Minnie Apolis When it comes to discovering what the opinion of the founding fathers was on the value of public education, it rapidly becomes clear that they considered it essential to the survival of the democratic form of government – or to be more precise, our democratic republic form of government. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison both weighed in on the side of full support for educating the masses. Others who lived in the same era who also pushed for public education were Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Noah Webster, and Benjamin Rush. While Thomas Jefferson tried and failed to convince the Virginia legislature to set up a system of public schools – proposing a generous full scholarship to the College of William and Mary for one child from the district every two years – he was vehement that education was essential to the survival of the American experiment. Yet it remained for Horace Mann to institute the first public schools in the nation in the state of Massachusetts, a mere sixty years later. Jefferson is quoted as saying that “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” Jefferson's proposed program of courses was top-heavy on history, but included writing and arithmetic. The reading segment was almost entirely made up of history “from Grecian, Roman, European, and American history.” He explains that “history by apprising them of the past will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views (Jefferson, “Notes on the State of Virginia”).” While President Jefferson may seem a bit optimistic about the power of public education, to be fair one must admit that his program of courses has not been applied in modern times, there being more emphasis on social studies and self-expression. Yet there's a lot to be said for his approach of skimming off the cream of the crop for further education at the higher levels. Choosing who will advance on the basis of merit was, he felt, a tool to ensure that talents are not wasted. “By that part of our plan which prescribes the selection of youths of genius from the classes of the poor, we hope to avail the state of those talents which nature has sown as liberally among the poor as the rich, but which perish without use, if not sought and cultivated (Jefferson, “Notes on the State of Virginia”).” James Madison applauded when the State of Kentucky appropriated funds for a general system of education in 1822. In a letter to William Taylor Berry in August of that year, he stated that “a popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.” After stating his particular interest in observing the progress of the state of Kentucky, he wrote that “its rapid growth and signal prosperity which is now providing for the State a Plan of Education embracing every class of Citizens, and every grade and department of Knowledge. No error is more certain than the one proceeding from a nasty and superficial view of the subject: that the people at large have no interest in the establishment of Academies, Colleges, and Universities, where only a few only, and those not of the poorer classes can obtain for their sons the advantages of superior education. It is thought to be unjust that all should be taxed for the benefit of a part, and that too the part least needing it. If provision were not made at the same time for every part, the objection would be a natural one. But, besides the consideration when the higher Seminaries belong to a plan of general education, that it is better for the poorer classes to have the aid of the richer by a general tax on property, than that every parent should provide at his own expence (sic) for the education of his children, it is certain that every Class is interested in establishments which give to the human mind its highest improvements, and to every Country its truest and most durable celebrity.” And echoing Thomas Jefferson's statement that democracy depends on an educated populace, Madison stated that “Learned Institutions . . . throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty.” Madison notes that nations around the world were watching the American experiment with interest. “The American people owe it to themselves, and to the cause of free Government, to prove by their establishments for the advancement and diffusion of Knowledge, that their political Institutions, which are attracting observation from every quarter, and are respected as Models, by the newborn States in our own Hemisphere, are as favorable to the intellectual and moral improvement of Man as they are conformable to his individual and social Rights. What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, that that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?” Benjamin Franklin started an alternative to the Latin-based grammar schools by creating the American Academy in 1751 in his hometown, Philadelphia. This was the beginning of high school as we now know it, with instruction primarily in English. (The Academy later became the University of Pennsylvania, the first modern liberal arts college in the country.) He served as its president for the first five years; Franklin also started the first lending library of its kind in Philadelphia. Benjamin Rush, another Pennsylvanian, was considered the father of public schools since he was the first to advance the idea of free public education – education for both boys and girls, a radical idea at the time. Although by profession a medical doctor, he wrote the first American chemistry textbook and took part in the public debate on many issues. Rush felt that a school should teach the subjects of history, arithmetic, reading/writing, economics, chemistry, poetry, mythology, vocal music and religion, as well as physical education. “While we inculcate these republican duties upon our pupil, we must not neglect at the same time to inspire him with re publican principles. He must be taught that there can be no durable liberty but in a republic and that government, like all other sciences, is of a progressive nature.” he wrote. The study of the so-called dead languages was imperative, in his opinion, to developing young practitioners of “law, physic or divinity.” It may be a relief to modern readers of this page that Noah Webster did not support the heavy emphasis on learning the speeches of ancient Greeks and Romans. Of Demosthenes and Cicero he wrote, “These are excellent specimens of good sense, polished stile and perfect oratory; but they are not interesting to children. They cannot be very useful, except to young gentlemen who want them as models of reasoning and eloquence, in the pulpit or at the bar.” OK, so what did he propose that the curriculum include? History, primarily American history, plus geography, “an acquaintance with ethics, and with the general principles of law, commerce, money and government.” Again, Webster echoes the belief that proper education is the first defense against tyranny. “In despotic governments, the people should have little or no education, except what tends to inspire them with a servile fear. Information is fatal to despotism . . . In our American republics, where [government] is in the hands of the people, knowledge should be universally diffused by means of public schools.” He believed that “the more generally knowledge is diffused among the substantial yeomanry, the more perfect will be the laws of a republican state.” As a side note, it is interesting that according to historian David McCullough, the Founding Fathers were all well-versed in Greek and Latin, steeped not only in the language but in the history, ideals, and philosophy of the best of those cultures. Jefferson, for example, “began the study of Latin, Greek and French at the age of 9 under the Reverend James Maury, a learned man, in the finest classical tradition . . . [and] attended William and Mary College in Williamsburg at sixteen years old.” In a letter he wrote to a British friend in 1800, Jefferson declared that “that to read the Latin and Greek authors in their original is a sublime luxury, and I deem luxury in science (possession of knowledge) to be at least as justifiable as in architecture, painting, gardening, or the other arts.” Diametrically opposed to Jefferson was Alexander Hamilton, who stood on the side of a kind of Social Darwinism in which the domination of the wealthy was justified as proof of the superiority of the upper classes. Also it should be made clear that during the colonial period (the 1600s), public education at the time was more like what we now label parochial education. In the New England colonies in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, children were educated by the churches, who saw a duty to teach children to read the (English-language) Bible. But as a tide of immigrants from many nations and creeds came to object to forced acceptance of just one sanctioned view of the Bible's message. As a result, private schooling had become the norm by the eighteenth century. The private schools were free to instruct in English or the language of the community, or add courses in classical languages. However, the best schools were available only to the wealthy classes, a state of affairs that became the target of reformers like Horace Mann in Massachusetts. In many ways the format of the modern high school curriculum was a resounding success. Attendance skyrocketed among American teens; from 1900 to 1996 the percentage of teens who graduated from high school rose from a mere 6 percent to around 85 percent. Most states now have laws making public education compulsory to the age of 16. SOURCES: Friends of Poquessing.org, “Dr. Benjamin Rush,” undated, friendsofpoquessing.org, http://www.friendsofpoquessing.org/Benjaminrush.html Jefferson, Thomas, “Public education as the engine of republicanism,” Library of Congress, August 3, 2010, www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jeffrep.html Madison, James, Letter to William Taylor Berry, August 4, 1822, http://classicliberal.tripod.com/madison/barry.html “Pennsylvania's University,” undated, The Franklin Institute, http://fi.edu/franklin/timeline/univpenn.html Rush, Dr. Benjamin, “Thoughts Upon The Mode Of Education Proper In A Republic,” 1786, reproduced online at School Choices dot org, http://www.schoolchoices.org/roo/rush.htm Shuford, Thomas, “Jefferson on Public Education: Defying Conventional Wisdom,” Education News, June 28, 2007, www.educationnews.org/articles/jefferson-on-public-education-defying-conventional-wisdom.html Thatthai, Deeptha, “A History of Public Education in the United States,” undated, www.servintfree.net/~aidmn-ejournal/publications/2001-11/PublicEducationInTheUnitedStates.html University of Chicago, Epilogue: Securing the Republic, “Noah Webster, On the Education of Youth in America,” 1788 (posted online 1987), http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch18s26.html