Showing papers in "History of Education Quarterly in 1981"

The Ideal and Reality: Apprentice-Master Relationships in Seventeenth Century London.

Abstract: SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND, like the rest of western Europe in the early modern period, was a patriarchal society. It had been such for a long time and would remain so until industrialization and the concept of greater individualism began to upset traditional values. The notion of family was quite different then from what it is now: the family included all persons living in a household whether they were related or not. Thus, servants, apprentices, and live-in employees were part of the employer's family and the head of the household was its absolute master, serving as surrogate father to those not actually his children. His relationship with the younger members of the family was similar to the relationship between the absolute monarchs of the era and their subjects. Of course, not all subjects were dutiful and obedient sons or daughters of the father figure, either in the state or in the family, but the ideal was patriachalism in every social unit. This ideal was perhaps nowhere better illustrated than in the institution of apprenticeship. This essay will concentrate on the apprentices of London during the early seventeenth century and will describe both the ideal and the reality of apprentice-master relationships. (1) Perhaps the oldest form of education, apprenticeship was designed to provide training in the crafts and trades, thus assuring competent workers. Yet it was far more than a system of education; it was part of a complex social and economic system. Controlled by the companies or guilds, apprenticeship was also a means of limiting the supply of workers. It was widespread since most of those who pursued careers outside the learned professions which required university training and those who were to be farmers or laborers customarily served apprenticeships. The growth of population in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries

Philanthropy and the Gospel of Child Development.

Abstract: PHILANTHROPY in America has sparked numerous innovations in the fields of education, social work, and public health, but rarely has it been instrumental in generating and sustaining a popular social movement. In the Post-World War One decade, however, the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial (LSRM) did just that, subtly but aggressively nurturing and coordinating the long-since-forgotten parent education movement. (1) For hundreds of thousands of middle-class Americans, principally young mothers, parent education provided not only a topic of everyday conversation and a structure for continuing education, but a genuine social cause. Philanthropy alone did not create this crusade, of course. Many other factors were involved, some antedating the war, others originating in the twenties and reflecting its distinctive political and cultural spirit. Nonetheless, LSRM's role was central and formative, and merits considerably more attention from historians of education and of philanthropy than it has heretofore received. Before proceeding, a few comments on terminology may be helpful. Were it not for literary awkwardness, I would join the terms "child development," "child study," and "parent education" to form a single, hyphenated phrase, so closely were they linked in common discourse and in LSRM's philanthropic strategy. The modern field of child development owes its very existence as a respectable scholarly enterprise to the Rockefellers' generous financial support in the twenties, as part of what LSRM referred to most frequently as the child study and parent education movement. Much more than today, child development research was then oriented unabashedly toward immediate practical application. Indeed, LSRM agreed to invest so heavily in this relatively uncharted scientific arena only on the supposition that programs in parent education would be created concurrently to carry the latest findings to mothers for

Joseph Lancaster's Monitorial System of Instruction and American Indian Education, 1815–1838

Abstract: From the beginning of white settlement in America, Indian relations presented a major dilemma. The fate of American Indians, confronted as they were with the inexorable, dispossessing creep of white settlement, became a source of white concern. With the exception of a small handful of individuals, that concern was manifested not in a sense of basic human equality, but rather as an expression of white elitism and expansionist expediency. This perplexing dilemma was often referred to as the “Indian question,” as it posed an outwardly simple, yet deceptively complex question: What do we do with the Indians?

The popularization of science in nineteenth-century America.

Abstract: THE POPULARIZATION OF SCIENCE in nineteenth-century America is inseparable from the democratization of Western society in the early modern era. The contempt for labor that characterized the medieval attitude was gradually replaced by a new spirit whose roots go back to at least the twelfth century and which accompanied the rise in economic importance of the skilled craftsman and mechanic in a modernizing economy. The new importance of the artisan-mechanic to the economy forced a reconsideration of the proper relationship between the artisan and the scientist. The association of knowledge with its applications its utility was interwoven with a growing self-conception that the productions of the craftsman and the mechanic made possible a grasp of regularities and order in nature hitherto not even so conceptualized. Advances in techniques and in the material conditions of life were accompanied by corresponding changes in the perception and conceptualization of nature and society. (1) The artisan achieved a new and elevated status of dignity and place. He worked in close collaboration with scientists, and frequently the distinctions between them were blurred and undefined. (2) Taking their cue from the work of the artisan and his methods, the new men of science now raised the possibility that nature could not only be understood but could be altered to meet the needs of man. In the words of Paolo Rossi:

‘“Partisans of the Proletariat’: The Socialist Working Class and the Milwaukee Schools, 1890–1920”

Abstract: “Socialists are not non-partisan. They are partisans of the proletariat.” — Victor Berger, 1911 The contours of urban school reform in the Progressive era have now assumed a familiar form. While the most influential interpretations of the past decade differ somewhat in intent and emphasis, they all emphasize the essential elitism, conservatism, and importance of various school reforms enacted in the early twentieth century. This is true of scholars with a wide range of political interests and ideological concerns. This essay, which is a social analysis of organized labor, socialism, and the Milwaukee schools during the Progressive era, examines the political fortunes of one of the most successful labor movements in American history. Besides constituting a compelling story in its own right, Milwaukee Socialism highlights well the process of Progressive era educational reform; indeed, it reveals the complex historical interactions that produced the distinctive reform coalitions of the age. A study of Milwaukee's socialist labor movement demonstrates how particular working people influenced school reform in a time of rapid social change, and it also demonstrates how they in turn were shaped by the reform groups that helped inaugurate many of the period's innovative educational programs.

History of Education: A Southern Exposure

Abstract: ITHE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS is one of the freer forms of professional communication currently in use in the American academic community. One can get a glimpse of freedom of the form by briefly perusing the presidential messages published in various historical journals over the past five or so years. A president may, like William Bouwsma, touch on a current in his own specialty because it is of"considerable importance for historians and for the larger culture of which we are a part." And, using his own expertise in Renaissance history, he proceeded to identify changes in Renaissance historiography, with the larger theme of"the collapse of the traditional dramatic organization of Western history." (1) Other options which have been exercised by historian presidents include the challenge to improve teaching offered by Gilbert C. Fite to his colleages in the Southern Historical Association or the consideration of the effects of the federal government on all aspects of the historical profession offered by Richard W. Leopold to the Organization of American Historians. (2) The addresses of my predecessor presidents of the History of Education Society over the last five years are a further testament to the diversity of the form. One may, like Michael Katz or Clarence Karier, choose to defend vigorously one's own work against what is considered unfair or unknowledgeable criticism. Or one may, like John Calam or Jurgen Herbst, choose to recommend a topic or topics worthy of attention by one's colleagues in an effort to move the field in what they consider to be a more fruitful direction. Or one may, like Geraldine Clifford, offer examples from one's own ongoing research as an indicator of the value of the particular approach employed. (3) The common element, if there is such, in all of these examples is that

Educating New Mothers: Women and the Enlightenment in Russia.

Abstract: “We do not want them to be prudes or coquettes, but amiable and able to raise their children and take care of their homes.” Letter of Catherine II to Voltaire, n.d. “They will be good Russian wives, caring mothers, and zealous homemakers.” St. Petersburg Gazette, no. 45, 1773 “…The intention and end of the education of girls [is] to make them good homemakers, faithful wives, and trustworthy mothers, …” Arrangement of studies in the Society of noble and common girls in accordance with the public schools of Russia, issued by the Commission on Public Schools, 1783 In Russia during the era of Catherine II (1762–1796), women's education was advocated as a means to reform family, social and civic life. Fenelon's Traite de l'education des Filles (1686) and his didactic novel, Les Aventures de Telemaque, carried this argument to Russia where it was reinforced by the ideas of the Enlightenment. In a society with substantial prejudice against mere literacy for women, this position represents a progressive call for expanded educational opportunities for girls. The message was interpreted in this fashion by its European and Russian proponents who presumed that they were acting in accordance with reason and nature. But the restraints inherent in this domestic orientation make it as much a campaign against excessive emancipation as a plea to remove women from complete ignorance. In this essay, I explore this limited advocacy from the Russian perspective. This ambivalence is demonstrable throughout the reign of Catherine II and at different social levels, though most attention was focused on the nobility for whom the Society for the Education of Noble Girls (the Smol'nyi Institute) was founded.

A Scramble for Souls: The Impact of the Negro Education Grant on Evangelical Missionaries in the British West Indies

Abstract: The United States has produced a lively and impressive body of scholarship on the education of freedmen during Reconstruction The story has a consistently melancholy tone— that of the hopes, aspirations and rhetoric which accompanied the perilous journey from unschooled bondsman to schooled freedman — a journey which culminated in broken promises and repressive realities It is too frequently forgotten that such an experience had been shared some thirty years previously in the British West Indies after the 1833 Act of Emancipation The story however is somewhat different in that formal schooling had been available to some of the black population during slavery When the dubious regulations of servitude were lifted while its real abuses remained, the British Government's Negro Education Grant, which spanned a decade from 1835–45, expanded existing missionary facilities so that during the apprenticeship period, 1834–38, the ex-slaves could be satisfactorily prepared for freedom This preparation intended that they comprehend the skills, qualities, and virtues requisite for taking upon themselves the apparently onerous burden of their emancipation, thus becoming a “grateful peasantry”

Revolution and Education in Late Nineteenth Century France: The Early Career of Paul Robin.

Abstract: IN THE ORTHODOX, "Whig" interpretations of the history of education of nineteenth-century France the focus of attention has traditionally been on the triumph of free, obligatory and secular education. (1) In recent years historians have attempted to provide a more balanced picture by also chronicling the activities of the "losers" in this confrontation - the defenders of religious education. (2) But one group has been left out of both accounts-the propagandists for a working-class education free of the interference of both the Catholic Church and the capitalist state. Of this latter group of thinkers the most interesting was Paul Robin, not simply because his views were the most radical, but because for over a decade this educational anarchist controlled an institution in which he could test his theories in practice. The purpose of the following account of Robin's work is first to illustrate the links that bound together the sexual, political and educational concerns of the libertarian left and secondly to show how deeply rooted in the past century are the current debates regarding the education of women and workers.

The Southern Progressive Educator on Race and Pluralism: The Case of William Heard Kilpatrick

Abstract: THE WORK of William Heard Kilpatrick (1871-1965) in the area of race and ethnic relations presents an opportunity to explore how one of the foremost educators of his time responded to a difficult and potentially dangerous aspect of American life. A consistent spokesman for New South approaches to racial injustice and a key member of the early intercultural education movement, he was also an influential officer of the New York Urban League in its formative years. Indeed, Kilpatrick's example as a pioneer in these affairs provides insight into the "liberal pluralist" outlook which came to prevail in American education for almost forty years, an outlook which only recently has come under scrutiny and criticism by scholars of race relations and ethnicity. (1) Much could be said about Kilpatrick. He lived long, moving from the confines of an essentially rural, post-Civil War, Southern environment to fashionable intellectual and educational circles in one of America's most prestigious universities and its most cosmopolitan city. This Teachers College, Columbia University, professor was a prime disciple of progressive educational pedagogy and an original member of the Social Frontier Group of social reconstructionists. Democratic in outlook and aristocratic in bearing, he was in many respects a quintessential liberal, a man so prolific and complex that he defies easy description and comparison with his peers. He will not get this comparison in the following pages. He will receive something else he deserves: a somewhat detailed look at this race relations work, a topic generally ignored by students of the progressive education movement and Kilpatrick's role in it. By way of background, two points need to be made clear at the outset. The first is that Kilpatrick's personality, southern background, sense of morality and pragmatic bent made him a cautious gradualist. Like many

The Primary Education of French Girls: Pedagogical Prescriptions and Social Realities, 1880-1940.

Abstract: "WOMAN is the guardian of thefoyer. Her place is at home, in the house of her parents or husband. . . ; it is for the foyer that she must reserve all her grace and good humor. ... A woman who does not love her home, who has no taste for household duties. . . cannot remain a virtuous woman for long." Such were the instructions and warnings about the domestic mission of women which Madame Henry Greville offered to French schoolgirls in one of the most widely used textbooks for moral and civic education in girls' public primary schools during the late nineteenth century. (1) Greville's teaching conformed to the wishes of the Ministry of Public Instruction which ordered that primary schools should prepare boys to become workers and soldiers and initiate girls in the "care of the household and ouvrages defemmes. " (2) The statements by the Ministry and Greville indicate that some aspects of primary schooling for girls would differ from that for boys during the Third Repubic. It is therefore necessary to modify a generalization about the identity of boys' and girls' elementary schooling which Antoine Prost makes in his standard Histoire de l'enseignement en France. Prost states that the differences between the education of girls and boys evident on the secondary school level before World War I do not apply to the primary schools. Whereas the state secondary schools for girls sought to familiarize the future ladies of the republican bourgeoisie with domestic virtues and social graces as well as general culture, the primary schools, says Prost, served the "children of the people" and aimed to prepare both sexes for a lifetime of hard work. (3) It is true that boys' and girls' primary schools shared the same formal curriculum for academic subjects, drawing and singing and differed only in the short-lived requirement of military exer-

Architects of the New Sorbonne: Liard's Purpose and Durkheims's Role.

Abstract: IN THOSE DECADES immediately preceding World War I, referred to nostalgically as "La Belle Epoque," higher education returned to France. The Third Republic restored it to life, although its heartland remained the old Latin Quarter where there now arose in dominion architect Paul Nenot's "University Palace:" a giant rectangular building one hundred yards in breadth and almost three hundred yards long, a concentration of auditoriums, exam rooms, lecture halls, laboratories, offices, libraries and museums that then made of the New Sorbonne the nation's greatest institution of higher learning. A three-fold expansion and reconstruction by the republic of the original structure, its massive grey walls, nevertheless, appeared more hewn to the form of some ancient bastille than to any suitable republican symbol. (1) It was before a distinguished Sorbonne assemblage that in the spring of 1883, Jules Ferry, Minister of Education, President of the Council, and the political light behind educational reform, reviewed the relationship between higher education and the new republic. By the close of that decade, republican generosity would devote to higher education more than double the budgetary allotment the Second Empire had allowed, but the minister's emphasis was clearly not upon payments rendered for service to liberal values. Rather, a university represented an instrument of the state that would for France's honor, further the goals of science while delivering lessons in cultural and moral idealism, self-discipline, and social constraint to a growing but untutored republic. "The more you have an industrious, and egalitarian society," declared Ferry, "the more important it is that the State assume the function not only of administrator, of policeman, of society's keeper, but that of tutor of higher studies, and, allow me to say it, that of guardian of the ideal.... Gentlemen," he concluded, "mark my words, in the modern world science will be the true and all-powerful pacifier." (2) Louis Liard later recalled his patron's speech, given on the eve of

Herodes Atticus: An Essay on Education in the Antonine Age

Abstract: HERODES ATTICUS (A.D. 101-176), the Athenian millionaire, Roman consul, celebrated sophist and friend and teacher of Roman Emperors was one of the best known figures of the Antonine Period. Philostratus, the author of the Lives of the Sophists, written ca. A.D. 230, gives Herodes considerably more space than any other sophist; he is the subject of Graindor's solid though dated biography, of Rutledge's admirable doctoral thesis, and is one of the major figures in Bowersock's brilliant work on the Greek sophists in the Roman Empire. (1) Herodes' education and teaching career, however, have never been adequately studied. It is the aim of this essay to do that.