Jessica M.

Peters

Early Nationalism and Education (Chapter 3)

Altenbaugh, R. J. (2003). The American People and Their Education: A Social History (p. 44-66). Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall

(1) The Uncertain Nation

 By the end of the eighteenth century, America was facing a national crisis, pressured by
threats of war and disaffection at home and from abroad.
 Many Western states were clearly unsatisfied with the rule of the national government,
feeling their needs were not being met much as the colonies had earlier complained against
British rule. Some had even contemplated secession.
 Facing a multitude of threats from all sides, the early leaders knew something had to be done
to hold the country together — Americans had to find a way to unite.
 “The entire republican process seemed to be vulnerable unless a literate, informed, and
patriotic electorate peacefully and wisely chose judicious, competent, and loyal political
leaders. A nationalistic spirit needed to be created and nurtured in order to ensure a sense of
social and political harmony and cohesiveness” (p. 46).
 Thus, the proposed changes in education stemmed primarily from political motives that
sought to bring the nation together under a common set of ideals and notions of patriotism
and a common American identity — education was necessary to produce good citizens.
 Several early leaders began to assert their own views on how best this new “commonality”
should be accomplished, but three common points seemed to run through everyone’s
proposals: utilitarianism, moral training, and government sponsorship.
 American republicanism represented a blend of classical (Greek and Roman) and modern
republicanism (based on ideas of the Enlightenment, specifically John Locke).
(a) The classics emphasized virtues, while the modern thinkers were proponents of inquiry and
progressive ideals, emphasizing a more practical education.
(b) While moral training remained important to all education reformers, the new nationalistic
emphasis meant that morals were no longer the reason for schooling, but instead became a
means of providing a common foundation for the citizens to make united and informed
choices.
(c) Thus, though leaders attempted to maintain the separation of church and state, “they
supported moral instruction in order to develop loyal and law-abiding citizens for a new
nation, that is, piety without religion” (p. 47).
 Government support for education represented a break from the European tradition of private
schools, and the idea of universal access to schooling was equally new. Under these
republican ideals, however, half the state constitutions ratified before 1800 included articles
calling for public aid to education.
 An idea of “equality” ran through each of these articles, but it usually extended only to the
education of both boys and girls.
 Though many national leaders supported the idea of a federal system for education, these
early calls couldn’t overcome state and local loyalties for control.
 Three of the strongest and most influential voices belonged to Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin
Rush, and Noah Webster. Their ideals of education all contained three basic points, which
ensured education became a part of the building of the nation.
(a) All levels of education should take place in the United States.
(b) Publicly financed education should be used to create “homogenous” Americans.
(c) Knowledge had to be diffused throughout the masses (at least basic training in reading,
writing, and ciphering).
(2) Thomas Jefferson: “Raking a Few Geniuses from the Rubbish”
 Thomas Jefferson devised a pyramid scheme for education, in which the best scholars would
move on to the next level after approval by an overseer.
(a) Each level was financed with public funds.
(b) Each county divided into 100 wards, each with a primary school that all European American
children should attend.
(i) Primary school curriculum taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, along with a basic
knowledge of Grecian, Roman, English, and American history. The Bible was not to be
used.
(c) The best scholars chosen by overseers would move onto grammar school (built by 3 or more
counties), which was modeled after the European boarding school, in which children left their
parents’ home and lived separately with their teacher and classmates.
(i) The curriculum at the second level focused on college preparatory work, Latin, Greek,
grammar, geography, and higher mathematics.
(d) The best attend would then attend William and Mary College for 3 years.
 Jefferson’s plan contained several points of note:
(a) Every white male and female had to be literate in order to function in the political process.
(b) The sequence of the system was planned to sort out potential leaders in politics, economics,
and the intellectual world.
(c) The entire experience was more or less free.
(d) Secularism was stressed throughout the curriculum. Thus, “Jefferson saw political ideology
as a religion to be taught in schools” (p. 50).

(3) Benjamin Rush: “One Great, and Equally Enlightened Family”

 Rush’s plan was aimed at the goal of producing “republican machines” through the creation
of a new American culture and institutions.
 He believed the diffusion of knowledge could be used to unify the state and he wanted to
produce “one great, and equally enlightened family” (p. 50).
 In Rush’s mind, every child became the “property” of the state, and schools were funded
through the sale of state lands and a tax system, in which everyone paid for the schools, even
those without children.
 Similar to Jefferson’s plan, Rush’s system was pyramidal and included roughly the same
stages, with the addition of the “college” level as the third tier.
(a) Free schools should be established in every township or in districts consisting of 100
families. Students would study reading, English, German, and math.
(b) Each county would host an academy focused on college preparatory work, including the
“learned languages.”
(c) In Pennsylvania, he proposed the creation of four colleges throughout the state, in which men
should study higher math and science.
(d) At university, scholars would study law, physic divinity, the law of nature and nations, and
economy.
 Rush also specified that each tier would provide teachers for the previous tier. So, colleges
would provide teachers for the academies, etc.

(4) Noah Webster: “Every Class of People Should Know and Love the Laws”
 Noah Webster stressed a curriculum that was very nation-centered — American history and
geography were emphasized, among other things.
 Although he rejected using the Bible for a reader, he did support the inculcation of Christian
virtues.
 (a) Additionally, teachers were to serve as role models who were “absolute monarchs” in the
classroom, in which discipline was essential.
(b) Schools were meant to serve a stern socialization role.
 The belief that a common language could serve as a unifying force led Webster to create his
famous speller, The American (later renamed, Elementary) Spelling Book.
(a) The popularity of the speller, which was only outsold by the Bible nationwide, led to a
spelling bee “craze.”
(b) Later editions of the speller added a “Federal catechism” to the text, which stressed law and
order, as well as the advantages of republicanism and the defects of democracy, monarchy,
and aristocracy.

(5) “Republican Mothers”

 Following the Revolution, questions arose concerning the position of women in society. They
had so made their presence known during the Revolution that there appeared a “dilemma over
how to grant women a political function and maintain, at the same time, their traditional
domestic responsibilities” (p. 54).
(a) The solution: the republican mother, whose “patriotic duty to educate her sons to be moral
and virtuous citizens linked her to the state and gave her some degree of power over its
future” (p. 54).
(b) Judith Sargent Murray was one advocate for equality among the sexes in education. For, as
she claimed, “Women did not lack brains but did lack instruction” (p. 55).
(c) Still, their main function was to serve as educated companions for their husbands and literate
teachers and models for their sons, who should grow to be active and helpful members of the
citizenry and the entire political process.
 By the end of the 1700s, some grammar schools and private academies began to open their
doors to female students, though these were largely located in the Northeast and populated
mostly by the well-to-do.
(a) These academies had four basic traits:
(i) Both academic subjects and more domestic pursuits, such as needlework and dancing,
were taught.
(ii) They were located both in small towns and large cities.
(iii) Following the European boarding school model, they served as a formal, institutional
educational environment for girls.
(iv) They were not short-lived, and many found great success.
(b) From these academies rose the idea of the female seminary, advocated and founded by
several notable women, including Emma Hart Willard, Catharine Beecher, and Mary Lyon.
(c) These seminaries, often founded on religious principles, rejected intellectual inequality
between the sexes and emphasized both academic subjects as well as more traditional
domestic pursuits for their students, whose roles as wives and mothers were not questioned.
Their goal was to “professionalize” motherhood.
(d) Seminaries, such as Lyon’s Mt. Holyoke, stressed formal and rigorous academic learning,
while questioning the role of competition among students and rejecting corporal punishment,
leaving quite a legacy in the process. They effectively:
(i) became the prototype for schooling of girls,
(ii) demonstrated a large public demand for secondary education for females,
(iii) provided a model for secondary curriculum,
(iv) set a precedent for hiring female instructors and introduced teacher training for women,
and
(v) produced graduates who began common schools in their own communities and in the
West.
(6) The Great White Father
 From the beginning, the federal government made its presence known among the Native
American populations by bureaucratizing their education. Most of the nearly 400 treaties
signed with the Indian nations between 1778 and 1871 contained provisions for education.
 The schools fell into two categories: (1) those funded by the government, which were largely
run my religious denominations, and (2) those run by the Indians themselves.
 The Indian Civilization Fund Act of 1819 subsidized religious groups’ efforts to educate the
Indians, and many more groups rushed in to establish schools as a result.
 Some of the tribes, such as the Cherokee, desired to obtain an American education “so that
the white man cannot cheat us.”14 The other four “civilized tribes” were the Chickasaw,
Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole, who managed to organize rather elaborate (and effective)
educational systems.
(a) The 5 civilized tribes set up 3 different types of schools:
(i) tribal neighborhood schools,
(ii) boarding schools (with support of religious denominations), and
(iii) male and female academies and seminaries.
(b) The Cherokee had set up their own schools after becoming disillusioned with Christians and
Christianity following the Trail of Tears, and the Chickasaw nation managed to create an
equally elaborate system of day schools with standardized textbooks. Both systems, however,
were “confiscated” by the federal government when they took control of Indian education in
the 1890s.
 Even during these times, the missionary efforts often produced few results. Indians were very
protective of their tribal religious traditions, and the government did not ever create clear
“standards” for their education or provide sufficient oversight.
(a) Students in the mission schools were drilled in the Christian religion, in addition to English
reading and writing. They were frequently given English names as well. Aside from their
academic studies, boys were taught farming methods while girls focused on domestic skills.
(b) The Indian Removal Act of 1830, however, repealed much of the federal funding and
encouraged the missions to move West along with the Indians.
 In 1873, the government repealed their support of the missions altogether. Instead, by the
1890s, they had taken over the education of the Native Americans themselves.
 While the U.S. government further bureaucratized Indian education, more Americans
continued to move West, imposing on their land. Thus, as the Native Americans lost more
land to the settlers, they also lost more and more of their rights to the government, who took
further steps to completely control education, among other affairs. The Curtis Act of 1898
gave them complete supervision over tribal schools, resulting in decreasing quality of
schooling even to the present.

(7) Education on the Mexican Frontier

 Spanish colonization of California rapidly increased in the second half of the eighteenth
century in response to threats from Britain and Russia. However, the crown soon allowed her
colonies to fragment as she became entangled with matters in Europe.
 Though peace existed for some time after the U.S. had acquired Florida, as well as parts of
the South stretching all the way to Louisiana, and Mexico won her independence in 1821,
eventually the two countries began to clash.
(a) Mexicans initially allowed a rather fluid immigration of Americans into Texas, but this
proved to be disastrous when the colonists rebelled against some of the Mexican attempts to
halt immigration. Texas would win her independence in 1836.
(b) Meanwhile, New Mexicans, or Hispanos, and Pueblo Indians residing in New Mexico led
several revolts, first against Mexican, and later against American, forces in an attempt to
 assert their own culture and cling to their traditions and heritage in the face of conquerors and
leaders who did not seem to be addressing their needs. Both rebellions were subdued, but
relations continued to be hostile with the New Mexicans.
 California was yet another story. Here, the colonial institutions, most notably the presidio
mission complex, endured the early Mexican national period, due mainly to the especially
intense Spanish and Native American culture that thrived there.
(a) With time, however, the missions were converted to pueblos and then municipalities. The
1834 Secularization Proclamation officially ended the era of the mission, including its
function in education. Instead, the secularization of the missions and the practice of land
redistribution led to the Golden Age of the ranchos.
(b) By the time Americans occupied California, three social classes had emerged: (1) rancheros,
(2) mestizos, and (3) Native Americans.
 Under Mexican authority, citizenship and equality were guaranteed to all, including African-
Americans. The government also worked to fund and promote public elementary schools,
including steps to require certified teachers, reviewed textbooks, compulsory attendance, and
federal taxes to support the schools. However, few of these changes were replicated in New
Mexico or Texas.
 Once the U.S. had gained control of the territories following the Mexican-American War
(1846-1848), she effectively ended those improvements, beginning the process of
“Americanizing” the Mexican public schools.

(8) Discussion Questions

 In what ways does Indiana’s current citizenship instruction legislation differ from the
educational proposals of early American leaders, such as Jefferson? What do they each
emphasize, and what is (was) the purpose of providing such instruction? Do you think
citizenship instruction is necessary?
 With much support at the national level, including a call in Jefferson’s State of the Union
address, for a constitutional amendment to place control of education in the hands of the
federal government, why do you think these attempts failed? Might the system of have been
improved under federal control? How might it have been different?
 Compare the selections from the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 and the Mexican-American
War proclamation. Do you think the U.S. lived up to the promises of each? How did the U.S.
government’s means of handling the Indian and Mexican situations affect the education those
peoples received?