The ten educational theorist/ philosophers mentioned on this page are ones who have helped shaped the United States education system. Each one of them articulated a unique idea or theory to education, which is still used in some form today. However, as the decades progressed, his and her idea also advanced to fit the needs of the society.
![]() Benjamin Franklin With less than two years of formal schooling, Benjamin Franklin became one of the most learned, original, and respected men of the Revolutionary generation. Franklin’s oftquoted comment that “Most of the learning in use is not of much use” nicely captures his disdain for much of the attention to the “dead languages” and other trappings of the conventional education of his day. Franklin was a strong advocate of education, but he wanted that education to be useful for life (Urban, 42). Franklin’s plan for an English grammar school was first sketched in 1743 and published in 1749 as Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania. Franklin’s design for the “Philadelphia Academy” involved grafting a program of practical studies that theretofore had been outside the province of “formal” secondary schooling onto the conventional classical curriculum (Urban, 43). The heart of Franklin’s new school would be studies that were useful rather than ornamental. English and modern foreign languages were to hold center stage, along with various branches of mathematics and courses in the natural and physical sciences. Penmanship, accounting, drawing, commercial studies, gardening (including field trips to neighboring farms), and physical exercise rounded out the curriculum of the English or practical side of the institution (Urban, 43). Franklin envisioned his academy as laying the foundation for healthy habits of mind and body and cultivating a spirit of service, which he regarded as “the great aim and end of all learning (Urban, 43)." ![]() Horace Mann Horace Mann was unique in the sense that he generated enthusiasm for the idea of the "common school," by appealing to a variety of motives, which were not always consistent or compatible. Mann started a movement that reflected the values of republicanism, Protestantism, and capitalism. The common school revival held out the promise that the educational frontier was as open and promising as the land itself (Urban, 102). The common school movement unleashed a set of ideas and a series of trends that are still in motion. Schools should be free, not based on fees. They should be open to all, not just a few. They should foster morality and ethics but avoid sectarian entanglements (Urban, 102). As Mann said, the common school existed not for the benefit of any individual, but for the benefit of all (Urban, 89). ![]() Charlotte Forten Charlotte Forten was an African-American, free black woman. She was born in Philadelphia in 183, but later moved to Salem, Massachusetts, and taught in the Epes Grammar School in the late 1850s (Fraser, 88). She taught school in Massachusetts prior to the Civil War. Although, she volunteered early on in the Civil War to go south and teach some of the first slaves that were freed by the Union Army (Fraser, 77). She, along with other northern women, where anxious to teach in the schools of the South. Forten kept a journal of her experience of teaching in the South. She started off the journal with describing her voyage on the ship from Massachusetts to the Port Royal, South Carolina (Fraser, 88). Throughout her journal, she explained the dangers of teaching in the South. She was literally teaching on the edge of the Civil War Battle lines (Fraser, 88). As she was writing, she began to talk more about the flowers, climate, and her daily life. ![]() Ella Flagg Young Ella Flagg Young was the most significant theoretical voice of the teacher movement of the progressive era in 1901 (Fraser, 185). Young spoke for the belief that a democratic society required a democratic system of education in which the teacher was a respected citizen and not a passive cog in a machine run from above (Fraser, 185). In 1862, she began her career in the Chicago schools by teaching in an elementary school. She rose quickly through the ranks and eventually became principal of the “practice school” portion of one of the city’s high schools that had been set aside for normal school students. She continued to win promotions, moving to the principalship of a full elementary school and then to the principalship of a larger school. In 1887, she was made an assistant (or district) superintendent with responsibilities for the curriculum of the elementary schools and the quality of the teachers in her district (Urban, 193). Young’s doctoral dissertation, “Isolation in the Schools,” gave her the chance to refine her educational views. In it she decried the lack of relationship between the various subjects that comprised the curriculum in the schools and also between the various elements (teachers, principals, superintendents) that composed the school bureaucracy. Her views of the dignity and importance of teachers made her the friend of classroom teachers and, potentially, the enemy of administrative progressives, who sought to mechanize the teachers’ role in the new top-down form of school management (Urban, 193). ![]() Cora Bigelow Cora Bigelow was the leader of the elementary school teachers' organization in Boston, a group she was able to turn briefly into one of the first teacher unions in the nation of 1919 (Fraser, 189). For Bigelow, progressive education meant teacher power. She argued for adequate compensation for teachers and a central role for teachers in the development of the school's curriculum and goals. |
![]() Christopher Dock
One of the most famous schoolmasters in the Middle colonies was Christopher Dock, a German who settled in Pennsylvania around 1714. Dock, a Mennonite, opened a school in Montgomery County soon after his arrival and taught until his death in 1771. He wrote Schulordnung (School Management), which in 1770 became the first book on pedagogy to be printed in America (Urban, 41). Dock instructed schoolmasters to be sensitive to individual differences and to base discipline on love and understanding. He described his own methods for individualizing instruction and his use of older students to help younger ones with their lessons (Urban, 41). Perhaps most significant given the sectarian divisions in the Schuylkill Valley of Pennsylvania, Dock managed to deal with children of various religious persuasions without exciting controversy. His Schulordnung was perhaps the first text to attempt a common educational experience for children of various ethnic and religious backgrounds (Urban, 41). ![]() Catharine E. Beecher The Board of National Popular Education, founded by Catharine Beecher, was based off of religious and charitable organizations, in which raised money to recruit young women to teach in the west (Fraser, 61). The Board of National Popular Education (Teacher Corps) offered young women adventure in a new place, a sense of purpose and meaningful effort in their teaching career, and a fresh start in life (Fraser, 61). After hearing all those promising opportunities, young women were drawn to the teaching life in the west. Margaret Haley
Margaret Haley asserted to the National Education Association (NEA), which was dominated by the male elite of education, that teachers needed; increased salaried, job security and pensions, an end to overwork in overcrowded schoolrooms, and recognition of teachers as educators instead of "factorized education" (Fraser, 181). Haley knew change had to occur quickly, so that teachers could be professionals who felt proud of themselves and of their shrive to the nation's children. She believed an organized body of teachers, known as a "union," was the key to change (Fraser, 182). ![]() Noah Webster
Noah Webster's educational plan is best remembered for his dictionary, but he also played a vital role in shaping American English (Fraser, 18). He published a dictionary that showed the new creation of the American language. The new language was somewhat different from the previous English language, spoken when the United States was under the tyrant rule of England. Webster formed a "blue-backed speller" that went into great detail on how to read, speak, and spell in the new American English (Fraser, 18). The "blue-backed speller" was crucial for for many in the post-revolutionary generation because that is how many of them learned how to read and write (Fraser, 18). ![]() Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson's educational plan wanted schooling for all citizens, specifically for two reasons. The first reason was because he believed that educating more people would protect them against the tyrant rule of England. The second reason was that he saw quality education, as means of finding a few leaders of the future among the poor of the Commonwealth (Fraser, 18). He believed that society would be better off, if an education could provide a few good leaders from the "rubbish" (Fraser, 18). Although, when speaking of education, he never really included women when referring to "citizens." He did not deem the importance of educating women, since he did not perceive them as leaders. However, Jefferson also firmly believed that the new states could not survive long, if the general population remained ignorant of the "true" laws of government and social order (Urban, 54). |