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Reforms and Response: The Yale Report of 1828

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Melvin I. Urofsky
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Extract

Scarcely had American independence been won in 1783 than a flood of articles, pamphlets, and books asked what should be the functions of education in a republic? The American Philosophic Society offered a prize for the best proposal of a liberal education suited to the genius of the new American nation. George Washington, Robert Coran, Benjamin Rush, William Smith, Francis Hopkinson, and Jonathan Trumball all called for a new education for the new republic. Regarding higher education, they all agreed that education must be more than a mere adornment; it must have a practical bent. Benjamin Rush wrote:

We occupy a new country. Our principle business should be to explore and apply its resources, all of which press us to enterprize [sic] and haste. Under these circumstances, to spend four or five years in learning two dead languages, is to turn our backs upon a gold mine, in order to amuse ouselves catching butterflies.

Type
Research Article
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , March 1965 , pp. 53 - 67
Copyright
Copyright © 1965, University of Pittsburgh Press 

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References

Notes

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