The Founding Fathers, Education, and 'The Great Contest' : The American Philosophical Society Prize of 1797

Leading historians provide new insights into the founding generation's views on the place of public education in America. This volume explores enduring themes, such as gender, race, religion, and central vs. local control, in seven essays of the 1790s on how to implement public education in the new USA. The original essays are included as well. In 1795, the nation's leading research institution offered a prize for the best essay on a system of public education for the United States. Over the next two years, the proposals they received ranged from the ridiculous to the provocative to the eerily familiar. The Founding Fathers, Education, and "The Great Contest" revisits that unique moment in American history, when the founding fathers first opened the enduring debate on how best to educate the American citizenry. In ten essays, leading historians use the American Philosophical Society's education prize as a starting point for broader explorations of critical themes: gender, race, religion, public versus private education, centralization versus localism, voluntary associations, higher education, and research methods. This book also publishes, for the first time, all of the original contest essays Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Introduction....Pages 1-20 Front Matter....Pages 21-21 The Mysterious No. 3....Pages 23-44 “Raked from the Rubbish”: Stylometric Authorship Attribution and the 1795 American Philosophical Society Education Contest....Pages 45-65 Front Matter....Pages 67-67 False Start: The Failure of an Early “Race to the Top”....Pages 69-83 “Encouraging Useful Knowledge” in the Early Republic: The Roles of State Governments and Voluntary Organizations....Pages 85-102 Race and Schooling in Early Republican Philadelphia....Pages 103-117 Gender and Citizenship in Educational Plans in the New Republic....Pages 119-134 The Significance of the “French School” in Early National Female Education....Pages 135-153 The Place of Religion in Early National School Plans....Pages 155-174 The Perceived Dangers of Study Abroad, 1780–1800: Nationalism, Internationalism, and the Origins of the American University....Pages 175-197 Front Matter....Pages 199-199 Introduction to the Essays: Reading the Late Eighteenth Century in the Early Twenty-First....Pages 201-203 Remarks on Education: Illustrating the Close Connection Between Virtue and Wisdom: To which is Annexed, a System of Liberal Education....Pages 205-217 An Essay on the Best System of Liberal Education, Adapted to the Genius of the Government of the United States. Comprehending Also, an Uniform, General Plan for Instituting and Conducting Public Schools, in this Country, on the Principles of the Most Extensive Utility....Pages 219-232 Review of Essay No. 3, “A Letter to the American Philosophical Society in Answer to their First Prize Question.”....Pages 233-238 On Education and Public Schools....Pages 239-241 A Plan for the Education of Youth....Pages 243-249 Concerning Education in Public Schools....Pages 251-257 Concerning Education in Pennsylvania....Pages 259-270 Back Matter....Pages 271-279 "Historians are detectives, and the sleuths in this remarkable book show us how to examine important documents from the late eighteenth century. Anyone interested in the effects of the American Revolution will love this book." - Robert L. Hampel, Professor, School of Education, University of Delaware, USA "This marvelous collaborative study, edited by Benjamin Justice, explores the views of a group of essay writers about the relationship between public education and citizenship in the new republic. The 1797 essays, five of which have never before been published, are here reproduced and several of their anonymous authors discovered through scholarly detective work. Contributors to the volume explore the way the essay writers dealt with the relationship of religion to education, the silence on the education of African-Americans, the implications of the few comments about women's education, and how the essayists dealt with the costs and opportunity for education in a nation freeing itself from a restrictive European model of elite education." - Paul G. E. Clemens, Professor of History, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, USA "In 1795, the nation's leading research institution offered a prize for the best essay on a system of public education for the United States. Over the next two years, the proposals they received ranged from the ridiculous, to the provocative, to the eerily familiar. This book revisits that unique moment in American history, when the founding fathers first opened the enduring debate on how best to educate the American citizenry. In ten essays, leading historians use the American Philosophical Society's education prize as a starting point for broader explorations of critical themes: gender, race, religion, public versus private, centralization versus localism, voluntary associations, higher education, and research methods. This book also publishes, for the first time, all of the original contest essays"-- Provided by publisher