Justin Reich Harvard Graduate School of Education.
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Transcript of Justin Reich Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Justin Reich
Harvard Graduate School of Education
How was General History instruction and curriculum implemented in the century following English High’s establishment?
What were the narratives in General History textbooks used in 19th century Boston, and how did those narratives articulate America’s place in human history?
To what extent does historical instruction in 19th century Boston cohere or conflict with the literature of 19th century social studies in America?
“The AHA and the Seven effectively gave birth to modern history education in the United States.”Orill and Shaprio (2005), “From Bold Beginnings to
an Uncertain Future: The Discipline of History and History Education."
“However, prior to 1861, what would later be called social studies was in a rather chaotic condition” (p. 5).
“ The report of the Madison Conference presented the framework for the modern style history that swept into the curriculum” (p. 7).Evans (2004), The Social Studies Wars
These were the good old days. “Those in charge of these schools had so much confidence and faith in the leadership of the American Historical Association,” recalled Rolla M. Tryon in 1935, “that they almost ceased merely offering history, but required it instead.” Scholars have described a period of cooperation between colleges and schools in curriculum making that began in 1884. For historians, this defeat of General History was evidence of their own breakthrough of influence in high schools. The course, it seemed, was gone with the wind. “It was eliminated root and branch,” a Midwestern professor commented in 1919, “and the space which it once occupied has since been so covered that few, if any, of the later generation of school pupils know of its former existence.- Allardyce (1990), Toward World History: American Historians and the Coming of the World History Course, Journal of World History 1(1)
And in fact, Boston adopts a block system 20 years before the Madison Conference
Early world history instruction was dominated by textbook recitationTo abandon the textbook “would be for the mariner on
the boundless ocean to throw overboard his compass and chart.”
Textbooks didn’t change; a “millenarian” narrative structure endured through generations of General History textbooksMillenarian as “universalizing teleology”
Curriculum and instruction was bound by the constraints of the textbook narrative structure, and since textbooks remained constant, curriculum remained bound by stable constraints
1821-1835: Whelpley’s Compend of History from Earliest Times (and others)
1835-1877: Worcester’s Elements of History Ancient and Modern
1877-1890: Swinton’s Outlines of History Ancient, Medieval and Modern
1890-1923: Sheldon Studies in General History Myers’ General History
-From George Emerson’s Remembrances of an Old Teacher (p.58)
The quotation is from a description of his teaching at the Boston’s Girl’s School, but it represents well the instruction of the era.
From Rev. C. Lenny’s Questions for Examination of Tytler’s Elements (p. 1) From Alexander Fraser Tytler’s Elements of General History (p.18)
“ Thus did nationalism, millennialism, and evangelicism converge in an ideology of civic piety and pious civility.”
- From Lawrence Cremin’s American Education: The National Experience, 1783-1876 (p. 57)
“The principles of democracy are identical with the principles of Christianity.”
- From Catherine Beecher’s Domestic Economy (p.25)
“All events, past, present and to come, are employed in directing and completing the destines of all creatures, in subservience to that infinitely great and glorious kingdom, which shall never be removed.”
Boston School Committee:Ancient and Modern History and Chronology
English High School:General History
3 years2 years
“It is a brief barren abstract of events, put together with no other relation of cause and effect than that which chronology makes inevitable; it states facts without the least regard to their relative importance and gives the same apace and emphasis of comment to a Welch foray, whose consequences died with its slain, as to the act of adding to Magna Charta the clause requiring the assent of Parliament to the imposition of taxation.”
-From the Report of the Annual Examiner, 1845, Boston School Committee
“Can the [Mexican] war be justified on moral or religious grounds? But however this question may be answered, it is to be hoped that a beneficent Providence will bring good out of evil, and cause, in the final result, an advancement of human freedom and human happiness, of good government and of true religion. “ (pp. 327)
18601 year
18703 years (2 hours per week)I- AncientII- MedievalIII- Modern
Worcester’s Chapters Madison Conference Blocks
EgyptThe PhoenciansAssyria and BabylonPersiaGreeceRome
4th Year: Greek and Roman History with Oriental Connections
The Middle Ages
France 5th Year: French history
England 6th Year: English history
Europe
America 7th Year: American History
Expanding the definition of Millennialism as a universalizing tendency
Sheldon’s Studies in General History
Myers’ General History
Medieval: “There is a destiny that shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we will.”- Shakespeare
Modern : “Infinite Providence, thou wilt make the day dawn.” - Richter
19th Century: “Ring out a slowly dying cause,/ And ancient forms of party stryfe;/ Ring in the nobler modes of life,/ With sweeter manners, purer laws./ Ring out false pride in place and blood,/ The civic slander and the spite / Ring in the love of truth and right/ Ring in the common love of good./ Ring in the valiant man and free,/ The larger heart, the kindlier hand; / Ring out the darkness of the land,/ Ring in the Christ that is to be.” - Tennyson
1906Three points (half-credits)
AncientMedievalModern
1923Myers General History removed from approved
book listMyers Ancient and Myers Modern remain on
the list
Years
Textbook Course Structure Impending Millennia
1821-1824
Whelpley, Compend and Tytler, Elements of History
3 years of General Universal SalvationUniversal Democracy
1824-1835
unclear 2 years of General
1835-1860
Worcester, General History
2 years of General Universal SalvationUniversal Democracy
1860-1870
Worcester, General History
1 year of General Universal SalvationUniversal Democracy
1870-1877
Worcester, General History
3 years (2 hours/week) of Ancient/Med/Modern
Universal SalvationUniversal Democracy
1877-1890
Swinton, Outlines of History
3 years (2 hours/week) of Ancient/Med/Modern
Universal Aryan Unification
1890-1906
Sheldon, General History and Myers, General History
3 years (2 hours/week) of Ancient/Med/Modern
Universal World Order
1906-1923
Myers, General History
3 half-credits of Ancient/Med/Modern
Universal World Government
1923- Myers, Ancient and Myers, Modern
3 half-credits of Ancient/Med/Modern
Universal World Government
For Historians and HistoriographyHistory instruction in the 19th century is not
chaotic; it’s organized by textbooksThe Committees of N are not a watershed; they
recommend a course of study already supported by textbooks
The history of world history instruction and social studies in America go back to the early Republic, and the stamp of Millenarianism remains a key organizational principle in the century that follows, and perhaps into our own time.
For Policy-makersTextbooks in the 19th century exerted powerful
constraints on instruction and curriculum and perhaps continue to do so. Reforming curriculum without reforming textbooks may be folly.
For Educators and Teacher-EducatorsTextbooks, which remain remarkably consistent since
the 1820’s, retain the cultural legacy of civic piety and millenarianism. These ancient biases continue to shape our current instruction, often in ways we don’t recognize.
Identifying these ancient biases in contemporary texts, can be quite fun, and quite enlightening
Many thanks to those who read earlier versions of this presentation:Jill LeporeJulie ReubenMeira LevinsonBecca MillerAradhana MudumbiAnna Saavedra
MesopotamiaAssyriaPersia
GreeceMacedon
Rome
EuropeCrusadesTurksGermanyFranceBritain
Present DayEuropeAsiaAfricaAmerica
Volume II: Modern
EgyptThe PhoeniciansAssyria and
BabylonPersiaGreeceRome
The Middle AgesFranceEnglandEuropeAmerica
AncientEgyptAssyria and
BabylonHebrewsPhoeniciansHindoosPersiaGreeceRome
Medieval HistoryByzantiumCharlemagneCrusadesChivalryAge of
Revival
Modern History16th Century17th Century18th Century19th Century
Eastern NationsEgyptBabylonAssyriaHebrewsPhoeniciansPerisaIndia and China
GreeceRome
Middle AgesDark AgesAge of revival
ModernReformationRevolutionDemocratic
Reaction
Medieval and Modern History