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| Format | Dissertation |
|---|---|
| Creator | Carter, John Paul |
| Title | German Influences on the American Common School Movement |
| Dissertation Note (type -- academic institution) | Dissertation -- University of Virginia |
| Date | 1979 |
| Extent of Work | 354 pp. |
| Abstract | Presently there exists a vacuum in our scholarship in the history of American education. It relates to the influences of German ideas--in pedagogical theory, curriculum formation, systems of administration and supervision, training and qualification of teachers, provision for universal and compulsory education, and the principle of public support. In standard histories, credit is given to German influence for the kindergarten and the university, but with respect to the normal school, the education of the handicapped, technical education, and especially the common school--the public school system of the United States--there is typically little indication that German institutions and German ideas had decisive influence. Contemporary historians, both cultural and radical revisionists, generally minimize or deprecate the German influence. For the last two generations, they have been preoccupied with new insights from the social sciences--from sociology, anthropology, social psychology, economics, popular history, and political science--and so do not expend much attention to the matter. This is a marked contrast to the scholars who wrote before World War I. The present study reviews the development of the German education system from the time of the Franks under Clovis, through Charlemagne to Luther, on the Great Elector and from Frederick the Great and his successors to the Battle of Jena in 1806, and its aftermath. Particular attention is paid to the intensification and crystallization of the German system after Jena into a series of salient points which were later adopted here. The American acquaintance with the German culture and education, which was very extensive, indeed, is examined from early colonial times until 1820. From then on the intentional American focus upon the German example is studied through the major reports of Madame de Stael and Victor Cousin, and through the American observers--John Griscom, Calvin Ellis Stowe, Alexander Dallas Bache, Benjamin Mosby Smith, Horace Mann, and Henry Barnard. The role of these observers and of the early state superintendents of schools and their allies is carefully chronicled. The process by which the German ideas were assimilated is exposited through the work of the leaders mentioned above, the new educational societies that were formed, the periodicals of the day, and then the institutionalization that took place with the creation of the normal schools and the passage of laws in the several states. The German influence was larger and more comprehensive than that of any other country. To support that claim, this dissertation makes three major contributions: 1) It gathers the necessary documentation into one place. 2) It exposits the salient points of the German system that were utilized in America. 3) It demonstrates the process by which the German system of education was adopted and assimilated in the United States. Finally, a series of conjectures are advanced as the reasons why modern American educational historians have been so deficient in crediting the German contribution and influence. |
| Notes | UMI, printed in 1988. Book, in MadCat. |
| Call Number | MKI LA 205 C26 1979a; shelved with MKI dissertations |
| MKI Terms | Schools/ German influence/ Kindergarten/ Education/ |