Thesis
A republican education: The politics and ideology of education in Columbia County, New York, 1777-1850
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
05/2020
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000004068
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/124598
Abstract
This thesis explores the creation, maintenance, and results of the first school laws passed in New York State. Throughout the second half of the eighteenth century, colonial subjects began deliberating on how to educate virtuous citizens. Though the American Revolution did not create a uniform education system, the founders and many wealthy citizens used their newfound independence to erect new schools, academies, and colleges, thereby enlarging and creating new institutions of learning. In the case of New York, a large illiterate underclass of freeholders and tenant farmers had been excluded from the public sphere, posing challenges to enlightened legislators. In an effort to raise literacy rates and create virtuous republican citizens, George Clinton, the first Governor of New York, enacted the school act of 1795, thereby establishing the first one room schoolhouses. Yet, the Federalists, often guided by aristocratic tendencies, repeatedly stymied the implementation of the 1795 school act and instead focused on select academies and colleges, which provided a world class education to those born to rule. As a result, the 1795 school act largely failed. However, the political revolution of 1800 marked the beginning of the end for the Federalist and subsequent rise of the Democratic Republicans, whom oversaw the passage of the 1812 school law. This legislation and its subsequent manifestations codified district schools throughout the state, marking a victory for the Democratic-Republicans. Though a public education had been codified, the laws efficacy took generations to become fully realized across the state. Though New York applied the school law evenly, the case example of Columbia County demonstrates the variable outcomes and limits of educational reform, for certain regions with a legacy of feudalism and an illiterate base of freeholders with no prior educational experience struggled to apply the law. Initially, the entrenched academy system competed with district schools across Columbia County, which impeded the newly established district schoolhouses. Yet, in the 1830s academies adopted teacher departments which incrementally stemmed the teacher shortage. Thus, by the 1850s the academy system formed a symbiotic relationship with district schools, thereby heightening the quality of education at district schools.
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Details
- Title
- A republican education
- Creators
- Matthew M. Hitchen
- Contributors
- Lawrence Hatter (Advisor) - Washington State University, Department of History
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Department of History
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Identifiers
- 99900890790801842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis