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A Historical Perspective on Education

History's Classroom

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, ... (by Franklin, Benjamin)
The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (by Jean-Jacques Rousseau)
The Four Socratic Dialogues of Plato (by Plato)
Ancient Tales from Many Lands : A Collec... (by Fleming, Rachel Mary)
A Plan for Improving Female Education (by Emma Willard)
Christendom and Islam Their Contacts and... (by W. Wilson Cash)
Emile (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
The Egyptian Book of the Dead (by Budge, Ernest Alfred Wallis, Sir)
Christian Education in the Dark Ages (A.... (by Magevney, Eugene A.)

History's Classroom: A Historical Perspective on Education

The voices of mathematicians, scientists, philosophers are included in this virtual exhibit, "History's Classroom: A Historical Perspective on Education."

From ancient manuscripts to the unmatched selection of the world's much treasured children's picture books, the enduring importance of education and literacy is illustrated in the thousands of books contained in many collections joined to this exhibit. Subjects such as anthropology, religion, sociology, astronomy and Shakespeare are within. These books are vital to the continuation of mankind, as the sharing of knowledge, teaching and literacy are the cornerstone of everything we do, and want to accomplish. Perpetual pursuit of knowledge moves society forward.

Writing Systems and Societal Order

Educational systems have been instrumental in the spread of societal awareness, innovation, the compiling of knowledge and the creation and death of mighty empires. “History's Classroom: A Historical Perspective on Education," illuminates how educational systems have been used in different parts of the world and at different points in history to better direct humanity. From the development of the Sumerian logographic systems, cuneiform and pictographs, to the Phoenician Alphabet, the evolution of language and the transferring of ideas was highly important to the evolution of man. Language allowed mankind to apply the lessons of the past to the present in order to better our future. For many centuries, writing systems were instrumental in the passing of knowledge and maintaining societal order.

Between 3,000 and 4,000 years ago (1000-2000 B.C), Egyptian upper class boys were trained to be scribes who copied religious hieroglyphic-texts onto papyrus. They learned arithmetic and geometry to keep accounts and write reports. Religious texts such as the Egyptian Book of the Dead, taught young scribes how to become priests (Egyptian Book of the Dead, Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge). Chinese sons studied the major philosophers, creation myths and cosmological principles of yin and yang to become civil servants. In the book Ancient Tales of Many Lands, by Rachel Mary Fleming, one can find the Chinese myth of Pwanku, the mythological first man who carved out the heavens and the earth. When he died, his body became the lands, his blood the rivers, and the tiny insects that crawled on his body became the people on earth (Ancient Tales of Many Lands: A Collection of Folk Stories, Rachel Mary). The myth of Pwanku taught Chinese students the origins of the celestial, terrestrial and human realms, the foundations of Chinese philosophy, religion and politics (T he Middle Kingdom: A Survey of the Chinese Empire and Its Inhabitants : Volume 1, Samuel Wells Williams).

Skills in literacy also foster critical thinking. Socrates was an Athenian philosopher who lived between 470-399 B.C. When Athens fell to Sparta during the Peloponnesian War, there was a movement to increase government control over the population. Socrates did not agree with this and expressed his views through teaching philosophy. Taking students into fields and marketplaces, he challenged them to question their assumptions about the nature of reality. Socrates was quoted by his student, Plato, as having taught: “To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge” (“Socrates,” World Heritage Encyclopedia). Plato compiled his lessons into the Four Socratic Dialogues of Plato. According to Sister Mary Basiline, these lessons and techniques are collectively called the "Socratic method" and it is still being used in classrooms today (The Aesthetic Motif From Thales to Plato, Sister Mary Basiline).

Rise and Fall of Empires and Access to Education

The teachings within classrooms of major civilizations affected the constriction and expansion of empires. At the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, Western Europe found itself in the Dark Ages. Monasteries, once sites of public spiritual and intellectual development, began to close. The uncertain future compelled remaining religious leaders to tightly control the preservation of books, limiting formal education to royalty and the lay people, and thus inhibiting the creation of new literary and cultural works (Christian Education in the Dark Ages A.D 476 - A.D. 1100, Eugene Magevney).

Around the same time, in another part of the world, the Islamic empire extended from the Arabian Desert, converting and ruling many lands and peoples across the Middle East, Europe and North Africa (C hristendom and Islam: Their Contacts and Cultures Down the Centuries, W. Wilson Cash). This process gathered much knowledge for the empire. Islamic rulers built universities in the major Spanish cities of Cordova, Seville, Toledo and Salamanca. Books and scholars from varying religions and countries were featured. Voices of mathematicians, scientists, philosophers and crop cultivators from India to Greece echoed throughout university walls (Jerusalem and Tiberias, Sora and Cordova, A Survey of Religious and Scholastic Learning of the Jews: Designed as an Introduction to Literature, John Wesley Etheridge). Future generations adapted to the emerging social orders by building upon available knowledge.

By the late 1700s, European cities like Geneva were sites of technological innovation. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a famous French writer who lived in Geneva during this time. In his autobiography titled, The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, he describes how he was an apprentice to a master engraver that abused him (The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jean-Jacques Rousseau). Perhaps this experience influenced his novel called Emile, which argued that children should not be forced into learning, but should be gently taught practical things and their natural talents encouraged.

Education in Early America

European settlers brought their educational values to the American colonies. Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States, wrote an autobiography entitled, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. People in the colony of Pennsylvania recognized the power of the written word and established many print shops (The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Franklin). Franklin found his first employment in these print shops. Amidst the print machines, Franklin observed how human ideals can be expressed in written form, and then copied and distributed. This experience foreshadows his own growth into a newspaper publisher, philosopher, inventor and diplomat. In the 1750s, Franklin established an academy to teach literacy, natural science, mechanics, drawing, foreign language, recent history, and geography (“Benjamin Franklin,” World Heritage Encyclopedia).

The value of invention continued to be recognized well into the 1800s. A woman named Emma Willard observed how women was not encouraged to access formal education. As late as the 1850s, most schools limited women to subjects such as art and home-making (“Emma Willard,” World Heritage Encyclopedia). Willard used her own literary skills to write A Plan for Improving Female Education to encourage the higher education of women so they could contribute their leadership in society (A Plan for Improving Female Education, Emma Willard). She founded the Troy Female Seminary in 1814 for this purpose - to educate women (“Emma Willard School,” World Heritage Encyclopedia).

Works Cited

Basiline, Mary Sister. The Aesthetic Motif From Thales to Plato. Diss. University of Colorado, 1921. New York: Schwartz, Kirwin and Fauss, 1921.

“Benjamin Franklin.” World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Budge, Sir Ernest Alfred Wallis. The Egyptian Book of the Dead. World Public Library Association Edition. Blackmask Online, 1550.

Cash, W. Wilson. Christendom and Islam: Their Contacts and Cultures Down the Centuries. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1937.

“Emma Willard.” World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

“Emma Willard School.” World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Etheridge, John Wesley. Jerusalem and Tiberias, Sora and Cordova, A Survey of Religious and Scholastic Learning of the Jews: Designed as an Introduction to Literature. London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1856.

Fleming, Rachel Mary. Ancient Tales from Many Lands: A Collection of Folk Stories. World Public Library Edition. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1922.

Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Chicago: R.R. Donnelley & Sons, Co., 1915.

"History of the Peloponnesian War, The." World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Magevney, Eugene. Christian Education in the Dark Ages A.D. 476 - A.D. 1100. World Public Library Edition. New York: Cathedral Library Association, 1900.

Plato. The Four Socratic Dialogues of Plato. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1903.

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. The Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Trans. W. Conyngham Mallory. Gutenberg Consortia Center. Web. 1782.

“Socrates.” World Heritage Encyclopedia. WorldLibrary.org. Web. 2014.

Willard, Emma. A Plan for Improving Female Education. Middlebury: J.W. Copeland, 1819.

Williams, Samuel Wells. The Middle Kingdom: A Survey of the Chinese Empire and its Inhabitants. Volume 1. New York: Putnam, 1848.

Education Collections

If knowledge moves society forward, then education is a tool to make it happen. Influential teachers around the world existed in Egypt, China and Athens; during the fall of the Holy Roman empire, rise of Islam, and technological innovation of Europe; and in Early America. By recalling the historical events that moved them to teach, we can grasp the deeper meaning behind education.

The "History’s Classroom Exhibit" shelves thousands of digital works from collections all over the world including:

Top 100 books on Literature and Fiction

Through the Looking-Glass (by Carroll, Lewis)
The Man Who Was Thursday : A Nightmare (by Chesterton, Gilbert K.)
Diary of a Nobody, The (by Grossmith, George)
Vanity Fair (by Thackeray, William Makepeace)
Pride and Prejudice (by Austen, Jane)
The Woman in White (by Collins, Wilkie)
Crime and Punishment (by Dostoevsky, Fyodor)
The Prince (by Machiavelli, Niccolò)
The Pickwick Papers (by Dickens, Charles)
King Solomon's Mines (by Haggard, H. Rider)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Co... (by Twain, Mark)
Robinson Crusoe (by Defoe, Daniel)
Walden (by Thoreau, Henry David)
Picture Of Dorian Gray (1891 Version), T... (by Wilde, Oscar)
Metamorphosis (by Kafka, Franz)

Top 100 books on Classic Children's Literature

A Midsummer-Night's Dream (by William Shakespeare)
What Katy Did (by Coolidge, Susan)
Little Lord Fauntleroy (by Burnett, Frances Hodgson)
Raggedy Ann stories (by Gruelle, Johnny)
The Lost World (by Arthur Conan Doyle)
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (by Verne, Jules)
The Tempest (by Shakespeare, William)
The Tales of Mother Goose (by Oshea, Michael Vincent)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (by Mark Twain)
A Dog of Flanders (by Rame, Maria Louise)
Seven Little Australians (by Turner, Ethel)
Peter and Wendy (by Barrie, J. M.)
A Christmas Carol (by Dickens, Charles)
The Tales of Peter Parley about America ... (by Goodrich, Samuel Griswold)
Oliver Twist (by Dickens, Charles)

Top 100 books on Children's Early Learning

Adventures of Sonny Bear (by Fox, Frances Margaret)
Baby's Lullaby Book : Mother Songs (by Pratt, Charles Stuart)
The King of the Golden River, Or the Bla... (by John Ruskin)
The First Days of Man, As Narrated Quite... (by Kummer, Frederic Arnold)
Cinderella; Or, The Little Glass Slipper
Stories for Little Children (by Doughty, Sarah Parsons)
Purple Cow, The (by Burgess, Gelett)
The Arabian Nights Entertainments Comple... (by Anonymous)
Just so Stories (by Kipling, Rudyard)
Pets and Playmates
Ozma of Oz (by Baum, Lyman Frank)
A Book for Boys and Girls; Or, Country R... (by Bunyan, John)
The Pied Piper of Hamelin .. (by Greenaway, Kate, 1846-1901, Ill)
Twas the Night Before Christmas (A Visit... (by Moore, Clement Clarke)
A Book of Discoveries (by Masefield, John)

Top books on Contemporary Children's Literature

Clifford The Big Red Dog : Preformed by ... (by Norman Bridwell)
The Rabbit and the Turtle : Preformed by... (by Eric Carle)
Peter's Chair : Preformed by Wally Amos (by Ezra Jack Keats)
All the Places to Love : Preformed by Wa... (by Patricia MacLachlan)
The Cow Who Clucked : Preformed by Wally... (by Denise Fleming)
Zomo the Rabbit : A Trickster Tale from ... (by Gerald McDermott)
The Lion and the Mouse : Preformed by Wa... (by Eric Carle)
Where the Wild Things Are : Preformed by... (by Maurice Sendak)
Love You Forever : Preformed by Wally Am... (by Robert Munsch)
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish ... (by Dr. Seuss)
I'm A Caterpillar : Preformed by Wally A... (by Jean Marzollo)
How Rocket Learned to Read : Preformed b... (by Tad Hills)
The Paper Bag Princess : Preformed by Wa... (by Robert Munsch)
The Crayon Box that Talked : Preformed b... (by Shane DeRolf)
The Greatest : Preformed by Wally Amos (by Kenny Rogers)

Top 100 books on Education

A Modest Proposal (by Swift, Jonathan)
King Henry Iv. A Tragedy. In Five Acts (by Shakespeare, William)
Leviathan (Books I and II) (by Hobbes, Thomas)
Two Treatises of Civil Government (by Locke, John)
History of the Expedition under the Comm... (by Coues, Elliott)
Walden (by Thoreau, Henry David)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom ... (by Twain, Mark)
The Way to Wealth; Or, Poor Richard Impr... (by Franklin, Benjamin)
The Oresteia of Aeschylus (by Æschylus)
The Jungle (by Sinclair, Upton)
The Call of the Wild (by London, Jack)
A plan for improving female education (by Willard, Emma)
Christendom and Islam Their Contacts and... (by W. Wilson Cash)
Development of the Education of Wage-Ear... (by Hey, Spurley)
The Elements of Style (by Strunk, William)

Top 100 books on Banned Books

The History of the Valorous and Witty Kn... (by Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel De)
The Scarlet Letter (by Hawthorne, Nathaniel)
Tess of the D'Urbervilles, A Pure Woman ... (by Hardy, Thomas)
The Odyssey (by Butler, Samuel)
The Jungle (by Sinclair, Upton)
Mother Goose in Prose (by Baum, Lyman Frank)
Dubliners (by Joyce, James)
The Satyricon (by Arbiter, Petronius)
1984 (by Orwell, George)
Leaves of Grass (by Whitman, Walt)
The Kama Sutra of Vatsayayana (by Burton, Richard Francis, Sir)
Fanny Hill Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasur... (by Cleland, John)
Jude the Obscure (by Hardy, Thomas)
The Grapes of Wrath (by Steinbeck, John)
An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding... (by Locke, John)

DjVu Editions Classic Literature

The Poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (by Coleridge, Samuel Taylor)
The Taming of the Shrew (by Shakespeare, William)
Loues Labour's Lost (by Shakespeare, William)
Moby-Dick or the Whale (by Melville, Herman)
Through the Looking Glass and What Alice... (by Carroll, Lewis)
The Life and Death of King Richard the S... (by Shakespeare, William)
Middlemarch (by Eliot, George)
The Holy Bible (by Various)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (by Shakespeare, William)
The Call of the Wild (by London, Jack)
The Tragedie of Julius C‘Sar (by Shakespeare, William)
The First Part of Henry the Fourth. Edit... (by Shakespeare, William)
As You Like It (by Shakespeare, William)
To Build a Fire : And Other Stories (by London, Jack)
Far from the Madding Crowd (by Hardy, Thomas)

Historical and Literary Papers

Survey Information : Year 1992 Volume Year 1992 (by Miller, David)
Circular of the Maryland Agricultural Co... Volume 1867-1868 (by Maryland Agricultural College)
Pennsylvania Grange News : Volume 1 (by Pennsylvania State Grange)
Survey Information : Year 2003 Volume Year 2003 (by Miller, David)
The Summer School : Year 1920 Volume Year 1920 (by Maryland State College of Agriculture)
The Villanovan : 1978-1981 Volume 1978-1981 (by Villanova College)
The Summer School : Year 1928 Volume Year 1928 (by University of Maryland, College Park)
The Summer School : Year 1923 Volume Year 1923 (by University of Maryland, College Park)
President's Report for the Year Ending :... Volume 1871-1877 (by Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
The Villanovan : 19701973 Volume 1970?1973 (by Villanova College)
The Summer School : Year 1919 Volume Year 1919 (by Maryland State College of Agriculture)
Celebrating Diversity in Theguard and Re...
John Knox, Der Reformator Schottlands (by Brandes, Friedrich)
3 Enoch; Or, The Hebrew Book of Enoch (by Bodleian Library. Mss. (Opp. 556))
Circular of the Maryland Agricultural Co... Volume 1862-1863 (by Maryland Agricultural College)