1850-1877: Education: Publications

Francis Adams, The Free School System of the United States (London: Chapman & Hall, 1875)—broad survey of the achievements of the American common-school crusade by a British admirer. Adams emphasizes the relation between the common-schools movement and the evolving American democracy;

Henry Barnard, Normal Schools, and Other Institutions, Agencies, and Means Designed for the Professional Education of Teachers (Hartford: Case, Tifany, 1851)—because of the teacher-training institutes pioneered by Barnard, more permanent, professional normal schools had become part of the educational landscape by midcentury. This book represents an early attempt to spread the institution beyond the Northeast;

Barnard, Object Teaching, and Oral Lessons on Social Science and Common Things (New York: F. C. Brownell, 1860)—an attempt to apply the concept of object teaching in the upper-level classroom. It includes practical advice for object instruction in science and geography;

Barnard, Pestalozzi and Pestalozzianism (New York: F. C. Brownell, 1859)—a critical appraisal of Pestalozzis methods and an attempt to disseminate his system among American educators;

Barnard, ed., Memoirs of Teachers, Educators and Benefactors of Education, Literature, and Science, volume 1 (New York: F. C. Brownell, 1859)—Barnard’s attempt to generalize the experience of midcentury educators across the United States; part of the comprehensive effort to bring uniformity to the public-school system;

George S. Boutwell, Thoughts on Educational Topics and Institutions (Boston: Phillips, Sampson, 1859)—a collection of lectures by Massachusetts congressman Boutwell that address a range of contemporary issues, including female education, public financing for high schools, and normal-school training;

J. T. Clark, Essay on Common School Education in New Jersey (Trenton, N.J., 1865)—a summary of the New Jersey experience with common schools by the state’s superintendent of schools;

George Barrell Emerson, Education in Massachusetts: Early Legislation and History (Boston: J. Wilson & Son, 1869)—a comprehensive survey of developments in education from colonial times through midcentury by a prominent Boston educator;

William T. Harris, ed., A Statement of the Theory of Education in the United States of America as Approved by Many Leading Educators (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1874)—a manifesto for public schooling signed by seventy-seven college presidents and city and state superintendents. The contributors emphasize the relation of common schools to industrial society;

Horace Mann, Life and Works (Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1865–1868)—collected writings of the towering figure of the American common-schools movement, covering a range of topics from pedagogy to schoolhouse construction and classification of pupils;

Elizabeth P. Peabody, Guide to the Kindergarten and Intermediate Class (New York: E. Steiger, 1877)—Peabody’s attempt to popularize the approach to early childhood education pioneered by Friedrich Froebel. The book complemented Peabody’s efforts to bring the kindergarten out of the German immigrant community and into mainstream public education;

Peabody, Record of Mr. Alcott’s School, Exemplifying the Principles and Methods of Moral Culture (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1874)—a classic summary of the content of moral education as understood by one of the most prominent Boston reformers of the century;

Edward A. Sheldon, A Manual of Elementary Instruction (New York: Scribners, 1862)—an early attempt by the leading American advocate of Pestalozzian methods to bring “object teaching” into the classroom;

Sheldon, Teachers’ Manual of Instruction in Reading (New York: Scribner, Armstrong, 1875)—one of the most influential teachers’ manuals of the period. It combines innovations in grading, classification, and teaching methods to offer a systematic approach to classroom reading instruction;

William Harvey Wells, Graded Course of Instruction for the Public Schools of Chicago; with Accompanying Directions to Teachers, revised edition (Chicago: Dean & Ottaway, 1866)—one of the most popular of a series of books motivated by the call for a comprehensive approach to classification and grading. Written by the Chicago superintendent of schools and adopted widely in school systems throughout the Midwest, it outlines specific class lectures and prescribes proper teaching methods;

Calvin H. Wiley, The North-Carolina Reader (Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo, 1851)—probably the most advanced curriculum developed in any of the Southern states prior to the Civil War. Wiley was the region’s leading educational reformer.