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A Historical Perspective on Education

History's Classroom

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

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

Mansfield Park (by Austen, Jane)
The Idiot (by Dostoevsky, Fyodor)
Beyond Good and Evil (by Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm)
Gulliver's Travels. (by Jonathan Swift)
Das Kapital (by Karl Marx)
Pickwick Papers, The Version 2 (by Dickens, Charles)
Scarlet Letter, The (by Hawthorne, Nathaniel)
The Pilgrim's Progress (by Bunyan, John)
The Canterbury Tales (by Geoffrey Chaucer)
Christmas Carol, A (dramatic reading) (by Dickens, Charles)
Tanglewood Tales for Girls and Boys: Bei... (by Nathaniel Hawthorne)
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Cour... (by Twain, Mark)
The Pickwick Papers (by Dickens, Charles)
Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous M... (by Defoe, Daniel)
Metamorphosis (by Kafka, Franz)

Top 100 books on Classic Children's Literature

Red Badge of Courage, The (by Crane, Stephen)
Velveteen Rabbit, The (by Williams, Margery)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom ... (by Twain, Mark)
Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates (by Dodge, Mary Mapes)
The Tale of Ferdinand Frog (by Bailey, Arthur Scott)
Peter and Wendy (by James Matthew Barrie)
Seven Little Australians (by Turner, Ethel)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The (by Twain, Mark)
The Railway Children (by Nesbit, Edith)
Beauty and the Beast (by Crane, Walter)
Hans Brinker; Or, The Silver Skates : A ... (by Dodge, Mary Mapes)
The Swiss Family Robinson (by Johann David Wyss)
The Wide, Wide World (by Warner, Susan)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (by Verne, Jules)
Pollyanna (by Porter, Eleanor Hodgman)

Top 100 books on Children's Early Learning

Harry's Ladder to Learning
The Hey Diddle Diddle Picture Book (by Caldecott, Randolph)
Raggedy Andy Stories (by Gruelle, Johnny)
A Apple Pie (by Greenaway, Kate)
Aesop's Fables (by Aesop)
Jack and the Beanstalk and Other Stories
The Little Engine That Could (by Lenski, Lois L.)
The Tale of Peter Rabbit (by Potter, Beatrix)
The Story of Little Jane and Me (by Blatchford, Mary E)
Raggedy Ann stories (by Gruelle, Johnny)
The History of the Fairchild Family : Or... (by Mary Martha Sherwood)
Just So Stories (by Kipling, Rudyard)
Three Little Pigs
The Children's Book of Stars; (by Mitton, Gerldine Edith)
The Adventures of Pinocchio (by Collodi, C.)

Top books on Contemporary Children's Literature

The Treasure : Preformed by Wally Amos (by Uri Shulevitz)
The Very Greedy Bee : Preformed by Wally... (by Steve Smallman)
Love You Forever : Preformed by Wally Am... (by Robert Munsch)
Giggle, Giggle, Quack : Preformed by Wal... (by Doreen Cronin)
How Rocket Learned to Read : Preformed b... (by Tad Hills)
Koala Lou : Preformed by Wally Amos (by Mem Fox)
The Cow Who Clucked : Preformed by Wally... (by Denise Fleming)
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish ... (by Dr. Seuss)
Cows Can't Fly : Preformed by Wally Amos (by David Milgrim)
The Carrot Seed : Preformed by Wally Amo... (by Ruth Krauss)
The Wolf and the Lamb : Preformed by Wal... (by Eric Carle)
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type : Pref... (by Doreen Cronin)
All the Places to Love : Preformed by Wa... (by Patricia MacLachlan)
Zomo the Rabbit : A Trickster Tale from ... (by Gerald McDermott)
Olivia...and the Missing Toy : Preformed... (by Ian Falconer)

Top 100 books on Education

Confucian Analects (by Confucius)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (by Anonymous)
Washington Irving's the Legend of Sleepy... (by Irving, Washington)
Catullus (by Gaius Valerius Catullus)
Two Treatises of Civil Government (by Locke, John)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (by Irving, Washington, 1783-1859)
The New England Primer, Score Chr Nep (by Cornhill, Boston)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (by Baum, Lyman Frank)
Medea (by Euripides)
Vocational education and guidance of you... (by Robison, Emily)
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, ... (by Franklin, Benjamin)
The Organization and Administration of a... (by Lefevre, Arthur)
King Henry Iv. A Tragedy. In Five Acts (by Shakespeare, William)
Riders of the Purple Sage (by Grey, Zane)
Herodotus' Histories Vol 1 (by Herodotus of Halicarnassus)

Top 100 books on Banned Books

A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Ind... (by John Stuart Mill)
The Grapes of Wrath (by Steinbeck, John)
The Origin of Species by Means of Natura... (by Darwin, Charles)
The Communist Manifesto (by Marx, Karl)
The Rainbow (by Lawrence, David Herbert)
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (by John Locke)
The Decameron, Volume I (by Boccaccio, Giovanni)
Catch 22 a Novel (by Joseph Heller)
Emile (by Rousseau, Jean Jacques)
Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote N... (by Swift, Jonathan)
An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding... (by Locke, John)
Mother Goose in Prose (by Baum, Lyman Frank)
The Sound and the Fury and as I Lay Dyin... (by William Faulkner)
The Scarlet Letter (by Hawthorne, Nathaniel)
The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sulliv... (by Gilbert, Arthur)

DjVu Editions Classic Literature

The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronic... (by Shakespeare, William)
The Collected Poems (by Yeats, William Butler)
Songs of Innocence and of Experience (by Blake, William)
French Ways and Their Meaning (by Wharton, Edith)
The Call of the Wild (by London, Jack)
Walden Or, Life in the Woods (by Thoreau, Henry David)
The Comedie of Errors (by Shakespeare, William)
A Midsummer Nights Dreame (by Shakespeare, William)
The Second Part of Henry the Fourth (by Shakespeare, William)
The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra (by Shakespeare, William)
The Life of Henry the Fifth (by Shakespeare, William)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (by Doyle, Conan)
Measure, For Measure (by Shakespeare, William)
All's Well, That Ends Well (by Shakespeare, William)
Paradise Lost (by Milton, John)

Historical and Literary Papers

The Summer School : Year 1916 Volume Year 1916 (by Maryland State College of Agriculture)
Pennsylvania Grange News : Volume 3 (by Pennsylvania State Grange)
Whatever (by Menninger, Karl A. (Karl Augustus))
The Villanovan : 1988-1989 Volume 1988-1989 (by Villanova College)
Pennsylvania Grange News : Volume 1 (by Pennsylvania State Grange)
The University Mirror. : Volume 1, No. 1... (by Bucknell University)
Celebrating Diversity in Theguard and Re...
Circular of the Maryland Agricultural Co... Volume 1862-1863 (by Maryland Agricultural College)
The Summer School : Year 1940 Volume Year 1940 (by University of Maryland, College Park)
Pennsylvania Grange News : Volume 2 (by Pennsylvania State Grange)
The Villanovan : 1966-1970 Volume 1966-1970 (by Villanova College)
Asian and Pacific Island American Herita... (by Onizuka, Ellison Shoji)
The Villanovan : 1978-1981 Volume 1978-1981 (by Villanova College)
Circular of the Maryland Agricultural Co... Volume 1910-1911 (by Maryland Agricultural College)
The Summer School : Year 1932 Volume Year 1932 (by University of Maryland, College Park)