Oration on American Education: Delivered Before the Western Literary Institute and College of Professional Teachers at Their Fourth Annual Meeting, October 1834

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J. Drake, 1835 - Christian education - 43 pages

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Page 21 - That not to know at large of things remote From use, obscure and subtle, but to know That which before us lies in daily life, Is the prime wisdom...
Page 5 - Mr. Grimke's address, in this volume, is remarkable for being printed according to the phonic method of spelling. Mr. Grimke's oration takes the strong ground that "Neither the Classics nor the Mathematics should form a part of a Scheme of General Education in our Country.
Page 9 - It is sufficient then for my immediate purpos, that in point of fact, our system of education taken as a whole, has very little in it purely American. I do not scruple therefore to pronounce it decidedly unAmerican, even if it be not anZi-American.
Page 8 - Speaking before the same meeting, Thomas S. Grimke, a prominent Southern educator, and an advocate of religious and utilitarian training, in urging "A Christian and American Education," noted: This is an age, and ours is a country in which educated men are not at liberty to sit down contented with things as they are. Their plain duty is, to enquire and examine constantly, are things as they should be? Their dutys are active not passive. 30 Robert Rantoul, Jr., "The Education of a Free People" (1839),...
Page 4 - In quotation* anil proper names, I hav not felt call'd upon to change the orthography. This was not Grimke's only literary heresy. In his oration on the subject
Page 4 - The silent e is omitted in such classes of words as disciplin, respit, believ, crealiv, publishd, remaind, evry, sevral, volly. (2) The e is suppressd and an apostrophe substituted, after the manner of the poets, where the simple omission of the e might change the sound of the preceding vowel from long to short: as in requir'd, rejln'd, deriv'il.
Page 8 - They are responsible for the progress of society in their time: just as the mail-carrier of to-day, is responsible for the custody and condition of the letters, for which another was responsible yesterday, and another is to be responsible to-morrow. Of all men, parents are the most deeply interested in the question, "Are things as they should be in education?
Page 11 - ... which existed two thousand years ago, under the licentious democracy of Greece, and the compound of proud and turbulent aristocracy and democracy at Rome.
Page 9 - The second objectionable feature is, that the existing plan is, in no proper sense of the word, American. It is not even English, considering England and America, as one, in relation to the rest of the world, as having the same language and religion, and to a great extent, the same civil, political, and social institutions. It is true, you will find Morse's or Worcester's or some other American Geography; also some 12 mo.
Page 28 - Things as they should be, demand then imperatively, that education should be decidedly religious. It is granted on all hands, that religion is the highest interest of man; that it is the cement of society and the foundation of government; that it-is the best safeguard of duty, and a fountain of the purest happiness.

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