• DOI:10.2307/366937
• Corpus ID: 147192155

Reforms and Response: The Yale Report of 1828

@article{Urofsky1965ReformsAR,
  title={Reforms and Response: The Yale Report of 1828},
  author={Melvin Irving Urofsky},
  journal={History of Education Quarterly},
  year={1965},
  volume={5},
  pages={53 - 67}
}

• M. Urofsky
• Published 1 March 1965
• Education
• History of Education Quarterly

Scarcely had American independence been won in 1783 than a flood of articles, pamphlets, and books asked what should be the functions of education in a republic? The American Philosophic Society offered a prize for the best proposal of a liberal education suited to the genius of the new American nation. George Washington, Robert Coran, Benjamin Rush, William Smith, Francis Hopkinson, and Jonathan Trumball all called for a new education for the new republic. Regarding higher education, they all agreed that education must be more than a mere adornment; it must have a practical bent. Benjamin Rush wrote: We occupy a new country. Our principle business should be to explore and apply its resources, all of which press us to enterprize [sic] and haste. Under these circumstances, to spend four or five years in learning two dead languages, is to turn our backs upon a gold mine, in order to amuse ouselves catching butterflies.