Welcome to the History of Education Society

NOTES on Primary Sources


Karen Graves
EDUC 213: The U.S. Education System
Denison University

 

EDUC 213 is a survey course on the history of public schooling in the United States.  It is a requirement in the Educational Studies major in the Department of Education. Some students take the course to satisfy a general education requirement in the social sciences at Denison, a liberal arts college. Most often the course enrolls a mix of sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

 

At five points in the course I assign notes on a set of primary source documents. Collectively, these assignments account for 25% of the course grade. The other graded assignments are essays, midterm and final examinations. Students also earn a class participation grade.

To encourage a lean analysis I limit each set of notes to two printed pages. The purpose of this assignment is to help students learn to read primary sources critically, sharpen articulation skills, and appreciate the importance of context in historical analysis.

 

These are the notes requirements:

  • For each document in the pair give the full citation, state the thesis, and list key points.
  • Place each document into its political-economic context.
  • Identify similarities and differences in the arguments.
  • Evaluate the issue at hand from your own educational perspective.
  • Ask me to clarify the assignment if necessary.

 

These are the pairs of primary source documents that I have used most recently:

 

NOTES 1
Jefferson, Thomas. “A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge.” University of Virginia Library Jefferson Digital Archive. http://edweb.sdsu.edu/People/Dkitchen/TE655/jefferson_a.htm.

 

Willard, Emma. “An Address to the Public, Particularly to the Members of the Legislature of New York, Proposing a Plan for Improving Female Education,” 2nd ed. Middlebury, Vt., 1819. 60pp. Sabin Americana. Gale, Cengage Learning. Denison University. 11 December 2008 <http://0galenet.galegroup.com.dewey2.library.denison.edu:80/

servlet/Sabin?af=RN&ae=CY101591934&srchtp=a&ste=14>

 

NOTES 2
Brownson, Orestes. “Second Annual Report of the Board of Education, Together with the Second Annual Report of the Secretary of the Board” (Boston, 1839), review in the Boston Quarterly Review 2 (October 1839): 393-418. Excerpted in Steven E. Tozer, Paul C. Violas, and Guy Senese, School and Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2002, 76-80.

 

Massachusetts State Board of Education and Secretary Horace Mann. Twelfth Annual Report of the Board of Education Together with the Twelfth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Board. Boston: Dutton & Wentworth, 1848. 

 

NOTES 3
Eliot, Charles W. “The Function of Education in Democratic Society.” In Charles W. Eliot and Popular Education, edited by Edward A. Krug, 103-16. New York: Teachers College Press, 1961.

 

Harkness, Mary Leal. “The Education of the Girl,” Atlantic Monthly: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics 113 (1914): 324-330. Excerpted in Steven E. Tozer, Paul C. Violas, and Guy Senese, School and Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2002, 147-150.

 

NOTES 4
DuBois, W.E.B. “Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others,” in The Souls of Black Folk, reprinted in John Hope Franklin, ed., Three Negro Classics (New York: Avon Books, 1965), 242-252. In Steven E. Tozer, Paul C. Violas, and Guy Senese, School and Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2002, 181-186.

 

Washington, Booker T. “Atlanta Exposition Address of 1895.” In Steven E. Tozer, Paul C. Violas, and Guy Senese, School and Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2002, 179-181.

 

NOTES 5
[Conant, James B.] “A Famous Educator’s Plan for a School that will Advance Students According to Ability.” Life (April 14, 1958): 120-121.

Van Doren, Mark. “Education for All,” in Liberal Education (New York: Beacon Press, 1959), 28-42. Excerpted in Steven E. Tozer, Paul C. Violas, and Guy Senese, School and Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2002, 240-242.