THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIALISM IN AMERICAN EDUCATION

J. Michael Bodi

The goal of this paper is to discuss the philosophical roots of American education for the purpose of understanding its future.

Brief histories and views of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Karl Marx are discussed in light of Hegel's influence on William Torrey Harris, 4th Commissioner of Education in the United States. Harris' educational philosophy, his "pedagogical creed", and authority and control of the nation's schools is discussed in some detail.

The thesis is that basic concepts of socialism permeate Americans' world view about their public education, and this view represents the status quo.

America has a love/hate relationship with socialism. As a country of immigrants America has been blessed and at times cursed with the influx of foreigners who bring their particular strengths, weaknesses, and dilemmas to our shores. Far and away socialism has been the one political perspective we can't live without but abhor at the same time.

The question of an history of philosophy is an old one, one that is important enough to address early on. A review of history is nothing if it is not pragmatic, and in the case of looking at popular philosophies during their time of most influence is important for understanding the basics of how we thought (and continue to think) about education in America. Quentin Skinner said it best, "the indispensable value of studying the history of ideas is to learn the distinction between what is necessary and what is the product merely of our own contingent arrangements." he goes on to say, "(the studying of the history of ideas is) the key to self-awareness itself (1969, p.52-3)."⁽¹⁾

In the post Civil War era America underwent a complete makeover socially, economically, and politically. Socially because of the freeing of the slaves and the impetus taken by the women's movement to gain the vote; and politically because of an attitude of laissez-faire government, we were sick to death of the all-powerful government and we wanted them out of our daily lives.

America was turned upside down economically because of the incredible industrial strength of the North which led to the greatest levels of production the world had ever seen. New jobs called for more workers and many emigrated from Europe and China to fill the need. Fortunately for those who owned and operated American businesses, especially the railroads (and all related products, e.g., steel, glass, etc.), too many came which led to low wages and huge profits. Those new European immigrants also brought the political philosophy of Karl Marx and socialism.

The status quo feared "creeping socialism" (still does) and they did everything they could to control and keep down the masses, the lower class. Eventually however, our compassion for those same downtrodden groups caused us to rein in rampant competition, graft, and unfair laws and practices. The Progressives tried to reform society, tried to make life in America more fair, and to a great extent succeeded.

"Socialism" perse has always been shied away from in America, but its underlying principles of equality for everyone and a penchant for taking on "big business" has appealed to Americans since the late 1880s to today. The genius of socialism is that it promises something, some part of the pie, to those who have very little or nothing. And, more often than not, those who owned or controlled much of the wealth gave a nod of approval to socialistic programs in order to continue the status quo; in their view, social welfare = the pablum of the masses.

Socialism came out of Europe and to the United States. It is a political philosophy rooted in the failure of various European monarchies and the pervasive influence of prominent philosophers such as Immanuel Kant, Georg Friedrich Hegel, and Karl Marx.⁽²⁾

The philosophers helped the ruling class of Europe come to grips with the realities of the power usurped by the masses. Kant described "pure reason," Hegel reasoned out the dilemmas of reality, and Marx attacked the wealth and gave hope to those who had nothing.

A Brief History of the Views and Influence of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) was recognized during his lifetime as the greatest German philosopher of his day. Hegel was an ardent believer in the political state as the highest form of human institution. In his later years he came to see the state as but one of a number of institutions vital to man. Rule must be mediated he said, "The constitution is essentially a system of mediation. In despotisms where there are only rulers and people, the people is (sic) effective, if at all, only as a mass destructive of the organization of the state (p.292)."

Hegel believed that institutions and "associations" (communities of people)

would serve as buffers against the power of political government. He was a strong advocate of church, local community, profession, and especially occupational associations.

"It is true that these associations won too great a measure of self-subsistence in the Middle Ages, when they were states within states... but we may nonetheless affirm that the proper strength of state lies in these associations... It is of the utmost importance that people should be organized because only thus do they become mighty and powerful. Otherwise, they are nothing but a heap, an aggregate of atomic units. Only when the particular associations are organized members of the state are they possessed of legitimate power (pp.290-91))."

Hegel had a profound affect on Marxist philosophy as well as providing Marx with Hegel's philosophical "form" the "dialectic." The major interest in the contemporary interpretation of Hegel is in the Marxist camp; Marxist interpretation of Hegel almost completely reinterpreted Hegel in later history.

Friedrich Engels, Marx's contemporary and co-author, made the distinction between the method and the system of Hegel's philosophy, i.e., between the dialectic considered as a revolutionary "principle of movement" that achieves fulfillment in human culture and the system on the one side, and on the other as reactionary because it is idealistic and conservative.⁽³⁾

A Brief History of the Views and Influence of Karl Marx

Karl Marx (1818-1883) was a German philosopher and socialist, he wrote about political economy and articulated the views of communism with Friedrich Engels (1820-1895). Marx's real influence was the practical impact his views had on the common man. He successfully fused German idealistic philosophy (Hegel) with British political economy and French socialism.

To Marx, a relatively successful society is a continuously moving balance of antithetical forces. Strife is the great equalizer and common element of the human condition, and social conflict is at the center of history itself. "Men struggle against nature to wrest a livelihood from her. In the process they enter into relations with one another, and these relations differ according to the stage they have reached in their productive activities ("Socialism" in Britannica Online, 1997)."

According to Marx, the educational system was related to all other systems (legal, etc.) within the whole social/political system based on economic production; and the cultural superstructure of society is created according to social/political circumstances of those times. His goal was for human society to transcend those circumstantial events so that the individual could take part in the creation of his/her future. Marxism was a clear explication and logical extension of Socialism; in its extreme we have Communism.

"In the 1840s, among western thinkers with generally socialist objectives, several reform programs competed with each other and with various liberal doctrines. These provided the intellectual and political context for the ideas of the young Marx... They all denounced the power that monopoly of property gave some men over other men (Cole, p.304)."

Marx was a revolutionary socialist, that is, he thought of socialist revolution which advocated a more or less spontaneous uprising of exploited masses or perhaps direct action by labor unions (Mills, p.133-34).

Although Marx detested Hegel's philosophy, he was as a young man a member of the "Young Hegelians" and used Hegel's dialectical approach⁽⁴⁾ in his various writings (The Communist Manifesto (1848), Das Kapital (1867-94), and others with Friedrich Engels). The influence of Hegel on Marx is fundamental, his use of the dialectical argument led him to postulate the revolutionary transition to a classless society.

Socialism, Neo-Hegelianism, and the American Hegelians

The repeated encounter of western culture with Marxist thought has brought to the fore the political, ethical, and religious implications of Hegelianism. This is most usually seen in the birth of American liberalism which originally meant individualism and a belief in laissez-faire but became associated with the Progressive Era at the turn of the century (discussed later).

The Democratic Party merged with the Socialist Party for the presidential election in 1896 under the leadership of William Jennings Bryan. Although defeated, the Socialist Party re-emerged and had its most visible impact at the polls when Eugene V. Debs ran for President in 1912 and garnered 12% of the vote. Despite the socialists' lack of political success, that generation put emphasis on cooperation and social responsibility as opposed to the unrestrained competition usually associated with businessmen in the age of the Robber Barons. The publication of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle in 1906 also underscores the popularity of socialism in mainstream American society at that time.

Forms of neo-Hegelianism emerged in Italy, Britain, and the United States while Marx was influencing thought and history in Europe. The utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill notwithstanding⁽⁵⁾, neo-Hegelianism was an attractive and, more importantly, "realistic" alternative in America. Josiah Royce became the pre-eminent neo-Hegelian thinker, he stressed the unity of human thought with the external world. Royce's contemporaries, Charles Sanders Peirce and William James⁽⁶⁾ rejected Hegel's metaphysics but admitted their "idealist" roots early in their respective careers.

John Dewey, American philosopher and progressive educator, began his career as an Hegelian⁽⁷⁾ and retained certain Hegelian features in his thought, notably a tendency to denounce abstractions and an avoidance of formal logic. He later rejected Hegel's views but made the connection between Hegel and American Transcendentalists.

Hegel's fundamental influence on Dewey cannot be understated. Dewey's philosophy of schooling engenders a concept of a democratic and scientific community of persons bound to each other through common ideals (Dewey, 1900). Dewey's influence as an educator is well known⁽⁸⁾ and his important work on Pragmatism, the American philosophy, further underscores the thesis that popular philosophy at the turn of the century helped describe the American consciousness.

Socialism perse was doomed to succeed here, it was eclipsed as a political force and undercut by a variety of individuals⁽⁹⁾ and groups⁽¹⁰⁾. Liberalism took its place; laissez-faire capitalism was too successful, too many people suffered because of it. We soon passed a litany of progressive laws which at their core apologized for unfettered capitalism. The child labor laws were by far the most important consequence for the public school systems, and it was there that socialism became truly entrenched in American society. Socialism became ensconced in the American public schools mainly because of the efforts of William Torrey Harris, the fourth Commissioner of Education.

William Torrey Harris and the American Hegelians

William Torrey Harris is virtually unknown outside the profession of educational administration, and few administrators or teachers have heard of him. Harris inculcated idealism into the American public school system due to his genius for philosophy and his practical work as U.S. Commissioner of Education. He had access to the vast educational machinery of the country and diligently formed it to meet his design; a system we still use today.⁽¹¹⁾

Hegel's thought entered the mainstream of American life through its gateway cities in the west: Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis. Many of the most influential figures were of German descent who saw America as "the country of the future." These men, most notably Johann B. Stallo, August Willich, William Torrey Harris, and Denton J. Snider, succeeded so well that their influence has been defused throughout the culture. Harris and Henry C. Brokmeyer were the founders of the Hegelian movement in the United States, knows as the St. Louis Movement. (Goetzmann, p.x).

Brokmeyer and Harris established the St. Louis Philosophical Society in the early 1860s and Harris began publishing and editing The Journal of Speculative Philosophy in 1867, the first philosophical journal in America. They⁽¹²⁾ quickly developed relationships with the Transcendentalists⁽¹³⁾ and G. Sylvester Morris (mentor to John Dewey). Harris along with Bronson Alcott established the Concord School of Philosophy.

The aim of the St. Louis Movement was to rationalize every field of activity, using Hegelian philosophy as a principle of interpretation (Harris, 1867). They sought very consciously to find how Hegel's ideas applied and what form they might signify when translated into their own experience. These American Hegelians were effective in using the school as a means for molding the young to their ideas (Goetzmann, p.268). Their design was to influence the quality of life in an ultimate sense.

The members were devoted to action as well as analysis, a number rising to prominence. Brokmeyer was elected Lieutenant Governor of Missouri and Harris became the fourth U.S. Commissioner of Education (a post he held for 17 years, from 1889-1906). In that capacity Harris had enormous influence on the still fledgling public schools movement. He established Friedrich Froebel's kindergarten (first directed by Susan Blow, another Hegelian), experimented with free universities (so that many more might attend) and communal schools (for the growing urban areas⁽¹⁴⁾), created the graded school, and broadened the curriculum to include the arts and modern history. He was instrumental in shortening the school day and year while at the same time providing more time per subject to be taught.

His biggest pedagogical battle, one that he lost, was the movement to teach the "manual arts" (vocational education) in the schools. This is an advocacy of some importance given his philosophical leanings toward socialism.⁽¹⁵⁾ Needless to say, this is still a significant issue in the curriculum today.

Harris was an active Commissioner. He expanded the influence of the position and made it a clearinghouse for information (all of which was controlled by him) and recommended conformity among all the nation's schools. His office attempted to collect and disseminate information about every school in the country. In 1891 Harris lobbied for a bill that would provide federal monies for an "educational fund to aid in the support of public schools in the several states and territories"; in 1900 he proposed the idea of giving Civil Service Examinations to teachers; and in 1905 he suggested Presidential action regarding the issuing of bogus credentials to teachers, this led, eventually, to the credentialing process in place today (Cremin, 1969).

A central idea behind the bureaucratization of the American public school was that of a meritocracy, the notion that occupational advancement should be based in ability and achievement. Then, as today, it was known that employment and preferment went hand in hand. To Harris' credit (and other educational leaders of that time) they argued for a hierarchy with clear qualifications to ensure advancement based on merit.⁽¹⁶⁾

The Hegelians quietly but effectively shaped American public education. Children and older students needed to learn conformity to systems of organization, they had to be able to reason as the model citizen reared in a society geared to scientific truth, and they had to begin to define themselves within the group.

Harris' Philosophical Influence on Public Education

Harris founded the Philosophical Society; became President and eventually Life Director of the National Educational Association (the most influential teachers' union then and now) from 1875 until his death in 1909; he also became President of the National Association of School Superintendents in 1873 until 1880. As President of the NEA Harris was a permanent member and chairman of what was called "The Committee of Ten." This group, later expanded to fifteen, provided the educational leadership for the country at the turn of the century.

In 1880 he represented the Bureau of Education at the International Congress of Education at Brussels and again later that year in Belgium; in 1884 he went to Italy in the same capacity where he was given a prestigious international award; and in 1889 he attended the Paris Exposition where he received yet another award.

In 1889 he was appointed United States Commissioner of Education by President Benjamin Harrison and continued in that position until his somewhat controversial⁽¹⁷⁾ retirement in 1906. He remained active in educational politics until his death in 1909.

He wrote and edited school textbooks⁽¹⁸⁾ and was an assistant editor of Johnson's Cyclopaedia. He translated a number of Hegel's works⁽¹⁹⁾ and wrote The Spiritual Sense of Dante's Divina Comedia (three volumes, 1889), Psychologic Foundations of Education (1898), and Introduction to the Study of Philosophy (1889); he was also the editor-in-chief of Webster's International Dictionary (1900).

His greatest contribution to American intellectualism was the Journal of Speculative Philosophy (1867-93). In Volume I, page 1 of the journal we see a statement of Harris' political as well as general philosophy.

"...Let this spirit of inquiry once extended to thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, Schelling and Hegel -- let these be digested and organically reproduced -- and what a phalanx of American thinkers we may have to boast of! For, after all, it is not "American thought" so much as American "thinkers" that we want. To "think" in the highest sense, is to transcend all "natural limits" -- such, for example, as national peculiarities, defects in culture, distinctions in race, habits and modes of living -- to be "universal," so that one can dissolve away the external hull and seize the substance itself.... Our province as Americans is to rise to purer forms than have hitherto been attained, and thus to speak a "solvent word" of more potency than those already uttered (1867)."

Harris' use of quotation marks is interesting. "Natural limits," "universal," "solvent word," and others imply significance in Harris' world view. The "natural man" is a phrase frequently applied during the founding of America, a term we still relish. What did it mean to Harris? The "natural man" to Hegel is an ideal in a relative society. In our capitalist society, Harris would say, the ideal man/citizen would be one who understands his/her place or role in the group. The "solvent word" is one that changes or adapts to conditions or circumstances, and the "universal" truth of mankind (according to Hegel and Harris) is that "reality can only be understood as a totality ("the truth is the whole"), and that the attempt to understand the apparently individual and unconnected phenomena of nature, history, and human life through separate categories of thought is utterly mistaken ("Hegelianism" in Britannica Online, 1997)." The ideal "natural man" in American society then is one who understand his "place" or role in the society; it is not a stretch to see the implications for a socialized person living in a capitalist community.

The idea that Hegelianism in its political form has parallels to socialism and the "greatest happiness" principle, as well as the doctrine of "duty for duty's sake in ethics" underscores the fact that an educational system rooted in Hegelian thought is clearly socialistic in its philosophical base. Harris' efforts to inculcate Hegelian principles into the American schools were successful and ultimately led to the assumptions we have today about public schooling ("the great equalizer").

In defining "speculative" Harris drew upon the ideas of Plato and emphasized that reason arrives at conclusions "without the aid of (sensuous) images, but solely through ideas themselves." According to J.J. Chambliss (1968) Harris is classified as a rationalist and Chambliss sees "speculative" as another word for "rationalism." True speculative reasoning is transcendental in the sense that its meaning actually reaches beyond phenomena and their relations; it is delving beyond or behind the consciousness. Harris' design was one of rationalism in a capitalist system in need of efficient workers.

Harris' annual Reports were of significant importance and carried a great deal of weight with educators in responsible positions. He wrote extensively regarding his educational agenda for the newly acquired possessions of the Spanish American War, the American Black, and the South in general.

As an Hegelian, Harris believed that improvement in the society would take place due to its inherent nature. He saw the school as an agent, not for guiding the change, but for preserving the values of the past and adjusting the individual to society (Curti, p.345). His own interpretations of Hegel were formulated to raise the society's discussion to a higher level.

Harris asserted that the most complete discipline for speculative thinking is Hegel's Logic. He describes the concept of the speculative in a less complete sense;

"The Speculative has insight into the constitution of the positive out of the negative. 'That which has the form of Being,' says Hegel, 'is the self-related'; but relation of all kinds is negation, and hence whatever has the form of being and is a positive somewhat, is a self-related negative. (Harris, 1867, p.4)."

According to Chambliss (p.49-50) Harris used this conception of the speculative in discussing three stages of consciousness in knowing. The relationship to his pedagogical creed will become clear in the next section but in a philosophical sense his view of epistemology (and education) makes sense.

I. This is immediate or sensuous knowing, the consciousness observes and grasps objects in an isolated way. Each object is a reality in and of itself. The (Hegelian) negative is the absence of the real thing.

II. At this stage the beforementioned objects are now perceived to be in relationships to other items. Each thing is not independent but actually dependent on others, without which the properties of each thing would have no distinct existence of their own.⁽²⁰⁾ If a thing exists only through its relations to something else which is not that thing, a thing's existence is due to its own negation.

The dialectic of mediation forces consciousness into the third state, wherein things are known independently of any other.

III. The net meaning of the first and second stages then is; "if things exist only in their relations, and relations are the negatives of things, then all that appears positive -- all being -- must rest upon negation

In the third stage, all that has gone before is accounted for. The negative can only relate to itself; self-relation both negates itself and identifies itself. Identity and distinction are produced by the self-same process, and thus 'self-determination' is the origin of all identity and distinction likewise. This is the speculative standpoint in its completeness.

The speculative consciousness knows therefore, not in an immediate sense, but in a sense that is conscious both of the unhypothetical principles of reason and of the method by which those principles are thought (Harris, p.5)."

It is important to note that Harris adapted Hegelian philosophy to his own design for education. Without an extensive diatribe at this point it is important to underscore this point, neo-Hegelianism is just that - a new interpretation.

Harris' "Pedagogical Creed"

Harris' own "pedagogical creed" (in Goetzmann, p.299-309) clearly sums up his philosophy of education and allows us to peruse not only a possible curriculum but also the "atmosphere" desired by him in the school. His creed looks remarkably like today's (generic) public school system.

In January and early February, 1893, Harris gave a series of five lectures at Johns Hopkins from which this creed was abstracted; his educational philosophy seems rooted in the broadest cultural and historical setting, i.e., a "classical" education.

He detailed, through western history, the basis for our thoughts on educational matters beginning with the Phoenicians, ending with the Hebrews; "They teach the personality of the Divine apart from Nature." This sense of ultimateness is important to the understanding of Harris' educational philosophy; he meant to operationalize the highest truths (as he understood from Hegel) in the schools. His goal was no less than to hold "his creatures responsible only in so far as they know the right, and returning their deeds upon them." The ultimate responsibility of the individual then is to know "the right" and then learn to live with their own "deeds." A system of schooling would cause the individual to know Truth and take responsibility for him/herself.

Harris believed that the Greeks gave us the foundations of education (beauty and truth) and from the Romans the principle of organization. The person, he maintained, would find him/herself in the "great network" of civilization and therefore the individual must be educated "into the genesis of these things."

"Ninety-nine out of a hundred people in every civilized nation are automata, careful to walk in the prescribed paths, careful to follow prescribed custom. This is the result of substantial education, which, scientifically defined, is the subsumption of the individual under his species. The other educational principle is the emancipation from this subsumption." The emancipated individual is the person set free, through education, to solve the problems he/she confronts in his/her lifetime. The student "must first avail himself of the wisdom of the race, and (then) learn how not to be limited by it."

Clearly then, Harris believed that a subsumption of the individual to the cultural and historical norms was absolutely necessary before going on to any kind of higher learning (or anything else).

In the second section Harris professed two kinds of education: the "substantial education" based in authority, and the "individual or scientific education" which is based in insight.

A "substantial education" comes by means of memory and gives the individual the methods and habits of the fundamentals of knowledge. The student is to "accept the authority of the teacher for the truth of what he is told, and does not question it or seek to obtain insight into the reason for its being so."

When an "individual or scientific education" is acquired it frees the individual from the other. The critical problem with this form of education is that the individual tends to become "self-conceited" due to the notion that he/she has learned on his/her own without the assistance of a teacher. This causes him/her to "drift toward empty agnosticism," therefore this method of education must be built "on the safe foundations of what has been described as the education of authority."

An important point to mention, one that Harris characterizes as a fortunate blunder, is the tacit adoption by the American schools of the textbook.. He defended this new direction as having the advantage of becoming independent of the teacher and, one can take the book wherever one pleases. He dismissed criticisms of even the poorest textbooks when he noted that a student can "glean" a great deal of knowledge from them as well as from good texts. His concern that a textbook education could become "verbatim (and) parrot-like" is outweighed by the many positive inferences for its use.

"Silence, punctuality, regularity and industry are fundamental parts of a "substantial education" as much as the critical study of mathematics, literature, science, and history is a part of the "education of insight."⁽²¹⁾ In order to meet these goals discipline must be administered as well, but there should be little corporal punishment, Harris wrote; milder forms of restraint should be used. Self-activity and authority should be complementary.

In the third and fourth lectures Harris compared the European educator Johann Pestalozzi and the philosopher Herbart and later discussed the concept of "nature."

Although Harris developed an interesting Hegelian dialectic, for our purposes here it is relevant to note that, his conclusion is that the schooling of the individual child should revolve around "causal ideas," that is, basic knowledge should be taught and the student should build broader comprehension from that point. Harris clearly avoided intrinsic or intuitive cognition, and promoted a more classical approach.

To support the above premise he argued for the evolving of the natural man of Rousseau but with some important qualifiers. A goal of human development he contended was to realize his/her nature in institutions and not as an individual (vs. Rousseau's argument in Emile). "Nature in time and space is under the dominion of necessity, everything constrained to be what it is by outside forces." Human nature is an ideal, he said, where each individual is law unto himself and each helps another because to do so is to help him/herself. Harris agreed with Voltaire's assessment of Rousseau's Emile, "...never has anyone employed so much genius to make us into beasts... "External authority is a perennial necessity for man in his immaturity."

Harris the philosopher, however, held education out as the way to eventually achieve the greater ideal of the natural man/woman; it is something to be acquired through education (the great equalizer).

In the last part of his pedagogical creed Harris argued for a scientific approach to education and refuted Herbert Spencer's Social Darwinism. From there he outlined the curriculum for the complete education of the American child/student.

The Three Levels: Elementary, Secondary,
and Higher Education

I. The Elementary Stage: the opening of the five windows of the soul.

A) Arithmetic
B) Geography
C) Reading and writing which leads to the study of literature
D) Grammar
E) History of his/her own country

II. The Secondary Stage: takes up human learning and continues it along the same lines.

A) Inorganic nature (mathematics) including algebra, geometry, and physics
B) Organic nature (geography) and natural history
C) Literature - "the heart," from the "embryology of our civilization," the Greeks and the study of Latin contrasted to the Egyptians (who are viewed as "a struggle for freedom and never the man separated from the animal and the inorganic world").

The Romans should be studied at this time due to their ability for organization and, finally, the Hebrews for their religious convictions and "celebration of worship."

D) Grammar and logic - "the intellect"
E) World History (western civilization) - "the will"

III. The Higher Stage or collegiate education: as the comparative step of education.

A) Natural science and sociology
B) Logic and mental philosophy
C) Ethics and rhetoric
D) Philosophy of history and literature, and the comparative sciences

Harris saw the elementary education as "superficial, a mere inventory," the secondary requiring "some reflection," and higher education as "the unity and comparison of all that has been learned, so that each is explained by the whole." With this plan "the evolution of civilization is insured (Goetzmann, p.299-309) ."

One can clearly see the adaptation of Harris' educational philosophy to his pedagogical creed, the stages and levels run parallel. He worked tirelessly and always strived for the ideal, no less than the educated individual who understood his/her place in the bigger picture.

Harris' Influence on Educational Administration

William Torrey Harris' influence on the fledgling discipline of school administration was significant also in that he set the tone for dialogue and problem solving. Harris argued for a phenomenological approach to administrative science, his reasoning was that physical and social phenomena differed and that human constructs were more important than sense data. He felt that a science of education could be achieved, one that could be replicated and useful (Culbertson, p.3).

In the mid-1880s the NEA established a committee to address the issue of the "Science of Pedagogics." Harris was an influential member of that committee helping to formulate their 28 propositions. The committee declared that the purpose of a science of pedagogics was to provide educators "laws" of the "mind and body." Harris went on to emphasize that reason, through the logical analysis of opposing or contradictory ideas, must produce higher order generalizations directed at wholes and not, as in the case of narrowly defined science, at parts (Culbertson, p.4).

Harris' professional stature among his peers swayed their opinions. He believed that the organization of the schools should be subdivided into four major components: course of study (curriculum), method (how to teach), discipline (to be taught and administered), and plan of organization or management.

"Here are four great provinces of pedagogical inquiry, each capable of endless subdivision and specialization, and requiring such division of labor and such concentration and observation upon details as may absorb the attention of a whole generation of teachers and educational specialists (Harris in Culbertson, p.5)."

His organization looks remarkably like today's public schools: the curriculum and methods of teaching are rigidly controlled by administration, policies for discipline are legislated by the school district, and the science of educational administration is taught in a similar fashion from university to teachers' college.

Although some disclaim Harris' influence in this area as being too philosophical it is important to recognize that the science of educational administration was new and that his real influence, although seemingly obscure, came as he laid down the philosophical foundations for how to proceed. In 1924, Ellwood Cubberley (a noted educational historian) described the previous quarter century as a "great creative period" in education. The subject of pedagogy had given way to "the rapidly expanding professional subject,(what we today call) education (Cubberley in Culbertson, p.10)." This was due in no small way to the efforts and vision of William Torrey Harris.

It is important to add that the new science of "scientific management" (i.e., Frederick W. Taylor, 1895) was sweeping not only through industry but through intellectual circles. This though was really nothing new to education.

For Harris the scope of inquiry in the 1875-1906 period was as broad as civilization itself. Using his "speculative philosophy" he pulled the "is" and the "ought" closely together and created the American system for education we have to this day.

Conclusion

William Torrey Harris was an Hegelian and inculcated his philosophy into the American educational system. Inherent in Hegelianism is the ideal, the idea that the perfect is knowable if not attainable. Socialism is a natural offshoot of Hegelianism because it gives hope for such an ideal to take place. Since our educational system is predicated on these principles we have a system that strives to provide chances for equality to all of the children/students affected by the schools.

School systems are regimented and tightly organized, taxpayers and parents want accountability, and teachers and students want (for the most part) to teach and learn. For what purpose? William Torrey Harris decided we would produce citizens who know how to follow directions, they would be exposed to a certain body of knowledge, and they should have begun to understand how to fit into the society.

American schools were created to "level the playing field" and they've attempted to do just that. Competition is contrived, individual differences are celebrated, and schools provide a convenient place for children to be while their parents are at work. For what purpose? To maintain the status quo of American liberalism.

References

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1. ⁰ I hasten to distance myself from those who are, according to Nietsche, "...noisy little fellows measuring themselves with the Romans as though they were like them". This paper will address the influence of William Torrey Harris, 4th Commissioner of Education, not Hegel, Marx, or their philosophies. And with all due respect to Mr. Harris, I would have liked to meet him, we would have had much to discuss about education in America.

2. ⁰ there are many more but for the thesis of this paper we will focus on the influence of Hegel and Marx especially.

3. ⁰ Later interpreters include Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse as well as the Frankfurt School which spawned critical theory and critical thinking as a pedagogical movement (to be addressed in subsequent chapters).

4. ⁰ the idea that all things are in a continual process of change resulting from the conflicts between their contradictory aspects. For Hegel there is a unifying metaphysical process underlying the apparent diversity of the world, which he called the dialectic. For example, "being" (thesis) is at the most abstract level of thought because of its pure indeterminacy, but because we exist it also implies its opposite "nothingness" (antithesis). The truth is the interaction or movement between the two which is "becoming" (synthesis).

5. ⁰ Utilitarianism was especially influential in Great Britain where socialism still has a strong foothold today.

6. ⁰ Peirce and James created (some say "discovered") the philosophy of Pragmatism. An argument can also be made to indicate socialist underpinnings to the philosophy of Pragmatism (Bodi, in press).

7. 0 Dewey published his paper, "Kant and Philosophic Method" in 1884 in the journal published by the St. Louis Hegelians, The Journal for Speculative Philosophy, and edited by William Torrey Harris.

8. ⁰ a discussion of the Progressives in education will be discussed in later chapters.

9. 0 George W. Perkins, Mark Hanna, Samuel Insul, Frank A. Vanderlip, John Hays Hammond, Seth Low, Ralph Easley, Jeremiah Jenks, Bernard Baruch, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and others.

10. ⁰ at the turn of the century the National Civic Federation was the most notable and influential institution to protect the rights of the common man.

11. ⁰ According to some notable critics, William Torrey Harris was a transitional figure, one who moved American education through the beginnings of the industrial expansion at the turn of the century. Given the overwhelming popularity of John Dewey and his "progressive education" some say Harris got lost in his wake.

Lawrence Cremin (1969) saw Harris as "a figure between two eras," a particularly conservative man with his head stuck in the classics and concerned with order in the schools. Harris was not interested in freedom, promoted work rather than play, and tended inevitably toward formalism (p. 17-20).

David B. Tyack (1974) portrays Harris as the standard bearer for order in the schools, "the school should be a model of bureaucratic punctuality and precision: 'The pupil must have his lessons ready at the appointed time, must rise at the tap of the bell, move to the line, return; in short, go through all the evolutions with equal precision' (Harris in Tyack, p.43)."

But William H. Goetzmann's (1973) criticism comes closest to the reality then, "...the goals and methods of the Hegelians and the Progressives were similar. They differed, however, in one important respect. Dewey demanded that the teacher "explore" the child in an attempt to discover his own innate interests and then that the teacher allow the child to express himself at random according to those interests... But the Hegelians were rationalists and insisted on a structured curriculum whereby progress and direction were made clear to the child and the reason for his participation in the educational process was rendered explicit (p. 310-11)."

12. ⁰ along with Denton Snider, Anna Brackett (the first female school principal in an American school), Susan Blow (implemented the first kindergartens in the U.S.)., and others.

13. ⁰ especially Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, and Bronson Alcott (brother of Louisa May Alcott).

14. ⁰ Author and feminist Charlotte Perkins Gilman (The Yellow Wallpaper, 1899) was an architect before her later notoriety; she designed and saw apartments built in New York City's Upper Manhattan for the purpose of communal living (78th St. and Livingston). "Communal schools" was a popular idea in those times.

15. ⁰ In all fairness to Mr. Harris, he would never have referred to himself as a socialist, an Hegelian yes.

16. ⁰ The advocacy for the professionalization of educators began during his tenure as commissioner with more university departments beginning to be organized. The question as to whether teaching is a profession was initially discussed at that time (still is) but, according to Tyack and Hansot (1982), the educational leadership at the turn of the century practiced "insider networking (p.129)." This led to an inherent distrust of the leadership which, combined with the women's demand for the vote (and the fact that teaching was becoming something women could do), created a flashpoint between the all male dominated hierarchy in educational leadership at that time and many female teachers.

17. ⁰ At the annual meeting of the NEA in 1901 Harris verbally attacked a female teacher (Margaret Haley) in the middle of his keynote speech. After she questioned his interpretation of some statistics he is quoted to have said, "Pay no attention to what that teacher down there (on the floor) has said, for I take it she is a grade teacher, just out of her school room at the end of the school year, worn out, tired, hysterical... It was a mistake to hold NEA meetings at this time of year... and if there are any more hysterical outbursts, after this I shall insist that these meetings be held at some other time of the year (Harris in Tyack and Hansot, p.186)."

His actions were so uncharacteristic and his words so insulting to women (and the growing women's movement) that many soon began to question his ability to lead the organization into the 20th century. He eventually resigned in 1906.

18. ⁰ The Appleton School Readers, one of the most pervasive books used at the turn of the century, and the Appleton International Education Series.

19. ⁰ Hegel's Doctrine of Reflection (1881) and Hegel's Logic (1890).

20. ⁰ author's emphasis.

21. ⁰ Harris seemed to portend the coming of critical thinking and its concomitant critical theory. This will be discussed in later chapters.