Indisputably, our early educational system was remarkable; and since an ancient axiom accurately notes, “The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next,” it is appropriate to examine closely the educational philosophy that produced the longest on-going constitutional republic in the history of the world. What was the educational philosophy of the schools from which our early leaders graduated? Harvard was one school that trained a number of those leaders, including signers of the Declaration such as John Adams, John Hancock, Samuel Adams, William Ellery, William Hooper, Robert Treat Paine, William Williams, and Elbridge Gerry; signers of the Constitution such as William Samuel Johnson and Rufus King; and other prominent leaders, including Fisher Ames (a framer of the Bill of Rights), William Cushing (an original justice on the U. S. Supreme Court), and Timothy Pickering (an American general during the Revolution and the Secretary of War for Presidents George Washington and John Adams). Significantly, Harvard was established as a school to train ministers of the Gospel; and its educational philosophy was clearly set forth in
"its two mottoes: “For Christ and the Church” and “For the Glory of Christ.” 9 Consistent with those two mottoes, Harvard admonished: Let every student be plainly instructed and . . . consider well, the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus, which is eternal life (john 17:3), and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. To help students place Christ as the “foundation of . . . knowledge and learning,” Harvard instituted specific educational practices, including:
Everyone shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein.At Harvard – a school that trained a significant number of those who established our philosophy of government – academic endeavors were built upon the foundation of Biblical principles. Yale was another popular school of that day and, like Harvard, it began as a school to train ministers of the Gospel. Yale produced signers of the Declaration such as Lyman Hall, Philip Livingston, Lewis Morris, and Oliver Wolcott; signers of the Constitution such as Abraham Baldwin, Jared Ingersoll, and William Livingston; and other prominent leaders, including Noah Webster (a famous educator and the author of the dictionary that still bears his name), Zephaniah Swift (author of the first American legal text), and James Kent (a leading judge, called the “Father of American Jurisprudence”).
Yale admonished its students:Above all, have an eye to the great end of all your studies, which is to obtain the clearest conceptions of Divine things and to lead you to a saving knowledge of God in his Son Jesus Christ.
In pursuit of this goal, Yale stipulated:All the scholars are required to live a religious and blameless life according to the rules of God’s Word, diligently reading the holy Scriptures . . . and constantly attending all the duties of religion. Yale, like Harvard, provided an education based on knowing Christ and studying Biblical principles.
Perhaps the school that produced more early national leaders than any other was
Every student shall attend worship in the college hall morning and evening. . . . [and] shall attend public worship on the Sabbath. . . . [T]here shall be assigned to each class certain exercises for their religious instruction and no student belonging to any class shall neglect them. 17
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