Harris, William Torrey

William Torrey (1835-1909), an American educator. He was born at North Killingly, Connecticut. He attended Yale College but was not graduated. He taught in the St. Louis schools 1857-67, and was superintendent of schools in that city 1867-1880. He was United States Commissioner of Education 1889-1907. Mr. Harris is known as a metaphysical writer. He founded the Journal of Speculative Philosophy in 1867. He was one of the organizers of the Concord school of philosophy. As an author, he wrote Hegel's Logic: a Critical Exposition, The Spiritual Sense of Dante's Divina Commedia, Introduction to the Study of Philosophy, and Psychologic Foundations of Education. Mr. Harris' writings were by no means clear to the layman; but their very ponderosity and the kindly, simple manner of Mr. Harris himself, did much to fasten upon the American teacher an exaggerated notion of the importance of psychology in the working outfit of the teacher.