Education
Education names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Education . See Caste
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
. See Caste ; Parsee; Athletics ; Aristotle; Plato ; Academy ; Seneca; Quintilian; Alcuin ; Alfred; High School ; Normal School ; University ; Jesuits ; Arithmetic ; Kindergarten ; Galileo ; Comenius ; Chemistry ; Alchemy ; Medicine ; Froebel ; Pestalozzi ; Mann ; Arnold Edward I (1239-1307), surnamed "Longshanks," king of England. He reigned 1272-1307. He was born at Westminister and died near Carlyle. He was the son of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence. He married Eleanor of Castile. While a young man, Edward assisted his father in curbing the power of the barons, overthrowing their leader, Simon de Montfort, at Evesham in 1265. At the request of the pope Edward took a prominent part in the Seventh Crusade. He captured Nazareth from the Turks, and massacred the inhabitants. In revenge for this cruelty, it is thought, an assassin stabbed him in three places with a poisoned arrow. Owing to a magnificent constitution he came through with his life. A story runs to the effect that Eleanor saved him by sucking out the poison with her lips. On hearing of the death of his father Edward returned home to be crowned. He was an active, arbitrary ruler. He accomplished the conquest of Wales. He took measures to expel the Jews from England. He interfered in the affairs of Scotland, placed Baliol on the throne and again deposed him, carrying the ancient coronation stone of Scotland to Westminster, where it yet remains. He executed Sir William Wallace and died on his way to Scotland to suppress Bruce. Though the name of Edward I is not a source of pleasure to the Welsh and to the Scotch, he was a royal English monarch--a very prince of men to his own people. His soldiers heard him urge clemency for the followers of Montfort. They saw him weep in bitter grief for the death of his father, though it placed him on the throne of England. He lay with his soldiers on the ground and suffered both hunger and thirst in the mountains of Wales and on the Scottish border. Under all circumstances he was an Englishman and a soldier, a hard master, but a loyal, singleminded prince-one who loved his people and was loved by them. Edward was "unselfish, laborious, conscientious, haughtily observant of truth and self-respect, temperate, reverent of duty and religious. For the most part," continues Green, the historian, "his impulses were generous, trustful, averse from cruelty, prone to forgiveness". "No man ever asked mercy of me," said he in his old age, "and was refused." Those who read the fate of Wallace, sent to a felon's death by Edward, need to know that this haughty king is the same English Edward who loved his Eleanor while living, and ceased not to love her when dead; and that this is the same Edward who reared a cross at Charing, and wherever else the bier of Eleanor rested on the way to the grave. Edward deserves well at the hand of the historian. He reorganized the courts of England in the interest of speedy and impartial justice. He equalized the burden of taxation and of military service. He was the first English monarch to summon merchants and burghers to sit in Parliament. In person he was a tall, deep-chested, long-limbed man. The people called him Longshanks. He instituted legal reforms; the jurists call him the "English Justinian." Soldier, lover, and lawgiver, Edward was the greatest of the Plantagenets. Edward II (1284-1327), king of England. He was the son of Edward I and Eleanor of Castile. He was born at Caernarvon Castle, Wales, and in 1301 was given the title " Prince of Wales ," then extinct by the death in battle of the last Welsh prince. He was the first of the English princes to bear this name. Edward II resembled the pleasure-loving Stuarts more than he did his martial father. He was governed by an insolent and unworthy favorite, Piers Gaveston, whom, indeed, Edward's barons executed. This is the "Proud Edward" who in 1314, invaded Scotland at the head of a large force and was defeated ignominiously by Robert Bruce at Bannockburn. Edward was unfortunate in family affairs. Queen Isabella, sent on a mission to France, entered into a traitorous, not to say criminal, intrigue with Roger Mortimer, a disaffected young baron, and returned to England at the head of an armed force. The conspirators seized the Tower of London and took Edward prisoner. A Parliament, completely under their influence, deposed Edward and placed his son, a mere boy, on the throne. A few months later, Edward was sent from the Tower to Kenilworth Castle and later to Berkeley Castle, where he was assassinated by two ruffians in the pay of Mortimer. Edward III (1312-1377), king of England. He was born at Windsor and died at Richmond. As stated, he was placed on his father's throne in 1327, at the age of fifteen. During his minority the kingdom was ruled ostensibly by a regency of twelve lords. In reality authority was usurped by the guilty Isabella and her partner, Mortimer. In 1330 Edward III, now eighteen years of age, took matters into his own hands. He broke into the strong castle of Nottingham, where Isabella and Mortimer were, and dragged Mortimer to the Tower. Mortimer was brought before the Parliament and charged with the murder of Edward II. He was found guilty and was hanged on an elm at Tyburn. Edward could not be expected to take severe measures against his mother. She was sent into retirement, in reality into hopeless captivity, where she was visited once a year by her son, the king. Edward's reign was noted for wars. He engaged in a desperate attempt to subjugate Scotland. He set up a claim to the French throne. He added "King of France" to his title, a practice maintained by British sovereigns until 1802. Edward thus entered upon a long series of conflicts with France, known as the " Hundred Years' War ." No little success followed the banner of England; yet, before the close of Edward's reign, nearly all the conquered territory was lost again. During this reign great changes came to the common people. The Black Death , the greatest plague that ever visited the country, swept away half of the peasants. Laborers were scarce, wages rose. A system of practical serfdom came to an end. It was impossible in some sections to get help to gather the harvest. At the entreaty of landowners Parliament passed an act, called the Statute of Laborers, which reestablished the old prices of labor, and compelled laboring men to seek employment within their own parishes. This led in the next reign to what is known as the Peasants' Rising of 1381. Ever since the Norman Conquest Latin had been the language of business and official correspondence. French was the language of society and of light literature. The peasantry held to the old Anglo-Saxon or English language. During Edward's reign this language began to crowd Latin and French to the wall. The writings of Wyclif gave a powerful impulse to the rise of English. Toward the close of Edward's reign the English language replaced the French language in the schools. In 1357 a statute was passed requiring the use of English in courts of justice. A very great change took place also in the Houses of Parliament. The war with France was expensive. It was necessary to ask Parliament for large grants of money. The House of Commons established the principle that redress of grievances must precede a grant of supplies. The Good Parliament, established in 1376, impeached Edward's ministers, establishing much the same method of procedure now followed in English-speaking countries. See Baliol ; Crecy ; Poitiers; The Black Prince; Black Death ; Wyclif ; Lollards ; Impeachment Edward IV (1441-1483), king of England. He was born at Rouen, France. Edward IV ascended the throne in 1461. His accession and the earlier events of his reign are but episodes in the famous Wars of the Roses. Edward was the second son of Richard, Duke of York. By the death of his father, at the battle of Wakefield in 1460, Edward became the head of the Yorkists. On hearing of his father's death he gathered together a combined army of Welsh and English and won a victory over the Lancastrians at Mortimer's Cross. A few days later the Lancastrians were victorious at St. Albans, but, while they lingered here plundering, Edward set out for London on horseback. He was a handsome, popular prince. The Yorkists hailed him with acclaim and, in the absence of the Lancastrian king, Henry III, proclaimed him sovereign. The story of the struggle between the Yorkists and Lancastrians is unprofitable reading. Warwick, the king-maker, had no sooner placed Edward on the throne, than he became offended because the king concluded a marriage with Elizabeth Grey, instead of espousing the sister of Louis XI of France. Warwick fomented an insurrection and fled to France; yet returned, drove Edward into exile in Holland, and replaced the last Lancastrian Henry on the throne. To cut these wearisome details short, Edward returned, defeated the force of Henry and Warwick, the latter falling in battle at Barnet, April 14, 1471. A few weeks later Edward defeated the forces of Queen Margaret at Tewkesbury. Henry died in the Tower, and Edward's reign was secure. During Edward's reign popular government went backward. A favorite invention of his was a system of "benevolences." This was a gift of money which he requested from rich subjects, and which they were afraid to refuse. This system of benevlences rendered the king in a measure independent of Parliament. The power of that body was correspondingly diminished. See Warwick ; Wars Of The Roses Edward V (1470-1483), king of England. He was born at Westminster Abbey . He was the heir of Edward IV, but Edward V was little more than twelve years old at the time of his father's death. His uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, the same who is known in history as Richard III, appointed himself guardian of the young king. A servile Parliament proclaimed him Protector of the Realm. The wicked duke secured the execution of such noblemen as stood in his way. He then called a meeting of Parliament, and secured the passage of an act declaring the marriage of Edward IV to the mother of the young king illegal. Richard then sent Edward V and his younger brother to the Tower, where they were murdered. Brackenbury, the constable of the Tower, refused to obey Richard when ordered to put the two princes to death; but Sir James Tyrrel, an infamous noble, armed with a warrant ordering the constable to give him the keys, admitted two assassins, who smothered the princes under pillows while they were asleep. Shakespeare has made much of the murder in his play, Richard III. Edward VI (1537-1553), king of England. He was born at Hampton Court and died at Greenwich. This prince was the son of Henry VIII and his third queen, Jane Seymour. He succeeded to the throne in 1547. His reign was but nominal. The affairs of the kingdom were managed by a regency under the Duke of Somerset and later the Duke of Northumberland. Edward was betrothed to Mary, Queen of Scots, but Mary was spirited off to France by Scottish noblemen who rendered the marriage impossible. The Book of Common Prayer was prepared, chiefly by Archbishop Cranmer, during this reign. Edward died of consumption. He was constrained by certain noblemen to leave a will bequeathing the crown to Lady Jane Grey, but he was succeeded by his half sister, Mary, whose title to the throne was unquestionable. Edward VII (1841-1910), king of Great Britain and Ireland. He was also styled Emperor of India. He was the first son, the second child, of Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort, Albert of Saxe-Coburg. He was born at Buckingham Palace, November 9, 1841. At the age of fourteen he was made Prince of Wales. His education was supervised by competent private instructors. He also took lectures at Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh. He was quite a traveler. In 1860 he visited Canada and the United States. In 1862 he visited Egypt, Palestine, and Athens. His traveling companion was Arthur Stanley, later Dean of Westminster Abbey. In 1875 he visited India, and in 1885 paid a visit to Ireland. He came to the throne at the death of his mother, January 22, 1901. Formal coronation services were held in Westminster Abbey, August 9, 1902. March 10, 1863, he was married to Alexandra, the eldest daughter of the king of Denmark. The king and queen had five children, two sons and three daughters. Albert, the eldest, died in 1892. George, the second son, now on the throne, was born June 3, 1865. Louise was born in 1867--she is the wife of the Duke of Fife; Victoria Alexandra, in 1868; and Maud Charlotte, in 1869, now wife of Haakon VII, king of Norway. King Edward was paid what we should call a salary of $500,000 a year. He had in addition allowances of $600,000 a year for salaries in the royal household; $1,000,000 for household expenses; $100,000 for "works;" $65,000 for charity; and $40,000 for an emergency fund. His eldest son had, in addition, and allowance of $150,000 a year. Three daughters had $30,000 a year each for spending money. The king had a private income of $300,000 a year from the Duchy of Lancaster. George, the second son, the heir apparent, received $350,000 a year from the Duchy of Cornwall. The brothers, sisters, nephews, and nieces of the king were all cared for on a similar scale. Owing to the long reign of his honored mother, Edward came to the throne late in life. At date of his formal coronation he was over sixty years of age. In his youth he was a prime favorite with sporting and society people. He was fond of yacht racing, cricket, athletics, and shooting. His colts won three Derbys. He was fond of cards and played for high stakes. He spent money liberally, far outrunning a princely allowance. Owing to royal etiquette, which forbids the heir from showing an interest in public affairs, Edward gave little promise of statesmanship. On his accession to the throne, however, the king pleased his friends by an assumption of quiet dignity, a patriotic regard for the welfare of his subjects, and prudence in the discharge of his duties. Edward was a bluff, democratic king, peaceable in disposition. He exerted a stronger influence over Parliament and his ministry than did his royal mother. He assumed at once a leading place among the crowned heads of Europe, as befitted the head of the most powerful nation in the in the world. In diplomatic circles he exerted an influence in favor of fair play and of good feeling, winning the name of Edward the Peacemaker. In personal appearance the king was a typical Englishman, rather below the average stature, of strong and heavy build. His face was ruddy and betokened good health and good spirits. He wore his gray beard trimmed to a sharp point. A thin circle of gray hair diminished until he was quite bald. Even in his latter days he continued to be one of the best dressed men in Europe, and was regarded as a model for refinement of dress and bearing. At state functions King Edward revived all the pomp and circumstance of medieval days. He drove to Westminster at the opening of Parliament in a sumptuous royal coach, attended by heralds, equerries, and outriders and a vast retinue, forming a pageant of royal splendor. On these occasions he wore the full robes of majesty. Tactfulness was a conspicuous characteristic. The late king was frank, loyal, and warmhearted always. Those who associated with him said he was emphatically a "good fellow," simple and courteous, but a stickler for the deference which his rank demanded. King Edward's death was regretted universally. It came at a crisis in a long contest between the Commons and the House of Lords. The Liberals were urging him to notify the Lords that unless they were willing not to obstruct the will of the people as expressed by the popular house, the hereditary house would be invaded by a sufficient number of newly created peers to effect desired legislation. King Edward was succeeded by his oldest living son who will be known in history as George V. See Buckingham Palace; Windsor; Balmoral ; Victoria ; British Empire ; Prince Of Wales Edward the Confessor (1004-1066), king of the West Saxons. He was the son of Ethelred II and Emma of Normandy. During the days of Danish supremacy he lived in Normandy. On the death of Hardicanute he returned to England at the invitation of Godwine, whose daughter, Edith, he married. In 1042 the Witan, a national assembly of lords and ecclesiastics, placed him on the throne. Edward came of royal lineage, but was not the direct heir. Edward was a man of excellent personal qualities, but he lacked force and decisiveness. During his reign the Normans acquired great influence at court. William the Norman, who afterward conquered England, even went so far as to claim that Edward left him the kingdom of England in his will. Edward died without children; he was succeeded by his wife's brother, Harold, the same who was overthrown by William. Edward caused a notable compilation of laws to be made. This code is known as "The Laws of Edward the Confessor." He died in the odor of sancity, and was canonized by Pope Alexander III in 1161.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the art of drawing out or developing the faculties, the training of human beings for the functions for which they are destined. Education means the imparting or gaining of knowledge of every kind, good as well as evil; but specifically it signifies all that broadens a man's mind nd, disciplines his , temper, develops his astes, corrects his tastes, manners, and molds his habits. In a still more limited sense it means any course of training pursued by parents, teachers, or a whole community to train the young physically, mentally, and morally. The means employed in education fall naturally under two heads: discipline or moral training, and instruction, or the imparting of information; though the two often run into each other. Under the head of discipline come the forming of habits of order, self-control, obedience, civility, love of truth and reverence for what is good and great. In respect of direct utility the things most necessary to know are those that bear most directly (1) on the preservation of life and health, and the proper performance of industrial labors. the more common This involves a knowledge of the sciences of physiology, natural philosophy, and the other physical sciences. (2) A knowledge of our moral relations. Besides a knowledge of the ordinary moral duties, and the high religious sanctions with which they are enfored, this implies some acquaintance with the laws of economy. (3) As a preliminary step, there is required a knowledge of the mother-tongue, and the faculty of reading and writing it. (4) The cultivation of the taste and imagination, or the faculties which derive pleasure from music, painting, sculpture, architecture, poetry, and works of fiction. United States. Education in the United States naturally divides itself historically into two parts: Colonial and National. Education in the 13 colonies deserves attention for its originality and its marked influence in preparing the colonies for national independence. Immediately on landing, in 1620, one of the first acts of the Plymouth colonists was to provide a meeting-house for religious services and a schoolhouse for the children. The citizens of Boston as early as 1635, by vote, appointed a schoolmaster. By law of the Massachusetts colony in 1642, the selectmen of every township were required to see that provision was made for the education of all the children, so as to be able to read and have "knowledge of the capital laws." In 1647 every township of 50 householders was required to appoint a schoolmaster, and every township of 100 families to maintain a grammar shool in which boys could be prepared for Harvard College. The Colonial laws of Connecticut, ut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, with reference to public education, were explicit, and were enforced so as to secure practically universal elementary education. New York was not behind New England in similar legal educational provisions, but they do not seem to have been so well enforced. The West India Company, under whose charge the first Dutch colonists came to New York, enacted a law in 1629 which required the establishment of schools. The first school was opened in 1633, speedily followed by others. Church and state united to pay the expenses of the schools, and no charge was made directly for tuition; Dutch schools existed in the towns and villages when the English obtained possession of the colony, After this great difficulties arose from the conflict of the two languages, and though many English schools were established education greatly suffered for a few years. In 1704 a society for the propagation of the Gospel began its work of establishing schools in the English language in several of the counties. In 1732 an act was passed to establish a public school in the city of New York; King's College, afterward Columbia College, was founded in 1754. New Jersey, as early as 1693, by law enabled the inhabitants of any town to establish a free school and to tax all the property holders for its support, under which law schools became numerous. Pennsylvania had many private schools, but no educational system previous to the Revolution. In Virginia little attention was paid to the education of the poorer classes, but the College of William and Mary was established in 1692. Maryland passed an act as early as 1723 for erecting schools in several counties. The Southern colonies generally had not succeeded in establishing public schools previous to the Revolution, on, though numerous private schools existed. Subsequent to the Revolution education received a great impulse in the new nation. The New England States, including Vermont and Maine, added, after the Revolution, all adopted systems of public schools. New York at first encouraged private schools, and in 1785 created a Board of Regents of the University of New York, whose chief function for many years was to encourage academies and colleges; but in 1795 common schools of the New England type were greatly encouraged. Pennsylvania and New Jersey both adopted similar systems. The new States of the Northwest were anxious to attract emigrants and to provide for the future good by similar systems, and flourishing common schools became the rule throughout these States. Most of the States have educational funds for the aid of the public schools which are distributed to the schools on compliance with certain conditions, which usually require the existence of a State supervisor under the direction of State Boards of Education, with some executive officer, or State Superintendent of Education. The various school funds, so called, have had different origins, though most of them have come from the grant of lands by the States for this purpose, or by the Federal grant of one thirtysixth of all the lands in the States admitted to the Union since 1785. In 1848 the United States granted another thirty-sixth of the land for schools, so that since then all the States admitted have had one-eighteenth of the land thus appropriated. In some instances each county has been permitted to collect and expend the result of the sale of these school sections of land. Usually the State has borne the expense of selling and collecting the money for these lands, and has charged itself with the proceeds, the result of which is called a State educational fund, the annual interest of which is expended by the State for public schools. These funds for public schools in the several States will soon exceed $100,000,000. In addition to the income of these funds, so collected, State school taxes are raised, and in some instances local county, city, village, and township taxes. The practice is rapidly growing of maintaining a large public union school in every considerable village, in which several teachers are employed and the pupils are graded in classes through which they advance on examination. In some cases a separate high school is maintained. Graduates from the high school are admitted to the State universities and to some of the private or Church universities on certificate of graduation. In the State universities the education is nearly if not quite free for the students who reside in the State. See COLLEGES; also AGRI- CULTURAL EDUCATION; COEDUCATION; COLLEGES FOR WOMEN; COMMON SCHOOLS; MEDICAL EDUCATION; S SCHOOL; SECONDARY SCHOOLS; NORMAL SCHOOL; TECHNICAL EDUCATION; UNIVERSITIES, AMERICAN; UNIVERSITY EXTENSION; EDUCATION. England. Before the Reformation there were, with the exception of the universities, very few institutions for the advancement of learning which could be called public. The monasteries had been for centuries the only seminaries in which the sons of gentlemen were able to obtain instruction. Here and there grammar schools had been founded as choristers' schools, or were otherwise connected with ecclesiastical establishments. The revival of learning, and the increased mental activity at the Reformation produced a widely spread demand for the means of instruction. Uniform purpose is manifest in the testaments, deeds of gift, statutes and ordinances by which the character and subsequent career of English schools were intended by their founders to be fashioned. It is to encourage the pursuit of a liberal education, founded on the ancient languages of Greece and Rome, then the only studies which had been so far formulated and systematized as to possess a disciplined character. The period of the Civil War was unfavorable to educational enterprise. The Act of Uniformity and the secession of the Non-conformist clergy brought home to men's minds the conviction that all attempts to incorporate Puritanism into the organic life of the English Church, which followed soon after, must be abandoned as hopeless; and the Toleration Act compelled English churchmen to recognize for the first time the unwelcome truth that dissent had to be reckoned with as a fact. Whereas in the 16th century men founded grammar schools, in the 18th they founded charity schools instead. These institutions rapidly multiplied during the whole of the 18th century and in the beginning of the 19th. The first sign of interest in public instruction evinced by Parliament was the appointment in 1816 of a select committee of the House of Commons on the education of the lower classes of the metropolis. In 1832 Lord Althorp procured the assent of the House to a vote of £20,000 for the erection of school buildings in England. The main provision for secondary education had for centuries been supplied by endowed grammar schools. Each of these was, however, controlled exclusively by its own body of trustees; and was regarded as a purely local and separate institution. The elaborate inquiry into endowed charities begun in 1818 and concluded in 1837, resulted in the accumulation of a mass of facts; but it did not attempt to furnish any information respecting the educational character and public usefulness of those schools. In 1862 Lord Clarendon's Commission investigated the state of the nine great public schools, Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester, Westminister, Shrewsbury, Charterhouse St. Paul's and the Merchant Tailors. Sir Lyon Playfair in 1879, and Sir John Lubbock in 1880, drafted and introduced without result, measures which provided for the registration of teachers and for the establishment of an educational council. Meanwhile public elementary education in Great Britain had been made free. The devotion of part of the probate duties to the remission of fees gave Scotland free education in 1890; England secured the same privilege ge under the provisio of the budget of 1891. In 1885 a separation was made of the administrative functions of the Scotch and the English Education Department; the former has since had its own committee of council and its own secretary. The Local Government Act for Scotland for 1889 allotted the sum of $1,005,000 per annum, derived from the probate duties, to the reduction of school fees in state-aided schools throughout the rest of Scotland. The result in time will be to make elementary education in Scotland free. Ireland. Up to 1831, when Lord Derby established the national system, parliamentary grants for education had been made through the agency of private societies. In that year a Board of Commissioners was established, with very large powers of administration, including the power to aid in the erection of schools, to appoint inspectors and other officers, to award gratuities to teachers, to establish a model and training school, and to edit and publish suitable school books. The powers thus intrusted to the Irish commissioners were greatly in excess of those ever exercised by the committee of council in England or in Scotland. From the first it was determined that the rights of the Catholic population should be duly regarded; when, in 1861, the whole syst system was consolidated by the grant of a royal charter to the commissioners, it was specially provided that of the 20 members of the board, onehalf should be Catholics and one-half Protestants. Religious instruction is provided in all the schools, but a stringent conscience clause protects the interests of parents who do not approve of that given in the school. Canada. The relation of the provinces of Canada to the Dominion Parliament is very nearly analogous to that of the States of the American Union to the Federal Government. Each province has its own educational laws and its own department of public instruction. The schools of Nova Scotia, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Ontario are free; but in Quebec there is a school-tax levied on parents for all children of school age. France. In France there is a very completely organized system of instruction, supérieure, secondaire, et primaire, under the supervision of the Minister of Public Instruction, the schools being all visited and examined by state officers. The professors in the universities are remunerated by the state. The lycées, or secondary schools, also receive large subventions from the state, those of Paris and Versailles being considered rather higher in rank, and having a better paid staff of professors and teachers than those of the provinces. Colleges are establishments for intermediate education, maintained at the charge of the local municipalities, but without any aid from the central government, except the occasional endowment of special chairs and the partial support of a few professors. Primary instruction is everywhere throughout France gratuitous. Germany. The German elementary schools are divided into (1) those with three or more classes; (2) schools with two teachers; and (3) schools with one teacher, either with one class or half-day schools. Eighty is recognized as the maximum number of scholars under one teacher, even under the most unfavorable conditions. The compulsory laws as to ordinary school attendance are enforced from the age of 6 to that of 14, but generally if a child at 14 fail to reach the proper standard, he may be compelled to attend either another year at the day-school, or at a supplementary school in the evening or on Sunday. Fines for non-attendance are imposed, and the agency of the police is called into requisition to force the child of a negligent parent to attend school. For the development of educational systems in other countries, see their respective titles and in the United States see under the various States.
Education COMMERCIAL. Shortly before the Civil War private business colleges
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
COMMERCIAL. Shortly before the Civil War private business colleges were established in the United States. Their purpose was to train men for active business work, but it was some time before their curriculums eliminated many of the subjects more properly belonging to an academic education. About 1884 the Wharton School of Finance and Economy was founded as a part of the University of Pennsylvania, and a regular four-years' course leading to a baccalaureate degree was instituted. While other colleges, notably Harvard, Dartmouth, Columbia, and the various State universities, have established courses in commercial education, the University of Wisconsin is the only one of a few to follow the examples of the University of Pennsylvania and make the business course one on the completion of which the degree of Bachelor of Science can be secured. The high schools followed suit and began to give courses similar to those offered in the private business colleges. In a few of the universities commercial education is offered as a graduate professional course. This is the case at the Harvard School of Business Administration and the Tuck School at Dartmouth. Some colleges have organized evening courses in business education; cation; those situated in large cities particularly. Columbia University now has a three-years' evening course preparing students to take the State examination for the certificate of Certified Public Accountant. Teachers of business law and administration are now members of the National Education Association, and there are many societies organized to further and improve the work of commercial education. The most prominent of these are the Eastern Commercial Teachers' Association and the National Federation of Commercial Teachers. Commercial education was well developed in Europe before it was begun in the United States. Saxony in the 18th century and Paris in 1820 had founded schools of commerce. Germany quickly seized upon the idea and developed it until, in the 19th century, she led the world in this as in other forms of education. Higher schools of commerce, the equivalent of our university courses, were founded in Leipzig, Cologne, Frankfort, and Berlin, while many schools for the education of those between the ages of fourteen and eighteen were established. Antwerp, Venice, and Vienna also have higher schools of commerce. In England the task of training in business law and administration was taken up by the new universities established in the great industrial centers, such as Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, and Liverpool. It was not until after the Great War that any provision for such education was made at the ancient universities of Oxford and Cambridge. A notable contrast between the secondary schools of commercial education in Europe and those in the United States has been that in the former the leading business men organized in the various chambers of commerce have had a leading part in establishing and directing the schools. In the United States the business men have held aloof and allowed the work to be carried on by teachers equipped with more or less traditional academic training. This has not always alwa been to the advantage of the subject.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 entry treats education chiefly as a chain of cross-references "See Caste... Plato... Comenius... Froebel; Pestalozzi; Mann" placing it among philosophies and famous teachers rather than as a mass public system. In 1910 secondary schooling was still a minority experience fewer than one American teenager in ten finished high school and higher education served a small elite. Since then compulsory schooling has spread worldwide, the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights made elementary education a right in Article 26, and global adult literacy has risen from roughly a third of the world to around 87 per cent. Kindergarten, which Aiton lists as a novelty worth its own article, is now an ordinary first rung of the school ladder in most countries.
Written for this edition, 2026.