HOW HAS IT HAPPENED? PART I

You Might be Surprised Who Was Responsible for Much of Our Early Civic Literacy

What We Know for Sure About American Civic Literacy Today

We know two things for certain when it comes to this nation’s civic literacy.  First, our founders recognized that citizens being civically educated was essential and a cornerstone of a successful democracy.  Second, today our nation’s collective civic literacy is nothing short of abysmal. 

Both of these statements are easy enough to prove up.  Yet, if we do not understand how we started with our civic education and how we arrived at where we are today, we cannot make the amount of progress with it that is necessary to sustain our democracy.

And by the way, there is a third thing you likely do not know.  That is, who played a major role in creating Americans’ early civic literacy?

Bottom Line- Where American Civic Education All Began

The way educator E. D. Hirsch sees it, “…Schooling in a democracy is not just schooling. It’s also citizen making…”[1] (emphasis mine).

Hirsch makes a strong case that it is someone many Americans may not know much about (or know at all), who is hugely responsible for establishing a strong foundation of civic education in this country.  That man is Noah Webster (1758-1843), our country’s chief and earliest school master.  Webster was a major architect of United States’ democracy, albeit not as well-known as many of our founding fathers like Washington, Hamilton, Madison, and Jefferson.

In looking at Webster’s contribution to creating this new country’s civic literacy, perhaps that warrants a perspective change. When one studies Webster’s legacy, we all need to become far more cognizant of the importance of his impact on building the American nation. It is, indeed, no small thing that he helped us achieve.

Hirsch has delved into Webster’s democratic legacy and found that Webster’s vision for American democracy began in the 1780s. Webster understood that the modern style of United States’ democracy would need to be a “manufactured thing”, built on a common system of laws, values, ethics, and a shared print language. We call this “culture”. Webster called it “manners” saying,

“A fundamental mistake of the Americans has been that they considered the revolution completed when it was but just begun. Having raised the pillars of the building, they ceased to exert themselves and seemed to forget the whole superstructure was then to be erected. This country is independent in government but totally dependent on manners.”[2] (emphasis mine)

Webster understood that the American Revolution was just the beginning, not the end of the effort it takes to build an American society that can sustain a democratic government. For Webster, this term “manners”, was the “…the civics and ethics and traditions and language wrapped together…” In the eighteenth century this word was the normal way to translate the Latin word “mores”. These “manners” encompassed “…the whole range of customs, values and ethical rules plus patriotic sentiments…” It was clear to Webster that not only language, but the beliefs of the people must be unified. However, it would only work if the nation’s citizens “…agreed to the universal founding principles, obeyed its laws, and spoke the same language…” Webster saw “…his effort to unify and level the United States culturally as a necessary element in creating a “people”.[3]

How did Webster go about his civic literacy nation building? He did it with a spelling book! As Hirsch recounts,

Webster’s Speller was probably the most important schoolbook in US history, to be rivaled only by the McGuffey’s grader reader. In the early nineteenth century, Webster’s blue-backed Speller found its way into almost every American classroom. By 1880, thirty-seven years after Webster’s death, William H. Appleton, whose firm also printed Webster’s dictionary, wrote that the Speller continued to command “the largest sale of any book in the world except the Bible”. It sold more than a million copies a year- in large cases delivered to distributors who placed them in every cross-roads store in the country.” A biographer of Webster, Harlow Unger states that by 1900, after being a bestseller for more than a century, the Speller had sold over one hundred million copies, with an accurate count made impossible by the great number of unauthorized pirated editions…”[4]

As the spellings used in his Speller, as well as the definitions in his dictionary, gained traction, so did Webster’s instructions and fables contained in his schoolbooks. As Hirsch points out, “…Webster made it clear to the teachers and students who used the Speller that unity of language in the nation ought to accompany high effort, honesty, and care for one’s fellow citizens of all ranks and conditions.[5]  (emphasis mine)

Making Citizens Requires Not Just a Speller- It Takes Something Else

But Hirsch goes further in his identifying another key component to establishing a civically literate citizenry in our nation’s early years.  That component, as Hirsch points out, is the common school.  The common school became for Americans living in the North by the mid-nineteenth century, the vehicle by which Americans understood and celebrated their national unity.

A key part of this understanding and celebration of national unity was that it embraced “the multitudes”. American literature by authors like Melville and Whitman began to build their writing around and celebrate this “multitude” that today we would call American diversity. For example, Melville’s classic Moby Dick had a multi-ethnic crew which operated a whaling ship that symbolized multiethnic America. Hirsch acknowledges the importance of this celebration of unity with diversity with this qualifier:

“…The idea was that you could be an assimilated American without forgoing your ancestry or individuality. But there was this proviso: You had to go to school. Your children had to go to school. They had to learn to read, write, and speak the language, and gain a loyalty to the United States. You had to master McGuffey…”[6]  (emphasis mine)

The common school played a central role in binding these multitudes together into one people. From Hirsch’s perspective, “…The common school created America”.[7] He goes on to say:

The United States was the first big modern democracy, along with Prussia, the first society with free public schooling nationwide. It was Noah Webster’s social aim from the start to create a “people” through schooling…In the first century and a half of our national existence, we succeeded in creating a united citizenry based on common language and common schooling.[8] (emphasis mine)

Educators in our early republic saw the school as the “...institution that would transform future citizens into loyal Americans.” Hirsch outlines that this was done by teaching common knowledge, virtues, ideals, language, and commitments. One of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Rush, authored one of most important early essays about American education. In its Rush advocated for a common elementary school curriculum for all. “…The paramount aim of the schools, he wrote, was to create “republican machines”. By “republican machines” he meant active, loyal, purposeful citizens of our republic.[9]

Civic Participation Grew and With It, Democratic Knowledge

In addition to Webster’s influence and that of the common school, civic participation was growing and with it, civic literacy.  Alexis de Tocqueville’s eye-witness account of the early days of United States democratic republic is perhaps one of the most often cited and authoritative works about our young democracy and society. Appelbaum goes on to describe that, “By the latter half of the 19^th century, more and more associations mirrored the federal government in form: Local chapters elected to state-level gatherings, which sent delegates to national assemblies…These groups had their own systems of checks and balances. Executive officers were accountable to legislative assemblies; independent judiciaries ensured that both complied with the rules…”[10]

Nonetheless, Something Has Changed.

Still, results of numerous studies and surveys tell us that our civic literacy has not increased.  In fact, it has declined.  But, why and how?

We will get into that next time.

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[1] How to Educate a Citizen, The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation, by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., pg. 9, Copyright 2020, HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007

[2] How to Educate a Citizen, The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation, by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., pp 9-10, Ibid.

[3] How to Educate a Citizen, The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation, by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., pp 9-10, Ibid.

[4] How to Educate a Citizen, The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation, by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., pg. 13, Ibid

[5] How to Educate a Citizen, The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation, by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., pg. 12, Ibid

[6] How to Educate a Citizen, The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation, by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., pg. 16, Ibid

[7] How to Educate a Citizen, The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation, by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., pg. 146, Ibid

[8] How to Educate a Citizen, The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation, by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., pg. 146, Ibid

[9] How to Educate a Citizen, The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation, by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., pg. 147, Ibid

[10] “Americans Aren’t Practicing Democracy”, by Yoni Applebaum, The Atlantic, October 2018, pg. 3 of 10, Ibid.