Debate the Value of Industrial Education Versus Liberal Arts Education
When John Milton Gregory became the first regent of the University of Illinois—and so called Illinois Industrial University—in 1867, college education was at a crossroads. The Ceremonious State of war had just ended, and with it came an economic downturn accompanied by stiff sentiment against certain aspects of a university education.
According to Harry Kersey, author of "John Milton Gregory and the University of Illinois," educational practices in the arts and humanities were seen equally symbolic of "social aloofness" and "intellectual snobbery."
"Classical and theological studies were equated with position and privilege, both of which were abomination to the democratic spirit of that semifrontier land," Kersey said.
In that climate, and with the academy made possible by the Morrill Act of 1862, signed past Abraham Lincoln, the purpose of Illinois's new country-grant university quickly became controversial. Many at the fourth dimension felt the university should be devoted exclusively to training students in agriculture and industrial education.
Simply for John Milton Gregory, who attended a liberal arts college and believed in well-rounded teachings, agronomical and industrial growth could not succeed without the addition of science and humanities. Equally Gregory addressed the first 68 young men to enroll at the academy, he vowed that Illinois would serve the industrial interests of the state—and more.
A truthful supporter of an agronomical and industrial didactics, Gregory nonetheless declared that the new institution would not "transport forth men who were puffed up by some little smattering of science, but articulate-headed, broad-breasted scholars, men of fully developed minds."
"Permit u.s.a. demonstrate that the highest civilisation is compatible with the active pursuit of industry," Gregory said.
Incorporating a liberal arts education at the university was no easy task. Gregory'due south desire to teach the liberal arts alongside these fields was fiercely debated, with many citizens demanding the university avoid a "theoretical education."
"Past the terms of the police force which chosen it into beingness, (the university) is designed to promote noesis of the sciences relating to agriculture and the mechanic arts," read a newspaper prior to the university's opening. "The age of dogmatism is giving away to a improve era."
Others felt that the institution should provide students the skills to match the climate of the nation.
"Essentially [the country needs] the services of men trained in the mechanic arts which most intimately relate to the everyday concerns of life," a newspaper alleged.
Every bit the debate intensified, Gregory was publicly attacked for his want to teach the classics. He was also ridiculed for his groundwork in organized religion. However, his experiences were essential to who he was. Gregory attended Union College, a liberal arts college in New York, where he studied law. Even so, he soon embarked to the Midwest to serve every bit a Baptist preacher.
However, this vocation didn't concluding. After reaching the Midwest, Gregory pursued his true passion: education. Gregory was elected Michigan's superintendent of public pedagogy in 1858 and founded the Michigan Journal of Education. He served as president of Kalamazoo Higher from 1864 to 1867, and he also wrote a well-known volume on didactics, titled "The Seven Laws of Teaching," which emphasized the necessity of philosophical thinking in education.
Gregory gained enough valuable experience in the field of instruction to earn him the spot of first regent at Illinois 150 years ago. Notwithstanding, when his entrada for the liberal arts became apparent, many ignored his educational background and instead focused on his brief career equally a preacher.
Jonathan Baldwin Turner, a prominent proponent of the Land Grant Deed within Illinois, was ane of the many who did merely this. This was significant, as reportedly Turner himself encouraged Abraham Lincoln to sign the Morrill Act. "O Lord," Turner said in an address. "How long, how long, how long, an ex-superintendent of public teaching and a Baptist preacher. What could be worse?"
However, Gregory'southward support for the liberal arts at the academy never wavered, and he gained allies. Aside from advocating for the liberal arts, Gregory also lived them. Along with many industrial and agricultural courses, Gregory taught philosophy at the academy, likewise as political economic system, according to an obituary written in the Champaign Daily News in 1898.
Gregory's confidence in the liberal arts was shown not only in his own pursuits and teachings, but besides amongst the university as a whole.
In the 1867 form catalogue, a list of 19 courses to be taught were laid out plainly, including "English Language and Literature," "Modern Languages," "Ancient Languages," "History and Social Science," and "Mental and Moral Philosophy."
The same catalogue began with text that clearly defined the purpose of the academy: "The principal aim of the university is, 'the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes, in the several pursuits and professions of life;' And in order to this terminate, the academy is 'to teach such branches of learning as are related to agronomical and the mechanic arts, without excluding other scientific and classical studies,'" it read.
With this, Gregory asserted the correct of the university to provide a complete education to its students. His views became accepted, as he served as regent and president from 1867 until his resignation in 1880. During his tenure he also cast the deciding vote to acknowledge women to Illinois.
"By the educated I mean non those whose minds take been filled past an unwieldy undigested cognition of books," Gregory said, during his term, "but those who, whether they have studied one book or 1 hundred, take been trained to think for themselves, and to exercise all the facilities of their minds."
Source: https://las.illinois.edu/news/2017-09-01/taking-stand-liberal-arts
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