Suggestions for Improved Curriculum Provided by Big Ben

In “Idea of the English School,” written in 1751, Benjamin Franklin presents his proposal for a school that will instruct youth in "History, Rhetoric, Logic, Moral and Natural Philosophy," as well as other subjects such as Mathematics and Geography. The literature is Franklin’s challenge to the higher education models of Europe during that time. Franklin intends to make the students “Masters of their own, which is of more immediate and general Use; and withal will have attain'd many other valuable Accomplishments; the Time usually spent in acquiring those Languages, often without Success, being here employ'd in laying such a Foundation of Knowledge and Ability, as, properly improv'd, may qualify them to pass thro' and execute the several Offices of civil Life, with Advantage and Reputation to themselves and Country.” He was determined to create a model for higher learning that strayed from the educational models stemming from Europe and then used in New England and Virginia. Franklin implemented his overview of preferred curriculum and teaching methods for each of the six classes provided by the Academy and College of Philadelphia. He wanted students to begin the first class with the study of English grammar and spelling along with the reading of fables and short stories. In the fourth class, students are finally able to write based on the technique they had previously learned. By the sixth class, students were taught history, rhetoric, logic, and philosophy while reading authors such as Milton, Locke, Addison, and translations of Homer, Virgil and Horace. The variety of covered literature and ideology-based writing supported Franklin’s assertion that youth educated in this manner would leave the Academy "fitted for learning any Business, Calling or Profession, except such wherein Languages are required." Franklin was taking less of a religious approach to education, unlike a lot of schools training clergy at the time, and instead made the education of a business and governing class the priority. He had no interest in following previous models of European higher education, which originally arose from groups of both teachers and students and then were gradually influenced by religious tradition and academic custom. Franklin's curriculum was a product of his personal belief that education must evolve in order to meet the new and different demands of the day. He included extensive detail and described the entire process of education in order to make his curriculum design ready and easy to initiate, forcing society to take his new methods seriously. Franklin’s lack of formal education created a degree of skepticism around his plan, but the genius Franklin exemplified throughout his life as a result of his self-education allowed him to suggest reforms not thought of by those who had received more of a traditional education. Franklin was able to defy the standards of the day and implement what would eventually become the accepted model of higher education. As Franklin routinely does through his literature, he presents new ideas that seem extreme to the mid-18th-century western world, but they live on to influence America for generations to come. His “Idea of the English School,” written halfway through the 18^th century, is essentially what a liberal arts education is today.