Franklin on Education

Franklin’s letter to Noah Webster, publisher of the English dictionary still so famous today, contains his central message from many writings on education. He viewed education as a necessary and critical service that should be available to anyone in a community. With the advent of printing and increased distribution, such a goal was becoming ever more attainable. He notes how Webster’s subject- that of language- is a key factor in the dissemination of knowledge, “it enables Authors to inculcate and spread through other Nations such Sentiments and Opinions on important Points, as are most conducive to its Interests, or which may6 contribute to its Reputation by promoting the common Interests of Mankind”. It is important for people to be able to understand and read a language such that the texts and thoughts expressed in that language can be reasonably propagated throughout the world. Franklin notes that a growing number of “excellent printed Sermons in our Language, and the Freedom of our Writings on political Subjects, have induced a Number of Divines of different Sects and Nations, as well as Gentlemen concerned in Public Affairs, to study it; so far at least as to read it”. As America grew its international reputation, and came to be a center of intellectual thought and discussion, it was becoming ever more important for English to be easily understood. However, as Franklin notes, the opposite was occurring. “Improvements backwards”, as he called them were occurring to satisfy publisher’s desire for uniformity of appearance that detracted from document’s intended message and emphasis.

Although the United States and England are still considered centers of intellectual thought, and many conferences and such worldwide are commonly held in English, it remains one of the most challenging languages to learn. When I read writings of Franklin’s era, I immediately become jealous of their impeccable grammar and eloquent use of language. With all of the ridiculous colloquialisms we have today, the slang terms, and so on, it seems like our language is deteriorating faster than ever before. At the same time, English’s presence in our educational system is waning in its prevalence, serving to only expedite the inability of individuals to properly express their theories and beliefs. In my (biased) opinion, literary and compositional education is as important as any other focus, and should be a central factor in every level of schooling, from elementary level to university studies.

Learning English

In reading Franklin's "Idea of the English School", I was interested for a couple of reasons. It was fascinating for me to see how far the English language had come by that time and actually how consistent it is with the way we learn English growing up today.

The first reason why Franklin's "Idea of the English School" was interesting to me was because of just how far the English language had come at that point. Being also in a class which focuses on Chaucer, it is frequently brought up that at the time Chaucer was writing, English was not the forefront literary language in England. As a result of the Norman conquest of England, French was the dominant literary language of the time, and Latin the language of the Church. However, this slowly but surely changed with writers such as Chaucer and Thomas Malory writing in Middle English. Though it is centuries later, to see Franklin putting such an emphasis on the learning of the English language, and the progression of English's importance from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment to modern times is amazing.

Geoffrey Chaucer

The second thing that I noticed about this piece of Franklin's work is how similar it is to the way we learn English today. We begin by learning basic rules of grammar and how to spell at our earliest ages, reading very simple texts to get us started. As we get a more solid grasp of the language, we move on to learn how to read properly, actually learning to comprehend the words as we read them. This process continues until we can effectively express in writing and articulate our feelings in speech. It was interesting for me to see how a system Ben Franklin wrote about is still more or less in place after a little over two and a half centuries. Of course, I doubt even Franklin could have predicted how much English would have grown and spread from his day to now.

One last thing I enjoyed about Franklin's "Idea of the English School" was that it returned us to the side of Franklin who puts great importance on education, such as we saw in some earlier writings this year. Though it is interesting to see Franklin's political works, whether it be "The Speech of Ms. Polly Baker" or "Rattle-Snakes for Felons", it is also refreshing to see works on education, especially works which still have an importance today.