Want of Sense: Self-Education as a Model for Personal Advancement during the Enlightenment

Introduction

During the course of the semester, we have read texts by many intellectual thinkers of the Enlightenment era. Some of them were bred well and instructed through the different systems of education appropriate for their social class and geography. Others were not as lucky, and were left to resort to their own means and inclinations to enhance their intellectual stock. The institutional method has proved for centuries to be at least adequate, but why do we see such an explosion of influential, self-educated people during the eighteenth century? In this paper I will assess the self-education of both Olaudah Equiano and Benjamin Franklin as described in their memoirs. Other intellectual texts concerning the educational process will serve as contrast to the self-inspired model in an effort to elucidate the differences and similarities between the two methodologies.

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

An orphan of the world, Olaudah Equiano had very little favor for education besides a healthy dollop of curiosity. However, with limited access and next to no resources, Equiano, amid constant travel, managed to largely educate himself. His fervor to understand the world manifests in a couple of areas. The first is through religion. Equiano continuously relies on religious teachings in order to reaffirm his faith in Christianity. In an era in which a large focus of education was for the clergy, this relationship is not unexpected. He frequently mentions receiving books from priests that strengthen his beliefs. Equiano actually becomes so comfortable in this setting that he tries to correct the “mock Christianity” taught to the son of a Musquito Indians Chief on the journey from England to Jamaica. When Equiano learns that the boy was baptized in England and stayed there for a year yet “had not frequented any churches since,” he becomes obsessed to “instruct the Indian prince in the doctrines of Christianity, of which he was entirely ignorant” (Equiano 219).  Luckily, he had brought along with him the primary tool for self-enlightenment: a book, namely the Book of Martyrs by John Foxe.  This woodcut-supplemented book, allows Equiano to share his intellectual stock with the chief’s son. It allows for the two gentlemen to better themselves through the practice of self-education; however, degradation and teasing from his traveling party eventually compelled the boy to stop. (It seems that Locke’s theory from his essay “Some Thoughts Concerning Education” that esteem and disgrace are “the most powerful incentives to the mind” (Kramnick 226) is correct, at least in this moment.)

In his recollection of the customs of his people, Equiano realizes that they bear many similarities with those of the Jews. As it happens, he reads two texts, one by Dr. John Gill, the other by Dr. John Clarke, which both describe and confirm Equiano’s belief in this relationship. In this instance, self-education has provided him with the tools to observe parallels between two cultures, make intelligent deductions about them, and logically back up his claims by referencing outside materials. This internal motivation allows him access to other’s thoughts on the same subjects in order to enhance his position.

Sometimes Equiano doesn’t have the words to describe his situation adequately, and resorts to quoting passages written by others to express his condition. These instances reveal Equiano’s cultural literacy. For instance, while he is still on the African continent and living in slavery, he escapes from one master only to hide in nearby bushes. Terrified and on the verge of capture, Equiano recalls this couplet from John Denham’s Cooper’s Hill to describe his situation: “Ev’ry leaf and ev’ry whip’ring breath / Convey’d a foe, and ev’ry foe a death” (Equiano 65). By quoting Denham, he affirms his self-education by expressing one of its tenant representations: cultural literacy.  

In a somewhat comic and ingenious way, Equiano channels his knowledge of Christopher Columbus’s experiences (which he had most likely read in William Robertson’s The History of America) with native peoples into action. In order to gain the favor and respect of Jamaican Indians, Columbus correctly predicted the moon’s disappearance using his prior knowledge that a lunar eclipse would occur on that day. Equiano adapts from this example to end a particularly heated argument saying, “I pointed up to the heavens. […] I told them God lived there, and that he was angry with them, and they must not quarrel so […] and if they did not leave off, and go away quietly, I would take the book (pointing to the bible), read, and tell God to make them dead” (224). Equiano remarks at the magic of this interaction, that he conceptualized it from his previous knowledge, and executed with remarkable efficiency. This moment of action is a perfect example of how the exercise of self-education affected Equiano’s thought process.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

In his memoir, Franklin makes constant indication that his education was self-motivated. For example, he recalls a written debate through letters with his friend John Collins, which his father happened to read one day. Franklin relays his father’s comments discussion, that “I had the Advantage of my Antagonist in correct Spelling and pointing,” however “fell far short in elegance of Expression, in Method and in Perspicuity” (Franklin 61).  Keen to his father’s advice, and convinced by reviewing his own writing, Franklin resolved to improve his rhetorical style. He did so in a tried and true fashion: imitation.  Franklin purchased the third volume of The Spectator, a daily English publication that ran from 1711-1712. Impressed by the writing, specifically the rhetorical style, he developed a clever method of recreating the arguments in an effort to teach himself the “Method of arrangement of Thoughts” (Franklin 62).  He achieved this by first blindly drafting the bulk of the essays, then in want of expressing these ideas with greater variety of vocabulary, wrote original poetic verses about each. After sufficient familiarity of the original prose was lost, he reverted the poems back to prose again. This obsessive practice is the manifestation of the kind of internal drive necessary for one to maximize the benefits of self-education. 

In another effort to use knowledge to improve his condition, Franklin purchased Thomas Tryon’s The Way to Health, long Lofe and Happiness, or a Discourse of Tempers, which recommended vegetarianism. After reading it, Franklin says, “I made my self acquainted with Tryon’s Manner of preparing some of his Dishes […] and then propos’d to my Brother, that if he would give me Weekly half the Money he paid for my Board I would board my self. He instantly agreed to it, and I presently found that I could save half what he paid me. This was additional Fund for buying Books” (63). Here Franklin makes direct application of self-education. He purchases an instructional book with a goal in mind: to educate himself in the field of cooking for a “Vegetable Diet” and doing so to save his precious earnings. He accomplishes this at the green age of sixteen. With this position, he sees books as an investment—and in this case, they literally pay off as one.  As one would expect, he uses these gains as principal for more investments—namely, more books.

In the same manner in which Tryon’s book helped Franklin improve his dietary know-how and monetary situation, Franklin describes how another assisted in his recovery from an illness. “In the Evening I found my self very feverish, and went in to Bed.  But having read somewhere that cold Water drank plentifully was good for a Fever, I follow’d the Prescription, sweat plentifully most of the Night, [and] my fever left me” (Franklin 73).  This passage demonstrates another application of self-education—preserving ones well being with (very) basic knowledge of the human immune system.  The knowledge prevented the extension of a fever that, while had traveling on a ship in the eighteenth century, could have easily proved fatal. It seems that Franklin has developed a workable formula to follow: books = knowledge = life stock. And following this formula seems to lead him to good places.   

Self-Help Self-Education: The Encyclopædia Britannica, or a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences

In the preface to the first edition of Encyclopædia Britannica, the authors state its purpose is “To diffuse the knowledge of Science.” However, they recognize that some readers might approach this material with trepidation, and they immediately address this concern, “What methods, it may be asked, have the compilers employed to accomplish this design?” Equiano and Franklin tackle this crucial idea of the Enlightenment, the source of knowledge, by the numerous citations in their respective memoirs and the authors of the Encyclopædia Britannica make sure to abide by the same standard. They continue, “Not to mention original articles, [the authors] have had recourse to the best books upon almost every subject, extracted the useful parts, and rejected whatever appeared trifling or less interesting.” Acknowledging the source of knowledge is itself an acknowledgement of self-education. Tracing knowledge to its origin is a vital part of self-education, especially to verify its veracity. After the preface, the bulk Encyclopædia Britannica becomes a guide by the self-educated, for the self-educated, which is encapsulated by the their affirmation: “that any man of ordinary parts, may, if he [chooses], learn the principles of Agriculture, of Astronomy, of Botany, of Chemistry, &c. &c. from the Encyclopædia Britannica” (page v, preface).

Self-Uneducation: Society’s Resistance to Learning

While there are those who dedicate their professional lives to the advancement of education, some resist this progression. In his letter to Noah Webster, Franklin describes several common errors he has noticed in current periodicals. These include the spellings and uses of words, conventions of capitalization, and punctuation. Cary Corrigan, in his post “Franklin on Education” laments how the English language has deteriorated into slang and colloquialisms and how Franklin seemed to predict this trend in “improvements backwards.” Is this the natural progression of our relationship to language—a rejection of the formalization of language by previous thinkers? Or has a peculiarly oafish generation taken the helm? In a more contemporary conversation on the importance of clear and intelligent thought, Molly Jaffe, an English major and avid advocate of the exacting and economic expression of the written word, describes an ongoing educational debate she has with her brother, an Economics major who relies on his prediction of future communication to be digital video recording to compensate for his lack of compositional abilities.  Her post “Rethinking Education in a Changing World,” stresses the necessity of good communication skills when seeking an occupation after college. As Franklin posits that not all students need to study Latin, e.g. tradesmen, Jaffe comments that the current education system still isn’t producing the most productive citizens as it could. Is this a recurring trend noticed by scholars of different times, or a fault inherent in the system? I would argue that it’s the fault of the system, as it must be so large to accommodate the expanding population, it cannot work at the ideal level for each participant.

Franklin’s “Idea of the English School”

While the self-education track worked well for the above-mentioned individuals, it cannot be applied as a universal model.  For the general masses that either lack the initial provocation or are otherwise unable to provide for their own instruction, Franklin presents a model in his essay “Idea of the English School.”  While this model does not follow Franklin’s own experiences to the letter, it emulates many crucial aspects of self-education with the intention of instilling a passionate desire for learning in its students. It begins with instruction of English grammar rules and orthography, or spelling, in the first class.  Franklin even proposes incentive to achieve for the students by means of friendly competition, with the monthly winners receiving an interesting book to be used in future learning. In her post “Franklin’s Education,” Rachael Honigfort likens this to Franklin’s first two years of school and, more importantly, his apprenticeship in his brother’s printing house.  Rachael also identifies that the model for Franklin’s fifth class is based directly on his discourse with John Collins, which is discussed in greater detail in the section of this post labeled “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.” This model can be considered Franklin’s adaptation of his experiences in self-education amalgamated and conformed to the confines of a school setting, and though it inherently differs for a truly self-derived plan, it does a good job of reproducing one.

In his post “We Need More Teachers,” Jonathan Braun agrees with Franklin’s plan, but laments at the impossibility to implement it in today’s society due to lack of willing and able teachers—which itself is likely due to their underpaid occupation role. He argues that because teachers’ salaries are so low, and that “the majority of the American population with college degrees viewed college as the means by which a high-paying job could eventually be obtained,” we have arrived at a point in history with a sever lack of willing and able teachers; able enough to teach the material advocated by Franklin’s plan and willing enough to forgo an alternative occupation with a higher salary. His solution: implement Franklin’s plan and increase teachers’ wages, a thoughtful alternative to the “overcrowded, underfunded, and outdated” public school system in place now.   

Concluding Thoughts

After extensive comparison between the two methods of education, through ones own self-prescribed methods or the system’s, I would argue that those who possess the motivation to self-educate should do so.  Chase Kojaian adroitly points out in his post “Silence Dogood on Education,” that Franklin maintains, “people who go through learning institutions just because they can afford it will likely learn little more than how to get through the system if they lack self-motivation.”  As evidenced throughout Franklin’s memoir, motivation is an essential quality to those seeking an education of any kind. It would then follow that any good education is essentially self-education. It is impossible to coerce someone into learning something; at a fundamental level, internal motivation becomes the driving force for any educational ideology.  What separates the two is the rigid framework of academic studies at the institutional level. This framework seems too contrived and counterintuitive to instill a lifelong stimulus for education. For what happens to those who quickly reach the top of the frame—where do they go from there? In his work, The Pursuit of Knowledge Under Difficulties, Joseph Kett writes, “In the eighteenth century the ideal of liberal education was bound intimately to that of self-education, […] collegiate- and self-education were complementary ideals rather than competing alternatives” (Kett 15). This idea, that the two educational models exist as complements to each other, functions nicely after examination of Franklin’s “Idea of the English School.” Departure from the system can be catastrophic for motivation, whereas the self-educated seek always how to better themselves and their lives through knowledge. It seems to me that the union of these methodologies would leave humanity in the best station; that the goal of the system should be to instill fervor for learning, so that its pursuit is never halted.

Works Cited:

Cary Corrigan [Cary Corrigan]. “Franklin on Education.” English 274: Benjamin Franklin and the Enlightenment. Blogspot, 9 November 2011. Vanderbilt University. Web, 13 December 2011.

Encyclopædia Britannica; or, a dictionary of arts and sciences, Vol. 1. Edinburgh, 1771. Eighteenth Century Collections Online. Gale. Vanderbilt University. 14 Dec. 2011
<http://find.galegroup.com.proxy.library.vanderbilt.edu/ecco/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=ECCO&userGroupName=nash87800&tabID=T001&docId=CW3326041467&type=multipage&contentSet=ECCOArticles&version=1.0&docLevel=FASCIMILE>

Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by himself. Ed. Angelo Costanzo. Ontario: Broadview, 2004. Print.

Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. 2^nd ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. Print.

Freeheeler90 [Chase Kojaian]. “Silence Dogood on Education.” English 274: Benjamin Franklin and the Enlightenment. Blogspot, 12 September 2011. Vanderbilt University. Web, 13 December 2011.

Jonathan Braun [Jonathan Braun]. “We Need More Teachers.” English 274: Benjamin Franklin and the Enlightenment. Blogspot, 9 November 2011. Vanderbilt University. Web, 13 December 2011.

Kett, Joseph F. The Pursuit of Knowledge Under Difficulties: from self-improvement to adult education 1750-1990. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994. Google eBook.

Kramnick, Isaac, ed. The Portable Enlightenment Reader. New York: The Penguin Group, 1995. Print.  

molly jaffe [Molly Jaffe]. “Rethinking Education in a Changing World.” English 274: Benjamin Franklin and the Enlightenment. Blogspot, 7 November 2011. Vanderbilt University. Web, 13 December 2011.

Rachael H [Rachael Honigfort]. “Franklin’s Education.” English 274: Benjamin Franklin and the Enlightenment. Blogspot, 30 November 2011. Vanderbilt University. Web, 13 December 2011.

Works Referenced, but not Cited:

Franklin, Benjamin. “All These Improvements Backwards.” Letter, Philadelphia: 26 December 1789.

Franklin, Benjamin and Hall, D. “Idea of the English School.” Essay, Philadelphia: 1751.