The founders of the Republic viewed
their revolution primarily in political rather than economic or social terms. And
they talked about education as essential to the public good-a goal that took
precedence over knowledge as occupational training or as a means to self-fulfillment
or self-improvement. Over and over again (over and over again:
adv.一再地) the Revolutionary generation, both
liberal and conservative in outlook, asserted its conviction that the welfare
of the Republic rested upon an educated citizenry and that schools, especially
free public schools, would be the best means of educating the citizenry in
civic values and the obligations required of everyone in a democratic
republican society. All agreed that the principal ingredients of a civic education (civic
education: 公民教育) were literacy and the
inculcation of patriotic and moral virtues, some others adding the study of
history and the study of principles of the republican government itself.
The founders, as was the case of
almost all their successors, were long on exhortation and rhetoric regarding
the value of civic education, but they left it to the textbook writers to
distill the essence of those values for school children. Texts in American
history and government appeared as early as the 1790s. The textbook writers turned
out to be very largely of conservative persuasion, more likely Federalist in
outlook than Jeffersonian, and almost universally agreed that political virtue
must rest upon moral and religious precepts. Since most textbook writers were
New Englander, this meant that the texts were infused with Protestant and,
above all, Puritan outlooks.
In the first half of the Republic,
civic education in the schools emphasized the inculcation of civic values and
made little attempt to develop participatory political skills. That was a task
left to incipient political parties, town meetings, churches and the coffee or
ale houses where men gathered for conversation. Additionally as a reading of
certain Federalist papers of the period would demonstrate, the press probably
did more to disseminate realistic as well as partisan knowledge of government
than the schools. The goal of education, however, was to achieve a higher form
of unum (one
out of many used on the Great Seal (Great Seal: n. 国玺) of the U.S. and on several U.S. coins) for the new Republic. In the middle half of the
nineteenth century, the political values taught in the public and private
schools did not change substantially from those celebrated in the first fifty
years of the Republic. In the textbooks of the day their rosy hues if anything
became golden. To the resplendent values of liberty, equality, and a benevolent
Christian morality were now added the middle-class virtues-especially of New
England-of hard work, honesty and integrity, the rewards of individual effort,
and obedience to parents and legitimate authority. But of all the political
values taught in school, patriotism was preeminent; and whenever teachers
explained to school children why they should love their country above all else,
the idea of liberty assumed pride of place.
Q. The passage
deals primarily with the
(A) content of early textbooks
on American history and government
(B) role of education in late
eighteenth-and early to mid-nineteenth-century America
(C) influence of New England
Puritanism on early American values
(D) origin and development of
the Protestant work ethic in modern America（A）
(E) establishment of universal
free public education in America
Q. The passage provides information that would be helpful in
answering which of the following questions?
(A) Why were a disproportionate
share of early American textbooks written by New England authors?
(B) Was the Federalist party
primarily a liberal or conservative force in early American politics?
(C) How many years of education
did the founders believe were sufficient to instruct young citizens in civic
virtue?
(D) What were that names of some
of the Puritan authors who wrote early American textbooks?（B）
(E) Did most citizens of the
early Republic agree with the founders that public education was essential to
the welfare of the Republic?