Christian Cyclopedia

Higher Education.

1. Higher educ. is educ. on the coll. or university level. When the Christian era began, the pagan world had many schools of advanced learning. Alexandria was for cents. the intellectual cen. of the world. Many early ch. fathers were educ. there. But as the danger of pagan learning and philos. was more keenly realized, catechumenal schools developed into catechetical schools designed for higher educ. of leaders in the ch.

2. Pantaenus,* Clement* of Alexandria, and Origen* taught at Alexandria (see also Exegesis, 3). Origen est. a school at Caesarea in Palestine ca. 231. A school in Rome is dated from the 2d c. These schools, where literature, hist., and science were studied, were attended by scholars of all classes but were planned esp. for clergy training under direction of a bp. Later called episc. or cathedral schools, they spread over all Eur. and continued throughout the Middle Ages. Their importance increased as clergy promotion came to depend somewhat on studies pursued.

3. Ch. councils in the 5th and 6th c. ordered that boys destined for the priesthood be placed in these schools. As attendance increased, appropriate bldgs. were erected, teaching staffs were enlarged, courses of study regulated, and the life of teachers and pupils subjected to regular rules and canons. With the overthrow of Roman culture by the barbarians, higher educ. fell completely into the hands of the ch. From the 8th to the 12th c., monastic schools were of greater importance, but with expansion of knowledge and greater tolerance of inquiry the rigidity and narrowness of these schools resulted in renewed growth and revived importance of cathedral schools. The study of dialectics was emphasized; this stimulated interest in intellectual activity and in logical formulation and statement of religious beliefs. Plato* and Aristotle* dominated in these schools; the method was logical analysis of the subject with little observation and research; knowledge was mainly theol. and sophistic.

4. Because of the scholastic movement and the new intellectual and educ. interest, stimulated during the Crusades* by contact with E and Saracen learning, some cathedral schools developed into univs. The schools at Naples (est. ca. 1224), Bologna (11th c.), and Paris (2d half of 12th c.) became prominent. Many additional schools were est. in the 13th, 14th, and 15th cents. Univs. varied from place to place. Usually the organization was patterned after guilds. In some early univs., students controlled curriculum and faculty and were not under local govt.

5. Chivalry represents the educ. that upper secular soc. received. Training in knightly ideals and activities formed the educ. of the nobility. This educ. was divided into 2 periods: that of a page, which covered ca. the 7th–14th yr., and that of a squire, 14th–21st yr., when the squire was knighted. This educ. was a discipline both for the individual and for the soc. class to which he belonged; the intellectual element was slight. In addition to physical training, educ. emphasized manners and morals. Under chivalry, the ideals constituting the character of a gentleman were more definitely formulated than in modern ages.

6. The Renaissance* vitally affected educ. ideals. The “new learning,” the study of classical antiquity, wedged its way into all schools and univs. The most important phase of this revival was restoration of the idea of a liberal educ. as formulated by the Gks. and adapted to the Romans by M. T. Cicero,* Quintilian,* C. Tacitus,* et al. Renaissance educ. emphasized the physical element and tried to influence conduct and behavior. It was practical and tried to train for effective citizenship and to produce practical judgment in everyday affairs. Its aesthetic element found expression in the study of literature and became the dominant feature in the work of the schools.

7. This broad content and scope of Renaissance educ. was later restricted to the study of the languages and literatures of the ancients, which study, formerly but a means to the end, became the chief end in humanistic educ. Classics were studied chiefly for the sake of language and less for the sake of educ. value. The “new learning” found a permanent home in It. and spread from there through the rest of Eur.; it soon reached Oxford and Cambridge. The hostility of univs., the ch., and monastic schools led to the est. of many schools embodying the new spirit under patronage of monarchs and nobility, e.g., court schools in It. and Fürstenschulen (schools for princes) in Ger. The term “gymnasium” (from Gk. gymnazein, “to train naked; to exercise”) became popular as a name for a humanistic secondary school. The gymnasium at Strasbourg, organized 1537–38 by Johannes and Jakob Sturm,* exerted great influence. St. Paul's School, London, founded ca. 1509, influenced educ. in Eng. Grammar schools of the Am. colonies were fashioned after Eng. schools as to scope and method. The Boston Lat. School was founded 1635. But in Am. the humanistic school gave place to a new type earlier than in any Eur. country.

8. The Reformation deeply affected educ. ideas and aims. Renaissance interests were mainly literary and aesthetic; the Reformation emphasized religious and moral interests. It made the “new learning” serve the Word of God. Lat., Gk., Heb., logic, math, hist., science, and music were studied besides the vernacular. The work of carrying out the ideas of M. Luther* was largely left to his co-workers. P. Melanchthon* was called Praeceptor Germaniae; he was to Ger. as to educ. reform what Luther was with respect to religious reform. Wittenberg, from which all these influences radiated, was remodeled along humanistic-Prot. lines and became the model of many new univs.

9. At the death of Melanchthon there was scarcely a city in all Ger. that had not modified its schools acc. to his direct advice or his gen. suggestions. Many univs. and other schools threw off allegiance to the pope and transferred it to princes and the state. But even under state control the dominant motive was a religious one, and the school plan was strongly humanistic. These schools were organized into a system in Saxony in the 1520s, in Wüerttemberg 1559. Effectiveness of Prot. schools in reforming soc. and ecclesiastical evils and est. chs. moved the RC Ch. to use the same means. Teaching orders, esp. Jesuits, adopting many Prot. ideas and methods, made educ. their chief aim and controlled RC institutions. From a modern viewpoint their educ. was not broad, but it was thorough and effective.

10. Nearly all colleges est. in Am. before the end of the colonial period grew out of religious motives. Puritans controlled Harvard Coll., Cambridge, Massachusetts, est. 1636. The Coll. of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, est. 1693, was a sem. for Angl. ministers; Yale Coll., New Haven, Connecticut, est. 1701, was under Puritan auspices; Princeton (New Jersey) U., founded 1746 at Elizabethtown (now Elizabeth) as the Coll. of New Jersey, was Presb. The Academy and Coll. of Philadelphia, chartered 1753, owed its origin to Benjamin Franklin and was not under denominational control; Columbia U., NYC, was est. 1754 under predominantly Angl. direction as King's Coll.; Brown U., Providence, R. I., was est. 1764 under Bap. influence as R. I. Coll. in Warren, R. I.; Rutgers U., New Brunswick, New Jersey, was est. 1766 on initiative of leaders of the Dutch Ref. Ch.; Dartmouth Coll., Hanover, N. H., est. 1769, was Cong. See also Ministry, Education of, VI A; Protestant Education in the United States.

11. After the War of Am. Indep. (Revolutionary War; 1775–83) some States sought control of colleges in their territory. But the 1819 Dartmouth Coll. Case decision of the US Supreme Court protected educ. corporations against pol. interference and roused greater denominational interest in erection of colleges. Since then the no. of colleges has grown rapidly.

12. Development of pub. colleges and univs. was slow. The U. of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, was chartered 1785, opened ca. 1800; the U. of North Carolina was chartered 1789, opened 1795; the U. of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, was founded 1791, opened 1800; the U. of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, was founded 1819, opened 1825; Indiana U. was est. 1820, the U. of Alabama 1831.

13. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, was est. 1824. Emma Willard (nee Hart; 1787–1870) est. Troy (New York) Female Sem. (later called Emma Willard School) 1821. Mount Holyoke Female Sem., South Hadley, Massachusetts, was chartered 1836, opened 1837, called Mount Holyoke Coll. beginning 1893. Other early women's colleges: Wesleyan Coll. (Macon, Georgia), founded 1836; Rockford (Illinois) Coll., est. 1847; Elmira (New York) Coll., est. 1855; Vassar Coll. (Poughkeepsie, New York), chartered 1861. Oberlin (Ohio) Coll., coeducational, was founded 1833. Johns Hopkins U. (Baltimore, Maryland), founded 1876, emphasized graduate study.

14. From ca. the middle of the 19th c., efforts to broaden curricular offerings became a prominent trend among colleges and univs. In the 20th c., financial support given univs. by state appropriations, individuals, foundations, and organizations greatly increased.

15. Standards for colleges and univs. have been set by state depts., colleges and univs., and voluntary organizations.

16. The Am. Assoc. of Theol. Schools is concerned with the curriculum and accreditation of theol. schools.

17. In the 20th c., enrollment rivalries and greater demands for higher educ. caused new studies of standards, curricular offerings, and teaching methods.

See also Ministry, Education of; Universities in the United States, Lutheran.

P. Monroe, A Brief Course in the History of Education (New York, 1915); A Cyclopedia of Education, ed. P. Monroe (Detroit, Mich., 1968); W. Boyd, The History of Western Education, 3d ed. (London, 1932); E. P. Cubberley, Public Education in the United States, rev. and enl. ed. (New York, 1934); S. G. Noble, A History of American Education (New York, 1938); F. Eby and C. F. Arrowood, The History and Philosophy of Education Ancient and Medieval (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1940) and The Development of Modern Education (New York, 1934); E. W. Knight, Education in the United States, 2d rev. ed. (New York, 1941); H. G. Good, A History of American Education (New York, 1956).