Interest in North American colleges (the very first of them turned 340 years old) it is explained by the fact that even in the colonial period, the enlightenment and intellectual thought of the United States were born. The independent republic inherited a number of acute problems of the local education systems that emerged during the colonial era. And some of them, such as the lack of equal access to education, the subordination of colleges to narrow-class interests of ruling groups, have now generated resistance from the country's democratic forces. The history of these educational institutions also attracts attention because it helps to find out to what extent the first centers of higher education influenced the preparation of the war of independence of the North American colonies of Great Britain.
In the United States, there is still a debate about the place of colleges in the life of the colonies, and sometimes opinions are diametrically opposed. Thus, K. Janks and D. Reesman declare: "The college of those years was always a pillar of the ruling classes, but it was never an important pillar of them." 1 The same authors do not rate the colleges of that time very highly in pedagogical terms, claiming that they were more like a secondary school than a university, and in their organization and content of courses were a degraded copy of British universities. An academic course on the history of American higher education in 1636-1968 states that "the influence of national conditions on imported colleges from overseas was felt from the very beginning." 2 M. Jernigan believes that American figures of the colonial era did not add anything new to European pedagogical concepts. Some of these concepts are more developed in North America, while others are less developed. So, here, in practice, the innovative idea for those years-the participation of the state in the affairs of education-was more quickly implemented.
This is largely due to the fact that educational institutions in North America were influenced not by a single state church, as in England, but by various churches that were often at war with each other. Therefore, secondary and higher schools did not have such a powerful source of funds there as in England. Money for the establishment of colleges had to be obtained in other ways, sometimes even through the organization of public lotteries. Nevertheless, as in the Old World, the influence of churchmen remained dominant in American educational institutions of the 17th and early 18th centuries. True, as a result of the rivalry of various religious sects, for example, Puritans and Quakers, and in the context of a gradual decline in the role of the church in public life, there were opportunities to weaken this influence. These opportunities began to be realized in the period immediately preceding the War of Independence .3
During and after the American Bourgeois Revolution, its leaders in prin-
1 C. Jencks, D. Riesman. The Academic Revolution. Garden City (N. Y.). 1968, p. 1.
2 J. Brubacher, W. Rudy. Higher Education in Transition. A History of American Colleges and Universities, 1636 - 1968. N. Y. - Evanston-L, 1968, p. 3.
3 M. W. Jernegan. Laboring and Dependent Classes in Colonial America, 1607- 1783. Chicago. 1931, pp. 59 - 60.
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The tzipes approved of religious influence on the enlightenment. The doctrines of most American churches were consistent with the bourgeois, pragmatic aspirations of the New Republic's leaders. The latter, in particular T. Jefferson, spoke only against the imposition of one sect's dogmas in colleges to the detriment of others, as well as to the detriment of the interests of the state .4
In 1619, the Virginia General Assembly petitioned the "Treasurer, Council, and Company in England" to erect a college building in the colony and send workers for this purpose. The latter arrived, and soon construction began in the town of Henrico. They even appointed the rector of the future college. But in 1622, when the Indians attacked the town, its inhabitants were killed, and the buildings, including the future college, were destroyed .5 So practically this college did not appear.
In the colonies, the most active educational movement was in Massachusetts. Puritan immigrants from England made up perhaps the most educated part of the colonists here: by the middle of the 16th century, there was one Oxford or Cambridge graduate for every 40 families .6 Rejecting the primacy of the dominant church, which in itself was a challenge to the mother country, Puritans often tried to find answers to their questions in the Bible texts and wished that this interest would continue for subsequent generations. Apparently motivated by this desire, the Massachusetts General Curia allocated 400 pounds in 1636 for the foundation of the college, and two years later the English clergyman D. Harvard, who moved to North America, left this college a personal library and half of his fortune. That's why the college was called Harvard.
The founders of Harvard set out to "continue the Christian tradition of the Old World in the New." 7 The college was instructed not only to train priests, but also to spread Christianity among the indigenous population. The colonists ' roles were clearly divided. The" holy Fathers " taught the Indians to obey the white aliens, and if they did not obey, the soldiers in the service of his Majesty taught it in a different way. The first years of college life were unsettling: they coincided with bursts of ultra-Puritan religious fanaticism .8
The first American students started studying at Harvard. According to the memoirs of eyewitnesses, the first president of the college, N. Itom, used the rod more often than was customary even in those harsh Puritan days. After beating his assistant with a walnut stick "big enough to kill a horse," the president was sued and then fired. He was succeeded in 1640 by H. Dunster, a Cambridge graduate. Under his leadership, American higher education began to function on its own basis: two of the first graduates of Harvard became teachers at this institution. In 1650, the charter of the college was adopted, which is still valid today. By the mid-seventeenth century, the school was already performing more important tasks than the training of priests, 9 and the charter stated that the purpose of the college was "to promote the development of good literature, arts, and sciences." Consequently, Harvard leaders sought to train educated priests and did not confine themselves to ecclesiastical scholasticism alone. This college, which was created on the basis of the experience of Oxford and Cambridge, then served as a model for a number of other American higher education institutions.
The second college in North America opened in Virginia in 1693. It was named the College of William and Mary (in honor of the English royal majesties, since a significant amount for its construction was collected by subscription in England and Scotland). In the beginning, the college was strongly influenced by Scotland (its first president, J. Blair, was a graduate of the University of Edinburgh). But since the second quarter of the XVIII century. it was almost completely replaced by English 10 . The latter came not from the rules of Oxford and Cambridge, but from the so-called "dissenting academies".
4 "American Enlighteners", vol. 2, Moscow, 1969, p. 138.
5 A. S. Samoilo. English colonies in North America in the 17th century, Moscow, 1963, p. 37.
6 M. W. Jernegan. The American Colonies, 1492 - 1750. N. Y. 1959, p. 189.
7 J. Brubacher, W. Rudy. Op. cit., p. 8.
8 S. E. Morison. The Intellectual Life of Colonial New England. N. Y. 1956, p. 29.
9 Ibid., p. 32.
10 J. Brubacher, W. Rudy. Op. cit., P. 4,
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These schools began to appear in England after Parliament passed the Church Unity Act in 1662. Those who did not recognize the mandatory subordination of educational institutions to the dominant single Church were dismissed from universities. It was they who later created secondary and higher schools with more modern programs for those times.
In 1697, the head of one of these educational institutions, Charles Morton, moved to North America and took the post of vice-president of Harvard. Under his leadership, the college began to rise as a center of natural sciences on North American soil. A certain influence on the development of American education was the perception of the experience of Scottish universities, which, especially Edinburgh University, were bolder than English ones in introducing new courses into the curriculum. And the Scottish school of "common sense" philosophy was quite acceptable to pragmatic Americans.
In 1701, Yale College was founded in Connecticut. In January-May 1702, only one student studied there. Two years later, there were 20 of them. Almost all of them lived in the house of the rector and the only full-time teacher in those years, A. Pearson. The rector taught students mostly at home 11 . At Yale, as at other colleges, teachers were not paid salaries. They lived off student fees, which were called " fines for breaking the rules." In 1704, Yale professor J. P. Morgan was born. Hart was so overzealous in this case that his students rebelled. The solution to the conflict was to punish the rioters and set a fixed salary for teachers. However, the expenses under this item were small, since the college had only two teachers. Part of the financial burden was borne by the students, who paid for their education mainly in kind-wheat, malt, firewood, lard, wax, and even goats that were milked right in the university courtyard, and milk was served for dinner. Students did not receive scholarships, and those who were poorer worked part-time in their free hours.
A revival in the development of higher education in North America has been noticeable since the mid-eighteenth century. This was preceded by an ideological struggle in the colonies between moderate Puritans and schismatic "Renovationists" 12 . The churchmen wanted to restore their shattered influence on education. Most of the "renovationists" sought either to subordinate colleges to their control, or to create their own educational institutions.
In 1726, the priest W. Theinent founded the " log college "in Pennsylvania, a primitive theological school where for 20 years he trained young people to carry the "spirit of regeneration" of the church to the masses. 13 Religious battles eventually weakened the church's influence. At the same time, the possibility of a real impact of progressive ideas on education appeared for the first time. In 1749, the famous educator B. Franklin, who was interested in the affairs of colleges, presented a project for creating an "Academy" and its curriculum. He proposed that the main subjects in the new Pennsylvania institution should not be dead languages and theology, but new languages and literature, mathematics and mechanics. 14 Although the College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania), which opened in 1751, did not generally accept Franklin's program, the curriculum and organization he proposed were already largely free from ecclesiastical scholasticism. Two American colleges of the pre-revolutionary period were founded by followers of the "renovationists". In 1746, the new Presbyterians opened Princeton College in New Jersey. In its charter, adopted in 1748, it was written that the number of priests on the board of trustees of the college should not exceed the number of lay people. This indicated a weakening of the influence of the churchmen. In New York, the opening of the college was delayed due to the struggle for control over it. Finally, in the summer of 1754, it was possible to form the board of trustees of this educational institution on a compromise basis: representatives of five churches were included in it. In the fall of the same year, King's College (later Columbia University) began its work. Continued religious strife would have-
11 R. A. Holden. Profiles and Portraits of Yale University Presidents. Freeport. 1968, pp. 9 - 10.
12 For more information, see: N. M. Goldberg. Svobodomysliye i atheizm v SSHA (XVIII-XIX vv.) [Freedom of Thought and atheism in the USA (XVIII-XIX centuries)].
13 R. Hofstadter. Anti-Intellectualism in American Life. L. 1964, p. 65.
14 R. Ulich. History of Educational Thought. N. Y. 1945, pp. 236 - 241.
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The problems were so acute that the trustees decided to abandon the theological department altogether. King's College was then the only one in colonial America in this respect. George II's charter of October 31, 1754, stipulated that an adept of the Episcopal Church should become president of the college and that religious ceremonies should be performed in accordance with its rules. Soon after the revolution, these provisions were removed from the charter.
Two colleges - Brown's in Rhode Island (1764) and Queen's College in New York (1766) - were established by congregations opposed to England and its church. The first was founded by the Baptists, the second by the Dutch Reformed, whose influence in New York was considerable .15 However, the curriculum at these colleges was rather secular from the very beginning. Finally, in 1769, Dartmouth College was established in New Hampshire, growing out of a mission school for Indians. 16
The number of graduates of higher education institutions in colonial America was small. So, in 1775, 40 people graduated from Harvard, Yale - 35, King's College-13, Dartmouth-11, Philadelphia College - 8 17 . These figures contradict the view held by a number of American bourgeois historians that in the Puritan colonies of New England, the spirit of enlightenment and the degree of education were so high that even with the help of a simple farmer, "you could easily get an excellent classical education."18
The curriculum of the colleges opened in the 17th and early 18th centuries was based on classical languages and literature (ancient Greek and Roman). They also studied related subjects-Aramaic, Ancient Syriac and Hebrew languages, theology, ethics, politics, rhetoric, logic, and Aristotle's philosophy. It was a system of knowledge developed and taught in Western European universities in the Middle Ages. However, in the New World, it has become less complete and harmonious. According to the apt description of the classic of American literature W. Irving, a graduate of the college of colonial years "very deftly fought on the borders of several sciences and made such a brave foray into the field of dead languages that he captured a bunch of Greek nouns and Latin verbs, along with various expressive sayings, which he constantly flaunted in conversation and in letters, showing This is the same vanity with which a victorious general in ancient times displayed the spoils of his plundered countries. " 19 This eclecticism in teaching has become a kind of tradition in the United States and can sometimes be traced back to our days.
In the XVIII century, there was a certain reorientation of educational programs. Natural science disciplines were introduced-mathematics, physics, botany, astronomy, navigation. Entrance exams are beginning to be held not only in ancient languages, as it was before, but also in arithmetic. The most important reason for these processes was the change in the alignment of social and class forces in the colonies. The growing class of the bourgeoisie could no longer tolerate the fact that the educational centers continued to remain under the control of the landed aristocracy and clergy. The growing industry needed specialists, and in 1728 the first scientific laboratory was opened at Harvard.
In terms of social class, colleges in North America, especially at the time of their founding, did not differ much from English ones. Until 1767 at Yale and until 1772 at Harvard, lists of student groups were compiled not in alphabetical order, but in accordance with the property and social status of the students ' families. At one of the graduation parties at Harvard, the speaker colorfully outlined the social goals of education. If, he said, the first settlers had not established colleges, " the ruling class might have been overwhelmed by mechanics, masons and tailors, and the nobles would have been crushed by the rabble, the scions of plebeians from the sewage of Rome. Base feelings would prevail, not truth and reason. " 20 The class orientation of colleges is characterized by-
15 E. S. Goustad. The Great Awakening in New England. N. Y. 1957, p. 108.
16 For more information, see, F. Chase. A History of Dartmouth. Cambridge. 1891.
17 "Evolution of forms of organization of science in developed capitalist countries", Moscow, 1972, p. 20.
18 D. Lacy. The Meaning of the American Revolution. N. Y. 1966, p. 22Э.
19 V. Irving. History of New York, Moscow, 1968, pp. 109-110.
20 Cit. by: P. Miller. The New England Mind; the Seventeenth Century. N. Y. 1939, p. 84.
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The organization of their financing and management is also important. C. Janks and D. Reesman note that colonial colleges were neither public nor private in the modern interpretation of these definitions .21 Most of them were funded by donations from individuals and organizations, but they were managed by the colonial authorities together with representatives of the local nobility - large landowners, priests, lawyers. The colleges were like a kind of mixed joint-stock companies. S. Morison notes that the leadership of Harvard ("president and members of the council"), appointed in 1650, became the first "purely American" corporation .22 Colleges charged tuition fees, so those who came from the poorest families could not enter here. For them (even then) a system of factory apprenticeship was being organized. During the colonial period, the seeds of class discrimination in education were sown, as evidenced by the different types of schools for different segments of the population.
The middle of the 18th century was a period of direct ideological preparation for the War of Independence. People who became at the helm of the board of the overseas republic, at one time graduated from domestic educational institutions. The author of the Declaration of Independence, T. Jefferson, entered the College of William and Mary on March 25, 1760. He studied theology, law, and other disciplines. Among the teachers, only one professor of natural philosophy and mathematics, W. Small, did not wear the cassock of a priest. It was with him that young Jefferson became friends. Many years later, he said: "Small probably determined the fate of my life." Despite the fact that Jefferson only attended college for a little over two years, Small and other adherents of natural philosophy left, apparently, a mark on the memory of the future president of the United States. Partly inspired by these two years, Jefferson wrote from Paris in 1787 to his nephew P. Carr: "Put aside all the fears and prejudices that make weak minds grovel slavishly. Hold fast to reason and call every forfeit, every opinion to its judgment"; in the same letter, Jefferson reveals a very practical approach to education, advising his nephew to study Spanish instead of Italian, because "future connections with Spain and Spanish America will make the knowledge of this language a valuable acquisition." 23 Learn what is reasonable and what is useful is reasonable. It was the introduction of such a philosophy into the American school that the leaders of the bourgeois revolution insisted on.
Already a recognized leader of the revolution, T. Jefferson in 1779 turned to his "alma mater" - the College of William and Mary with a project for a radical modernization of its curriculum. The essence of the project was to limit the number of religious courses and increase subjects in natural sciences and humanities .24 Then Jefferson's plan was rejected, and later the college authorities began to gradually implement the reforms proposed by him. In his Notes on the State of Virginia, written two years later, Jefferson recommended that "gifted young men from the poor" should be selected for college in order to "help the state to benefit from those talents which nature has generously scattered among both the poor and the rich, and which perish uselessly if they are not sought out and developed." 25 K. Colden, in his essay" An Introduction to the Study of Philosophy written in America for the benefit of a young gentleman, "sharply criticizes the system of education there:" The general methods of teaching usually used in public schools serve only to fill the heads of young people with useless concepts and prejudices that make them unsuitable for acquiring genuine and useful knowledge."". What should I study? Physics, geometry, astronomy and mechanics, and first in their ancient Greek version 26 . This approach is quite consistent with the views of the leaders of the American bourgeois Revolution on education.
The influence of Enlightenment ideas from the middle of the 18th century is directly reflected in the activities of some, especially those of the Russian Orthodox Church.-
21 p. Jencks, D. Riesman. Op. cit., p. 257.
22 S. E. Morison. Harvard College in the Seventeenth Century. Cambridge (Mass.). 1936, p. 9.
23 "American Enlighteners", vol. 2, p. 78.
24 For more information about the work of American educators in the field of education, see T. Woody. Educational Views of Benjamin Franklin. N. Y. McGrow-Hill. 1931: R. Honeywell. The Educational Work of Thomas Jefferson. Cambridge. 1931.
25 "American Enlighteners", vol. 2, p. 64.
26 Ibid., vol. 1, Moscow, 1968, p. 191.
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but newly opened colleges and on the ideological position of their leaders. A statement by the President of King's College, S. Johnson, on the eve of the opening of this educational institution spoke about religion in the most general form, but it was thoroughly planned to study humanities and natural sciences at the level of science at that time. Although Johnson and his colleague W. Smith of Philadelphia College were only partially successful in putting their plans into practice, the churchmen were dealt a painful blow. Thus, in many colleges in the mid-eighteenth century, there was a rather sharp ideological struggle between supporters of the crown and "independence advocates". The echoes of this struggle obviously affected the worldview of future US political leaders. Political disputes were practiced in almost all colleges, which became increasingly tense as relations with the mother country worsened. The number of theses on topical political topics is also growing. In some cases, students even predicted future directions in politics, for example, isolationism. In four Harvard debates (1742, 1751, 1753, and 1773), they argued that the development of agriculture was more important to America than foreign trade. At Yale, questions were discussed about the legality of war, the limits of congressional authority, slavery, freedom of the press, and the D. Shays revolt in Massachusetts .27 After the Battle of Lexington (April 1775), the patriotic General A. Ward's headquarters were located directly on the Harvard campus. Its then-president, S. Langdon, preached sermons and sermons to the soldiers, blessing the " cause of freedom."
Most of the authors of the Declaration of Independence and almost a third of those who signed it were graduates of American colleges .28 From Harvard University came the leader of the moderate wing of the anti-colonialists, J. R. R. Tolkien. Otis and the radical who defended the idea of self-government from the late 1760s, S. Adams 29 . Nevertheless, the history of the colonial colleges of North America does not give a clear answer to the question of the ideological preparation of the revolution. Both future royalists and future Republicans passed through the colleges. Only one participant in the bourgeois revolution passed through the classrooms - the working people, by whose hands it was accomplished.
27 A. Haddow. Political Science in American Colleges and Universities, 1636 - 1900. N. Y. 1969, p. 34.
28 "Evolution of forms of organization of science in developed capitalist countries", p. 21.
29 For more information, see: V. V. Sogrin. To the ideological origins of the War of Independence of the United States. Voprosy Istorii, 1975, No. 9, pp. 54-60.
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