Transcript
TranscendentalistEducation
Presented by: Brent A. Simoneaux
Movement (noun):
“A series of organized activities working toward an objective; also : an organized
effort to promote or attain an end (the civil rights movement).”
Movements Lecture Series
Movements are often sparked by a shift in philosophical thought.
Opening Thoughts
1830 - 1850
The Context
New EnglandMassachusetts
The Context
The literature of Transcendentalism was mostly non-fiction prose and poetry.
The Context
The Context
The Context
1810 – 1850Conversations with Women
(1840)
The Wrongs of American Women (1845)
Margaret Fuller
The Context
Amos Bronson Alcott1799 – 1888
Orphic Sayings (1840)
Conversations with Children (1836)
Elizabeth Peabody1804 – 1894
Record of a School (1836)
Woman (1840)
The Context
The Philosophy
Philosophy is an articulation of an understanding of who we are, the way we view the world and
ourselves.
The Philosophy
1. What was the dominant philosophy before Transcendentalism?
2. What shift in philosophical thought took place?
John LockeKnowledge is created through experience.
Think: Tabula Rasa
The Philosophy
The Philosophy
Immanuel Kantknowledge is created
through intuition.
Think: Universal Truths
The Philosophy
Intuition“The power or faculty of
attaining to direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference.”
The Philosophy
So, if Lockean philosophy and the philosophy before Transcendentalism was empirical, known through the senses, then
Kantian philosophy is intuitive.
The Philosophy
These two philosophies ask and attempt to answer questions about how we know
things, how we learn things.
The Philosophy
What are the implication on education if we shift from a Lockean (empirical) to a Kantian (intuitive) understanding of how
we learn?
Education
1. Teaching methodology2. Learning environment
Teaching Methodology
Before Transcendentalist educational reforms, we could say that the
teaching method was very much teacher-centered, where the teacher
was in the active role and the students were in the passive role.
Teaching Methodology
The students have no pre-existing knowledge, the knowledge exists outside of them, is set forth by the teacher, the students perceive this
knowledge, and then it gets written on their minds.
Teaching Methodology
Instead of rote memorization and imitation, the Transcendentalists
were very fond of a teacher method that they called
conversation.
Teaching Methodology
Ralph Waldo Emerson:“And so in groups where debate is
earnest, and especially on high Questions, the company become aware that the thought rises to an
equal level in all bosoms, that all have a spiritual property in what was said,
as well as the sayer…”
Teaching Methodology
Ralph Waldo Emerson:“…They all become wiser than they
were. It arches over them like a temple, this unity of thought, in which every heart beats with a nobler sense
of power and duty, and thinks and acts with unusual solemnity. All are
conscious of attaining to a higher self-possession. It shines for all.”
Teaching Methodology
Each student is able to use their own intuition to contribute to the
conversation.
Teaching Methodology
Bronson Alcott and Elizabeth Peabody opened the Temple
School on September 22, 1834 with eighteen students.
Teaching Methodology
Both of them founded the school on the belief that “truth came not only from intellectual learning,
but also from nurturing the nonrational, intuitive powers as
well…”
“Words are signs of thoughts, he taught, not simply markers for
external objects and events. Language is imagery and images
awaken our sense of the congruence between inner
thought and outer thing….”
Teaching Methodology
“…The real work of the school lay in the children's' self-exploration, the study and expansion of their
own native powers of imagination…The children were required to think about ideas, to articulate their views, to write
their thoughts in journals.”
Teaching Methodology
So it was that Margaret Fuller, in the fall of 1839, began what she simply called Conversations.
Teaching Methodology
The physical place of meeting would be Elizabeth Palmer
Peabody's parlor, and 25 women appeared for the first meeting at
eleven on a Wednesday morning.
Teaching Methodology
She announced a series of public Conversations “designed to encourage women in self-
expression and independent thinking.”
Teaching Methodology
The women conversed about issues to satisfy their “wish for some
such means of stimulus and cheer, and . . . for a place where they could state their doubts and difficulties with hope of gaining
aid from the experience or aspirations of others.”
Teaching Methodology
Before the educational reforms of the Transcendentalists, the classrooms themselves were rather colorless,
poorly lit, a bit dark, and unhealthy because of poor ventilation.
There were no decorations or anything else on the walls and the chairs and desks were hard and uncomfortable.
Learning Environment
The first thing they did to transform the classroom was to replace the poorly
lit and colorless classrooms with bright and colorful rooms. They made sure that there were large windows in the classrooms that
allowed for natural light to come into the classroom.
Learning Environment
They also surrounded the students with books and works of art. They had
many bookshelves filled with books and they hung paintings, beautiful
works of art, on the walls. Their hope was that this would inspire
the students to be more creative and to learn more knowledge.
Learning Environment
This same attention to students’ learning environment can still be
found in America today.
Learning Environment
TranscendentalistEducation
Questions
top related