A Benjamin Rush Retrospective

Thank you Dr. Rush

For those of you who don’t know your colonial American history, you should learn about Dr. Benjamin Rush. He was a physician who lived in Philadelphia and was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. A graduate of Princeton and the University of Edinburgh, Rush was concerned about the education of the inhabitants of the newly formed United States of America.  In 1786, Benjamin Rush produced a plan of education that he hoped would meet the needs of our fledgling democracy.  He wrote an essay, "Thoughts Upon the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic,” which consisted of 20 main points.

Some of the included points are:

• Education must take place in the United States.  (rather than in a foreign country).“A general, uniform system of education needs to be established that would be adequate for all of the essential purposes of citizenship.”
• He believed that it was important for women to be educated.
• Rush noted that the  more traditional and classical education, prevalent at the time, was not appropriate  for a new country with new  and progressive ideals.

Interestingly enough, as critical and timely Dr. Rush’s observations were, nothing was written into the Constitution of the United States regarding the education of Americans.  No mention of years of education required, or what subjects were to be taught. Also missing was information about competencies and teacher preparation. (It should be pointed out that the only job requirements specifically mentioned in the Constitution are for the position of President and members of Congress. Even here there is no mention of education required for the job!). Consequently under the Tenth Amendment, public education became the province of the individual states. Thus today we have 50 state departments of education, 50 sets of requirements for teacher certification and 50 official state curriculum specifying what is to be taught in each academic subject at each grade level. ( 51 including Washington, DC).

So here we are, 236 years later still wringing our hands and debating the importance and relevance of education. What should every American Citizen know? How much education should a person have? Should education be compulsory? Where should the money come from to fund public education? And so on. Dr. Rush got the conversation started and his message is still extremely important today. We are continuously bombarded with magazine and newspaper stories about students who graduate from college with majors that are totally unsuited to find a job in this current market. We are exposed to prolific documents showing how far American school children have fallen behind their peers in other countries. We need to return to Dr. Rush’s original treatise and define how we as a nation education our children so that the democracy that Rush’s countrymen fought for will continue to prosper.

Copyright J. Margolis 2012