Yankee Teacher The Life Of William Torrey Harris

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YANKEE TEACHER The Life of WILLIAM TORREY HARRIS BY KURT F. LBIDBCKER, M. A., PH. D. THE PHILOSOPHICAL LIBRARY NEW YORK William cJorn ij Harm FOREWORD William Torrey Harris, whose intimate friend ship I enjoyed for a long generation, was an out standing mind in the history of our American life. His contributions to philosophy and to the theory and practice of education were not only numerous, but of commanding importance. He was so fortunate as to add to the mind of a scholar and statesman the ability to make clear and simple the doctrines which he taught. It was this which gave to Dr. Harris his commanding influence over the teaching profession during his long years of active leadership in all which related to its thought and work, The history of American education and of our American contributions to philosophical thought cannot be understood or estimated without knowl edge of the life work of Dr. William Torrey Harris. Nicholas Murray Butler New York, 1946 PREFACE But there are de ds which shall not pass And names that must not wither, - BYRON A long time ago, they tell us, Zeus assembled around him all men to give immortality to the one having done the worthiest deed. One by one they came forward, recounting their deeds of valor and distinction, till only a kindly old man was left. And what is it you have done 1 inquired Zeus. 1 am a teacher he replied, and all these men here before you were my pupils. Then spoke Zeus Thou art the greatest among men and deserving of immortality before all others If the contest is repeated, as they say it is every hundred years, that humble follower of Socrates may well have been the subject of our biography. With the death of Dr, Harris, there cameto its earthly end the activity of one of the greatest philosophical minds of modem times writes Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, 1 But k order that it may no longer be a pity that so few can ever know how distinguished an ornament he was to his nation and his race, this biography has been written. William Torrey Harris, a mastermind in his profession, did not shoot across the American horizon like a comet. Slow-ly he rose, a satellite at first, a sun later, making good each trust put in Mm and doing his full share of the duties attached to each station in his life. As far back as 1888, when Frank H. Kasson 2 weighed the question Who is the most potent influence upon the public school system and the teachers of America he was forced to eliminate E. E. White, John W. Dickinson, Larkin Dunton, John Eaton, J. E. Pickard, F. Louis Soldan, G. Stanley HtU, and Wm. H. Payne, to give first place to W T, Harris. VII YANKEE TEAC Those who know the history of American education can not insert between Horace Mann and John Dewey any other man so influential and generally known as Harris, Official ly and unofficially he was, as A. E. Winship wrote, for a third of a century the public school leader of the United States and the best-known American educator in foreign countries His position was established long before he became United States Commissioner of Education. It was his zeal, his vast knowledge, and above all his shining qualities as a man that made him an equal to kings, as someone said, or the spiri tual father to thousands as C P, Gary has put it In 1899, New York Education acknowledged that it hon ored itself by putting his picture on its title page for from New England to California Harris wasacclaimed and from Minnesota to Kentucky he was respected as no one else be fore in the educational field. Friend or foe had to concede that they were dealing with a philosophical giant. He is the most commanding figure in the educational field today said Ossian Lang in the Nation of July 5, 1904 Neither England nor France nor even Germany, the home of pedagogy has as great an intellect at work in the philosophical elaboration of the fundamental problems But if the American eulogies of Dr...