Victory for the ACT Student Text 15e

158 • R EADING

HUMANITIES: This passage is adapted from an article about early American education. The founders of the American Republic viewed their revolution mostly in political rather than economic or social terms. Furthermore, they talked about education as essential to the public good. This goal took precedence over knowledge as job training or as a means to self-improvement. Over and over again, the Revolutionary generation, both liberal and conservative in outlook, asserted its belief that the welfare of the Republic rested upon an educated citizenry. Schools, especially free public schools, would be the best means of educating the people in civic values and the obligations required of everyone in a democratic society. All agreed that the key ingredients of a civic education were literacy and instruction in patriotic and moral virtues. Some added to these the study of history and of principles of government itself. The founders, as was the case with almost all their successors, were long on rhetoric regarding the value of civic education. But they left it to the textbook writers to distill the essence of those values for schoolchildren. Texts in American history and government appeared as early as the 1790s. The textbook writers turned out to be largely conservative, more likely Federalist in outlook than Jeffersonian. They almost all agreed that political virtue must rest upon moral and religious precepts. Since most textbook writers were from New England, this meant that the texts were infused with a Protestant, and above all Puritan, view.  –Š‡ ϐ‹”•– ŠƒŽˆ ‘ˆ –Š‡ ‡’—„Ž‹…ǡ ‡†—…ƒ–‹‘ emphasized civic values. It made little attempt to develop participatory political skills. That was a task left to political parties, town meetings, churches, and the coffee or ale houses where men gathered for conversation. Also, as a reading of certain Federalist papers of the time would show, the press probably did more to provide realistic, partisan knowledge of government than the schools. The goal of education, however, was to achieve a higher form of unum for the new Republic. In the middle half of the nineteenth century, the political values taught in the public and private schools did not change much from –Š‘•‡ ‘ˆ –Š‡ ϐ‹”•– ϐ‹ˆ–› ›‡ƒ”• ‘ˆ –Š‡ ‡’—„Ž‹…Ǥ Passage V

In the textbooks of the day, their rosy hues, if anything, became golden. To the strong values ‘ˆ Ž‹„‡”–›ǡ ‡“—ƒŽ‹–›ǡ ƒ† ƒ Š”‹•–‹ƒ ‘”ƒŽ‹–› were now added the middle-class virtues of hard work, honesty, the rewards of individual effort, and obedience to parents and authority. But of all the political values taught in school, patriotism was at the top; and whenever teachers explained to children why they should love their country above all else, the idea of liberty assumed pride of place. In lines 5–6, the phrase to k precedence over most nearly means: A. set an example for. B. formulated a policy of. Ǥ ‡Ž‹‰Š–‡‡† •‘‡‘‡ ‘Ǥ D. had greater importance than. 34. The passage deals primarily with the: F. content of textbooks used in early American schools. G. role of education in late eighteenth- and early to mid-nineteenth-century America. Ǥ ‹ϐŽ—‡…‡ ‘ˆ ‡™ ‰Žƒ† —”‹–ƒ‹• on early American values. J. origin and development of the Protestant work ethic in modern America. 35. According to the passage, the founders of the Republic regarded education primarily as: A. a religious obligation. B. a private matter. Ǥ ƒ —‡…‡••ƒ”› Ž—š—”›Ǥ D. a political necessity. 33.

55

5

60

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50