Foundation and Fracture
In 1749, Benjamin Franklin, a prosperous, civic-minded printer recently retired from active business, turned his attention to a project that, he would later write, he had long envisioned: the creation of a new “academy” in Philadelphia. Franklin himself had humble origins in Boston and very little formal schooling, but he wanted this school to provide for the “compleat education of youth” in the colony.[1] He recruited a group of Philadelphia elites, “some Persons of Leisure and publick Spirit,” to join with him as donors and Trustees of the institution.
Numerous and varied schools already existed in Philadelphia. Those run by the Quakers included neighborhood schools providing basic education and a central Academy or “Latin School” (today known as Penn Charter School).[2] Franklin does not mention these schools, and his plan seems targeted at a newly influential, wealthy elite. Indeed, he paints a picture of educational barrenness in the colonies: “Something seems wanting in America to incite and stimulate Youth to Study.”
Where should this school be located? Franklin specified “That a House be provided for the Academy, if not in the Town, not many Miles from it” and pointed out that if the school were to be located in Philadelphia, students could make use of “the Town Libraries”: his own Library Company and the scholarly library of James Logan. Thanks to some adept negotiations which he led, the school was able to move into the large “New Building” at 4th and Arch Streets.
What would it teach, and who would lead it? The course of study proposed by Franklin was, if not entirely original, certainly innovative, focusing on English-language study, modern letters, oratory, history, mathematics, and practical skills. He and the Trustees recruited a dynamic educator: William Smith, a clergyman in New York. Aged only 27, Smith assumed the role of Provost, the leader of the schools, in 1754 (Penn did not have an additional “President” until the 20th century).
The school was not “secular” in a modern sense but non-denominational. Anglican minister Richard Peters gave a sermon based on the Gospel of John (8:32) at the opening of the Academy in January 1751 (it was printed along with the Constitutions and Franklin’s Idea of the English School, also on display). However, the school did not feature a seminary or provide theological training, unlike other colonial colleges. The major Protestant denominations of the city were carefully balanced: Smith, the Provost, had as Vice Provost Francis Alison, a learned Presbyterian minister and a member of the “Old Side” (less evangelical) faction, and James Logan and later Isaac Norris as Quaker trustees. This non-denominational balance would prove transitory, however. Smith gained influence at the school and in the city, and by the 1750s it was clear to most observers that the school, despite Franklin’s ideals, was under strong Anglican influence. The Anglican hegemony was insured in 1764 when the Trustees mandated an Anglican majority on the Board.
A New and Revolutionary School?
Franklin recounted in his Autobiography that he had this pamphlet printed at his own expense, maintaining his anonymity so as not to attract attention, and had it “distributed among the principal inhabitants gratis.” Its goals, though, were lofty: he challenged his fellow citizens to plan and organize a school and set forth his ideas for the course of study, drawing on a range of authors. It would focus upon a wide range of skill-building: writing, oratory, drawing, accounting, sciences, and mathematics. The study of history, both modern and ancient, was also crucial: it would give students “a connected Idea of Human Affairs” and teach “the Advantages of Liberty.”
Franklin did not neglect other aspects of student life: he urged that students exercise regularly and eat together—but “plainly, temperately, and frugally.” He also suggested they wear school uniforms.
The Constitutions printed by Franklin announced the new school’s lofty goals: “Proper Education of Youth” would forge civic strength and build “Wisdom, Riches and Strength, Virtue and Piety, the Welfare and Happiness of a People.”
The document named the institution’s twenty-four Trustees, who were expected to reside in the city. Far outnumbering teachers, the Trustees assumed a large role in day-to-day management of the school, visiting to observe classes, hiring faculty, and managing expenses. The group included Quaker James Logan, the retired agent of the Penn family and prominent landowner and scholar; Presbyterian William Allen, the largest landowner and wealthiest man in the colony; fourteen wealthy urban merchants and landowners; four doctors; two lawyers, and one Anglican minister, Richard Peters. Anglicans predominated, a fact that would shape the school’s future.[3] Upon acquiring the New Building in February 1750, the Trustees were also charged with opening a charity school: “poor Children shall be admitted, and taught gratis” once sufficient funds have been raised.
These Constitutions hint at a tension between Franklin’s educational objectives and those of the other Trustees. Both the “dead and living languages” were to be taught: Latin and Greek, English (taught “grammatically”), and three modern European languages, French, German, Spanish. Along with these, the curriculum would include the variety of subjects that Franklin had called for in his Proposals. However, a hierarchy between the subjects was implied, with classical learning advantaged. The “Rector” or school director, hired by the Trustees, was to teach Latin and Greek and receive the highest salary, £200 per year. The English master would receive only £100 (later negotiated up to £150 by David James Dove).
“. . . with Advantage and Reputation to themselves and Country . . . ”
Before Penn was a college, or university, it was an Academy, admitting boys as young as seven or eight years of age who knew their alphabet and basic handwriting. Although Franklin had compromised with the other trustees to allow for the formation of a Latin School within the Academy, this pamphlet represents his clearest statement of what he expected from the English section of the new school.
Franklin’s Idea, which he likely printed for distribution to the Trustees[4], proposed a six-year plan of study, with training in orthography, reading, speaking, writing and composition, and oratory. Modern authors, including even periodicals like the Spectator and printed parliamentary debates, would form the basis of readings. Upper-level classes would study mathematics and natural sciences, and students would give annual “publick Exercises in the Hall” to demonstrate their knowledge. Franklin argues that his educational plan will prepare students “for learning any Business, Calling or Profession, except such wherein Languages are required.”
William Smith’s utopian narrative about a “College of Mirania” describes a flourishing country, but one in need of education to create “sober, virtuous, industrious Citizens” and combat “Passion, Prejudice, Custom, Malice, Pride, Ignorance, and different Opinions in the Province.” The publication attracted the notice of Franklin and others, who recruited Smith to lead the new Academy. Indeed, Smith explicitly compares some aspects of the Miranians’ school to “the English School in Philadelphia, first sketch’d out by the very Ingenious and worth Mr. Franklin.”[5]
The text gives us some clues about Smith’s own social views. The Miranians, are divided into two “Classes” of people. One class were those intended for “Divinity, Law, Physic, Agriculture” and political office; the other included those with “Mechanick Professions” and “all the remaining People,” and each “Class” would receive a different education.[6] “Mechanicks” would be educated up to age 15 in English, writing, mathematics, accounting, oratory, history, and basic science. The “learned” Class would receive five years of a classically-based curriculum: Greek and Latin; Euclidean and practical mathematics; logic, ethics, natural philosophy, natural history, poetry, rhetoric, and oratory, agriculture, and history. Like Franklin, Smith underscored the need for training in public speaking, including civic performance and drama.
“ . . . and Charitable School”: A Forgotten History
The Trustees who funded the New Building in 1740 promised to establish a “charity” or free elementary school for the city’s poor children. Unrealized during the 1740s, that promise was fulfilled when the new Trustees of the Academy opened the Charity School (also called the Charitable School or Schools) in 1751.[7] With one class for girls and one for boys, this was the only part of Penn that was coeducational before the admission of women to lectures and degree programs beginning in 1875, a decision in part related to the Charity School legacy.
The teachers were paid low salaries compared to those in the higher divisions, and occasional complaints appear in the Trustees Minutes about poor conditions in the school. Because surviving records are limited, we do not know the precise curriculum, which presumably covered basic literacy and numeracy. We do know that the school was well attended, with perhaps 90 or more students during the 1750s, a low of 54 during the Revolution, and a high of 120 in 1807. The Charity Schools were closed in 1877.
Franklin, Autobiography, Part 3: “I had on the whole abundant Reason to be satisfied with my being established in Pennsylvania. There were however two things that I regretted: There being no Provision for Defence, nor for a compleat Education of Youth. No Militia nor any College.” ↑
On Quaker education: Kashatus, A Virtuous Education; Kashatus, “Franklin’s Secularization of Quaker Education,” 58; “Friendly Beginnings. ↑
Gordon, 9–23; Boudreau, “Provost Smith and His Circle,” 172. ↑
Miller 527; Papers of Benjamin Franklin, 4: ↑
General Idea: “sober, virtuous, industrious Citizens”: 9; “Passion, Prejudice, Custom, Malice, Pride, Ignorance, and different Opinions in the Province”: 13; “the English School in Philadelphia, first sketch’d out by the very Ingenious and worth Mr. Franklin”: 15. ↑
General Idea, 13–14. ↑
“. . . to keep forever open in the Building a large Hall for occasional Preachers . . . and maintain a Free School for the Instruction of poor Children.” [Franklin, Autobiography] ↑