Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T19:16:59.506Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nicholas Murray Butler and the Teaching Profession

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Richard Whittemore
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

It is strange that Charles W. Eliot, William Torrey Harris, and Nicholas Murray Butler are so little remembered. For a generation their counsels dominated American education, yet few histories of education give them more than passing notice. Eliot does receive some attention as father of the elective principle, and Harris enjoys at least a dubious reputation as high priest of conservative idealism. Butler, if mentioned at all, appears as Harris's acolyte and is variously described as a classical humanist, an intellectualist, and an idealist with faintly liberal tendencies. It has been his misfortune to be cast in the role of educational philosopher, the role to which he aspired, but to which he could bring the least talent. Butler was an independent thinker, but not a creative one, a man of action, not of contemplation. Comparing him with Harris is like comparing Alexander with Aristotle. “Nicholas Miraculous” was, in truth, that rare combination of insights, practicality, and force that makes a philosopher king. Never content to contemplate ends, his vast energies were concentrated on means. He fathered organizations, not ideas.

Type
Research Article
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , September 1961 , pp. 22 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © 1961, University of Pittsburgh Press 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. Butler, N. M., Across the Busy Years (New York, 1939), I, 72–73.Google Scholar

2. Barnard, Frederick A. P., Annual Reports, 1881–1882, ed. Russell, W. F. in Rise of a University (New York, 1937), I, 271–83, 293–94, 327–28; Butler, Across the Busy Years, I, 76–77; N. M. Butler, “The Science of Teaching,” Science, VI (1885), 529–30.Google Scholar

3. Butler, N. M., “The Beginnings of Teachers College,” Columbia University Quarterly, I (1889), 344.Google Scholar

4. Ibid.; Grace H. Dodge, A Brief Sketch of the Early History of Teachers College (New York, 1889), 23.Google Scholar

5. Ibid., 16–17.Google Scholar

6. Cited in Abbie Graham, Grace H. Dodge: Merchant of Dreams (New York, 1889), 23.Google Scholar

7. Dodge, , Early History of Teachers College, 16–17, 22.Google Scholar

8. Butler, , “The Beginnings of Teachers College,” 345.Google Scholar

9. Industrial Education Association, College for the Training of Teachers Circular of Information (New York, 1887), 2.Google Scholar

10. Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of the Industrial Education Association (New York, 1888), 11–12.Google Scholar

11. Mary, S. Woolman to David Smith, E., Jan. 23, 1926, Teachers College Historical Materials.Google Scholar

12. Fackenthal, F. D., ed., Provisional Charter, Columbia University and Teachers College: Documents and Correspondence (New York, 1951), 4.Google Scholar

13. Butler, N. M., “The Training of the Teacher,” Century Magazine, XVI (1899), 915.Google Scholar

14. Fackenthal, 6.Google Scholar

15. Ibid., 8–10.Google Scholar

16. Hervey, W. L. to Smith, D. E., Feb. 3, 1926, Teachers College Historical Materials.Google Scholar

17. Mary, S. Woolman to Smith, D. E., Jan. 23, 1926, Teachers College Historical Materials.Google Scholar

18. Monroe, Paul, Reminiscences, Teachers College Historical Materials.Google Scholar

19. Dodge, Grace to Butler, , Jan. 26, 1898, Columbiana Collection, Low Memorial Library, Columbia University.Google Scholar

20. Russell, James E., Report of the Dean of Teachers College, 1889–1900, Fackenthal, 71.Google Scholar

21. Butler to Seth Low, June 16, 1897, Correspondence with Pres. Low, 1895–1901, Columbiana Collection; Butler, Across the Busy Years, I, 194–95; N. M. Butler, “Review of The Science of Education by Johann F. Herbart,” Psychological Review, I (1894), 82–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22. Butler to Low, June 16, 1897, Correspondence with Pres. Low, 1895–1901, Columbiana Collection.Google Scholar

23. Low to Butler, June 30, 1897, Columbiana Collection.Google Scholar

24. West, Andrew F., “The Present Peril to Liberal Education,” in Eliot, Charles W., West, Andrew F., Harper, William R., Butler, N. M., Present College Questions (New York, 1903), 34; Telegram from Low to Butler, July 6, 1897, Columbiana Collection; Low to Butler, July 15, 1897, Columbiana Collection; Butler to Low, July 21, 1897, Columbiana Collection.Google Scholar

25. Wheeler, B. I. to Harris, W. T., Sept. 13, 1897, Columbiana Collection; Butler to Charles De Garmo, Dec. 1, 1897, Columbiana Collection.Google Scholar

26. Low to Butler, July 29, 1897, Columbiana Collection; James E. Russell, The Founding of Teachers College (New York, 1937), 23–24; Spencer Trask to Seth Low, Nov. 17, 1897, Teachers College Historical Materials.Google Scholar

27. Butler to Low, Dec. 10, 1897, Correspondence with Pres. Low, 1895–1901, Columbiana Collection.Google Scholar

28. Seth Low to Grace Dodge, Dec. 13, 1897, Fackenthal, 26–27.Google Scholar

29. Butler to Low, Dec. 20, 1897, ibid., 31–32.Google Scholar

30. Agreement between Columbia College and Teachers College, Mar. 1, 1898, ibid, 38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31. Eliot, C. W., “Can School Programs be Shortened and Enriched?” in Eliot, Educational Reform: Essays and Addresses (New York, 1905), 153–54; National Educational Association, Journal of Proceedings and Addresses, 1889, 387–89.Google Scholar

32. Eliot, C. W., “The Gap Between Common Schools and Colleges,” in Eliot, Educational Reform , 199–200.Google Scholar

33. Butler, , Across the Busy Years, I, 195–96.Google Scholar

34. Ibid., 197.Google Scholar

35. NEA Proceedings, 1891, 35.Google Scholar

36. Butler, N. M., “Uniform College Admission Requirements with a Joint Board of Examiners,” Educational Review, XIX (1900), 72.Google Scholar

37. Farrand, Wilson, “Five Years of the College Entrance Examination Board,” Educational Review, XXX (1905), 218.Google Scholar

38. Butler, , Across the Busy Years, I, 198–200.Google Scholar

39. Ibid., 271–76, 266.Google Scholar

40. Fiske, Thomas S., “The College Entrance Examination Board, Second Annual Report of the Secretary,” Educational Review, XXIV (1902), 275.Google Scholar

41. Fiske, , “C. E. E. B., Fourth Annual Report,” Educational Review, XXVIII (1904), 265.Google Scholar

42. Farrand, , “Five Years of the College Entrance Examination Board,” 230.Google Scholar

43. Butler, N. M., “Editorial,” Educational Review, V (1893), 202; ibid., X (1895), 202–3.Google Scholar

44. Ibid., XVII (1899), 202.Google Scholar

45. Copy of indictment, Columbiana Collection; New York Evening Post, Mar. 30, 1899; Albert Shaw to Butler, Mar. 31, 1899, Columbiana Collection; Chicago Herald, Apr. 29, 1899.Google Scholar

46. Butler, , Across the Busy Years, I, 203.Google Scholar

47. New York Times, Mar. 15, 1896.Google Scholar

48. Butler, N. M., “Editorial,” Educational Review, X (1895), 99.Google Scholar

49. New York Times, Apr. 26, 1895.Google Scholar

50. New York Times, Feb. 7, 1896.Google Scholar

51. Butler, N. M., “Editorial,” Educational Review, XV (1898), 414–15.Google Scholar

52. Johnson, Alvin, Pioneers Progress (New York, 1952), 167.Google Scholar

53. Butler, , “Editorial,” Educational Review, XL (1910), 215.Google Scholar