This chapter explains the relationship between the nation and the development of the common school system that educating all citizens is the way of common allegiance to the nation and unified them to create a common culture and language, even though, the United States is multicultural society and also the education helps to keep political stability and economic growth. Two American educational leaders explained the different method of political education; Noah Webster emphasized the political value through his method of teaching to create a dominant national culture with the form of patriotism through some activities such as studying national literature and language, honoring the flag and singing nationalistic songs, etc. Otherwise, Thomas Jefferson believed the method of education should provide with the tool of reading and writing and that political value formed through the exercise of reason, therefore, the most important means of political education was the reading of history and newspapers.
In my opinion, I agree the method of Jefferson on education because through the history, we obtain the knowledge of ancestors base on the fact of their lives and experiences, therefore, we can freely analyze the reason what was wrong and right in similar situation to escape same mistakes, otherwise, we can apply and improve the knowledge for the political stability and economic development. Also the history teaches the national value and the importance of all citizens’ unity to become a strong nation and reading newspapers is the way to get the new and large information to follow more rapidly than others. However, I did not completely disagree of Webster’s idea because his legacy such as a standardized American dictionary of the English proved that his effort to standardize the English as the American language helps to find the identity as American citizens to make common and unity. Is the method of Jefferson or Webster completely different application from our modern education in U.S.? Which method should we take more importance for the development of our education system?
