Unity
"Our schools of learning, by
producing one general, and uniform system of education, will render the mass of
the people more homogeneous, and thereby fit them more easily for uniform and
peaceable government." - Benjamin Rush, 1798.
In the earliest days of our
republic, Benjamin Rush concisely stated what has become a persistent theme in
American public education--the desire for unity and homogeneity among the
people; the desire to create "good citizens". In the late 18th
century, this desire stemmed from concern over the various countries of origin
found in the citizens of the United States (and Pennsylvania specifically); a
half-century later, Rush's sentiment can be felt in Calvin Stowe's call for a
"national assimilation" of recent immigrants; a call repeated once
again following waves of early twentieth century immigration, postwar periods,
and other eras of cultural change.
