486 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



A RADICAL EDUCATIONIST IN EARLY ILLINOIS 

 R. F. Swift, Illinois College, Jacksonville 



Higher education has been chiefly the possession of a 

 limited and favored class. Its character has been de- 

 termined largely by the desires, the needs, and the tra- 

 ditions of such a class. Knowledge, perhaps for this 

 reason, has been regarded as knowledge of things which 

 do not interest the masses of men. It has been, one may 

 say, characteristically aristocratic and remote from the 

 daily life of the lower classes in society. Some educators 

 believe that class distinctions and the traditions of so- 

 cial status have determined what type of education and 

 knowledge is valid. Hence knowledge about the normal 

 activities of the masses and education for such activities 

 have been regarded as unworthy of the name. Such, we 

 are told, was the Greek conception and it has persisted 

 until this day. 



The tendencies in modern democratic societies seem 

 away from this view of knowledge and education. Knowl- 

 edge about the activities of the common man is regarded 

 by many today as equally valid with the knowledge of 

 the nature of the universe and of man's destiny. Knowl- 

 edge is instrumental, not contemplative. Education 

 therefore is most successful when most intimately asso- 

 ciated with the daily pursuits of the learners. It is an 

 instrument of control, not a beatific vision. The classi- 

 cal tradition has lost its supremacy largely because it has 

 seemed to have no sufficiently vital function in the nor- 

 mal activities of the masses of men. The various classes 

 of society are winning the battle for the right of special 

 types of education based upon special needs and occupa- 

 tions. Higher education is no longer limited to prepara- 

 tion for leisure or for the few professions. 



The purpose of this paper is to call attention to an 

 early advocate of this view of knowledge and education. 



Jonathan Baldwin Turner began his career as a pio- 

 neer in building the civilization of the Middle West in the 

 third decade of the last century as a professor in Illinois 

 College. He gave his life to the cause of securing for 

 the agricultural and the mechanical classes a prepara- 



