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The Philadelphia Academy, 1740
Franklin's self-education and religious tolerance made him challenge the dominant classical and theological approach to learning. Soon after his retirement, he helped found the Philadelphia Academy, which later became the University of Pennsylvania, America's first university and its oldest nonsectarian college. Unlike Harvard and Yale, the school was not created to train new ministers. Rather, with a progressive curriculum based in the liberal arts, the University of Pennsylvania sought to develop a vigorous, public-spirited curiosity in each of its students.
"The good Education of Youth has been esteemed by wise Men in all Ages, as the surest Foundation of the Happiness both of private Families and of Common-wealths."
-- Benjamin Franklin, Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania [sic], 1749 |