Franklin's Proposals.

Having been influenced by Enlightenment ideas, especially the writings of John Locke, Benjamin Franklin became the foremost proponent of utilitarianism in education in the eighteenth century. His background as a printer and his avid love for applied science formed his belief that learning should be useful for one's life and for society. To that end he envisioned a new kind of formal school that would educate America's future leaders. In 1749 he wrote Proposals Relating to the Education of the Youth in Pennsylvania, in which he described his model for an academy, and in 1751 added Idea of the English School, Sketch'd Out for the Consideration of the Trustees of the Philadelphia Academy, which included further details for the six-year curriculum. His ideas departed radically from the founding principles of earlier colonial American sectarian schools and colleges. Proposals advocated broadening...