23 September 1800 A.D. William Holmes McGuffey [1800-1873]
23 September 1800
A.D. William
Holmes McGuffey [1800-1873]
Archivist. “September 23: William
Holmes McGuffey [1800-1873].” This Day in
Presbyterian History. 23 Sept 2015. http://www.thisday.pcahistory.org/2015/09/september-23-2/.
Accessed
23 Sept 2015.
September 23: William Holmes McGuffey [1800-1873]
Home School Education in the
Nineteenth Century
They
are still being used today! McGuffey Readers, that is.
But what an important force they have had from the early days of our
land up to the present. In a day when modern textbooks are known to tear
down what is right about America and Christian values, the McGuffey Readers would
instead reflect the values of hard work, industry, honesty, loyalty,
Sabbatarianism, and temperance, or in other words, exactly what is needed
today in our modern society.
Their
name comes from William Holmes McGuffey, who was born on September 23, 1800. From
an early age, he demonstrated a prodigious command of both languages and literature.
Educated by his mother in their home and schooled in Latin, as was
the practice then, by a Presbyterian minister, William committed large passages
of the Bible to memory. Eventually he studied at Washington College in
Lexington, Virginia (now Washington and Lee University) which was an
early Presbyterian college. He graduated with honors from the college in
1826.
William
McGuffey was licensed to preach by the Presbyterian Church, and although we
cannot find his name associated with any local church, he preached
regularly, delivering some 3000 messages by his own account. His
ministry was in education, serving as president and professor at five different
colleges and universities.
He
would be remembered primarily for his Eclectic Readers, though afterwards
those readers were more commonly called by his name, and they had a profound
influence on American public education for over two centuries. He died in 1873,
but like the prophets of old, being dead, he yet speaks through these
remarkable readers for young ages.
Words to live by:
The proverbs of old told us to “train up a child in the way he should go, and
when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (KJV – Proverbs
22:6). That is as true today as it was when it was first written
down in holy Scripture. The Hebrew word for “train up” speaks of “across
the roof of.” It referred to the practice of birthing when the midwife
would spread the olive juice across the roof of the mouth of the just born
infant, teaching that infant how to draw milk from the mother’s breast. It
therefore came to mean “create a desire for.” Christian dads and moms, you
are to be the instrument of the Holy Spirit to create a desire for spiritual
things in the hearts and minds of your children. By being faithful to do
this, you can then claim the general promise of this favorite text.
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