Erika Lindemann
Two schools of thought pervaded discussions of the
University's early curriculum: the classical and the
scientific. The classical view was represented by Rev.
Samuel Eusebius McCorkle
, who in 1792 had chaired a
committee drafting the first curriculum. Like most American college curricula
in the eighteenth century, Latin and Greek dominated a set sequence of courses
that also included mathematics, rhetoric, logic, and moral philosophy.
1 An
inheritance of the medieval university's seven liberal arts, the classical
subjects also had become an end in themselves, as
Edgar
Knight notes: "Completion of them was required because of their
alleged cultural values and the dignity they were supposed to bestow upon the
students who kept the faith and finished the course" ("Some Early
Discussions" 3). In December 1795
William Richardson Davie
submitted a different plan, one
that put the sciences on a par with the classics. Influenced by the plan of
Benjamin
Franklin and by
Thomas
Jefferson's suggestions for the curriculum at
William and Mary,
Davie's
plan "emphasized English and placed Greek
upon an elective basis with the subject of French only surpassing it in
interest. History, both ancient and modern, was proposed as a part of the
program and Astronomy, Chemistry, Botany, and Natural and Moral Philosophy were
to be encouraged" (
"Undergraduate Work" 176).
According to
Davie's
plan, the president or presiding professor taught
rhetoric "on the plan of
Sheridan" and belles lettres "on the plan of
Blair and
Rollin."
2 Four
additional professorships comprised the faculty: the professor of moral and
political philosophy and history; the professor of natural philosophy,
astronomy, and geography; the professor of mathematics; the professor of
chemistry, medicine, agriculture and the mechanic arts; and the professor of
languages. Students under the professor of languages were to deliver to him
twice a week an English translation from some of the Latin or Greek classics.
All other students were required every Saturday to "deliver to the
President an English composition on a subject of their own chusing, and he
shall correct the Errors in Orthography, Grammar, Style or Sentiment, and make
the necessary Observations thereon when he returns the Composition to the
Writer" (
Connor 1:454).
Davie's
plan also included a preparatory school. Though
the preparatory curriculum was heavily oriented toward classical studies, it
admitted the study of French, encouraged the reading of contemporary English
authors, and asserted that "The English exercises shall be regularly
continued, this Language being always considered as a primary object, and the
other Languages but Auxiliaries" (
Connor 1:452). In fact, a student's
parent or guardian could direct the preparatory school to omit instruction in
languages, except for English. Regarding Latin and Greek as auxiliary, elective
languages was revolutionary indeed. Students who completed the preparatory
school, or grammar school as it came to be called, could be admitted to the
University. Other students seeking admission were examined
by the presiding professor, who determined which areas a student might need to
make up.
As
Davie
recognized, many students were academically
unprepared for university studies.
Nicholas
Delveaux and
Samuel
Holmes, who supervised the preparatory school, had much work to do to
make up for the lack of secondary academies in the state. Students also lacked
the social skills necessary to building a harmonious educational community in
Chapel
Hill, so relations between students and faculty members were often
tense. Presiding Professor
David Ker
and
Charles
Wilson Harris
spent considerable time admonishing students, enforcing
college rules, and keeping order. The students, on the other hand, resented
many of the
University's regulations and those who enforced them.
Reading the faculty minutes of this period gives the impression that the object
of attending the
University was to "get civilized," not to get an
education.
Though the preparatory school continued to educate students until
1819, the
University curriculum
Davie
envisioned ultimately did not take hold. It was
never fully implemented because insufficient funds prevented hiring the four
professors that the plan called for. And as
Federalism
declined in influence, so did
Davie's
enthusiasm for the educational reforms he had
devoted a lifetime to bring about. By 1804, with the
trustees support, President
Joseph
Caldwell
installed a classical curriculum modeled on the
College
of New Jersey's (
Princeton). No student could receive a degree without a
knowledge of Latin and Greek.
Generally speaking, the first year of the college course in the
early
University was taken up by the study of Latin and Greek,
including ancient geography, with a review of arithmetic and algebra.
Sophomores continued their training in classical languages by reading
Horace's
odes and
satires, the Græca majora,
Homer's
Iliad
and
Cicero or
Tacitus, but
they also took classes in geometry, modern geography, and when it was offered,
French (or occasionally Spanish or German). Juniors finished French, the Græca
majora,
Horace and
Cicero, and undertook significant preparation in rhetoric
and the mathematical sciences: trigonometry, logarithms, chronology, navigation
and surveying, measuring heights and distances, conic sections, and
"fluxions" (differential calculus). Seniors studied logic, history
(often
Quintilian
and
Tacitus),
economics, metaphysics, and moral philosophy as well as chemistry, astronomy,
and geology. With relatively few alterations, this curriculum remained in place
throughout the antebellum period.