7/30/2019 Ch 2 writing assignment for English

1/2

Thelin (2011) in chapter two discusses institutions from the years 1785 to 1860. Students who

attended institutions of higher learning from Virginia and South Carolina came from very wealthy

families because tuition was prohibitively high. Students enjoyed many extracurricular activities such as

debate group and many schools, especially those in the Carolinas, encouraged students rhetorical

ability. Many students believed in a code of honor. To protect their honor, students would engage in

duels with pistols, swords or fists. However, some students from New England came from modest

means and worked their way through college to become ministers or teachers. These students were

older than the typical 19-21 year old students. Women were slowly gaining access to higher education

and by 1860 there was 14 institutions which enabled women to pursue college level work.

Facility was selected from international universities as well as American institutions. The

faculty was told to have no other commitments other than to their students. Additionally faculty had

little power. For example students fromVirginias wealthy families indulged in drink, gambling and guns

but the faculty could not stop them.

After the revolutionary war, institutions of higher education believed their function was to

provide spiritual as well as academic guidance. They wanted to create the image that learning lifts the

sole and encourages good in people. Thelin (2011) seemed to imply that universities believed that what

was being taught was close to godly. For example, in the early nineteenth century probably the most

dramatic change in higher education was the new interest that evangelical denominations showed in

founding colleges to educate the sons (and later, the daughters) of their faith (Thelin, 2011, p. 61).

While academic institutions were becoming lofty and spiritual, the religious institutions were becoming

more academic. The institutions that educated clergy, such as the Baptists and Methodists, were

unlettered clergy was favored.

7/30/2019 Ch 2 writing assignment for English

2/2

There was no government accountability or regulation for the curriculum of colleges and

universities. Thelin (2011) describes the ...excessive spirit of enterprise in an era in which state

regulation was marginal at best and largely unenforceable even when present (p. 58). Institutions

could hand out whatever degree they wanted to with no restrictions and they even sold degrees.

Although most professions did not need degrees, certifications or training popular fields of study were

agriculture, military and science and engineering.