Seminar: "Benjamin Franklin on Education: Reading an American Classic"

Professor Dr. Jürgen Overhoff

Nr. 067012

Do., 14 bis 16 Uhr, wöchentlich vom 20.10.2016 bis 09.02.2017; Bispinghof 2 - BB 2

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles William Eliot or John Dewey are well known American educational theorists. Today they count as classics. Rather unknown is the fact, that Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, was also an exceptionally gifted educational writer who drafted the constitution of the first American university, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. His pedagogical ideas were inspired and deeply influenced by the philosophy of the age of enlightenment. His educational writings ought to be considered as key texts of modern pedagogical thought. Franklin was also genuinely interested in the education of German immigrants in Pennsylvania. The first bilingual (German-English) college of the United States, Franklin College Lancaster, was named after him. The seminar – held in English – offers a close reading of Franklin’s educational treatises and explores the diverse and multilingual worlds of learning in 18^th century colonial Pennsylvania, later dubbed the keystone state of the United States.

Literature: Benjamin Franklin on Edcuation, hg. v. John Hardin Best, New York 1962; “The Good Education of Youth”. Worlds of Learning in the Age of Franklin, hg. v. John Pollack, Philadelphia 2009.

Auf 35 Studierende begrenzte Teilnehmerzahl; Anmeldung erforderlich!

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