| This dissertation examines the intersections between the St. Louis Movement and public education reform in St. Louis from 1865 to1885. In the two decades following the Civil War, St. Louis experienced a cultural renaissance inspired by expectations among the city's leaders and citizens that the future held great promise for the city in terms of national importance and prestige. They felt St. Louis was destined to be one of the great cities of the world. A desire to change the common perception of the city as a frontier outpost to one of a cosmopolitan urban center resulted in the proliferation of clubs, associations and societies dedicated to improving its cultural and intellectual life. Of these, the most important was the St. Louis Philosophical Society, which interpreted and sought to apply the philosophy of George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) to practical concerns facing the city and the nation at the close of the Civil War, including the reform of public education. Many of the individuals involved in this society became internationally distinguished educators through their reform work in the St. Louis Public Schools. They included William Torrey Harris, Susan Blow, Anna C. Brackett and Frank Louis Soldan. Hegel's philosophy became the cornerstone in their approach to education reform, and many of the reforms these individuals pursued became common practice in public school systems across the United States.;German immigration had a profound influence on public education reform in St. Louis, due to the large number of Germans that settled in the city from the 1830s through the close of the century. By 1880, the population of St. Louis had reached 350,000, and of these 55,000 were natives of Germany. Given their high number and political strength, they helped establish receptivity to public education reform rooted in the German philosophical and pedagogical ideas pursued by Harris and his colleagues. The failed democratic revolution in Germany in 1848, led to an exodus of many liberal German educators trained in the German pedagogical tradition. Many of these educators immigrated to the United States, and went to work in private and public school systems across the nation, including St. Louis. German immigrant educators, such as F. Louis Soldan, aided in the introduction of German education practices into the St. Louis system. This work explores the specific reform efforts of Harris, Blow, Brackett and Soldan in this setting. It provides an interpretive framework for how these factors combined to make St. Louis Public Schools the best public school system in the nation during this period. |
