Emerson Vs Elliot
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Throughout every generation, the education of the youth has always been a prime topic of discussion. Two great writers of their generation, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Charles William Elliot, seemed to have very differing opinions of the education of the youth in the United States especially concerning higher education: one believing that it is better to treat the whole man through a variety of disciplines; the other believing that it is better to let the students have freedom of choice in their studies. Although both views on education seem to be very much unalike, both men do believe that the education of the young mind at that point in time is critical, even if their views seem to deny each other.
In his essay “The American Scholar” Ralph Waldo Emerson begins his essay with the notion that it is time for the great American minds to “look forward from its iron lids, and fill the postponed expectation of the world with something better than the exertion of mechanical skill (98).” He is advocating his view that the American minds must be ignited and produce something productive other than by means of physical labor. Emerson states this in his essay because it is at this time that physical labor was more profitable and easier to attain. While he is not saying that profit by physical means is entirely wrong, he strongly believes that the American mind can do much more, and contribute more to society in terms of science and literature.
Emersons philosophies on education delve back to his idea on what it means to be a man, specifically on what it means to be an American scholar. He makes the argument that it “takes the whole of society to find the whole man (99)” rather than a whole man being found in a society. A man in America, in his opinion, is not a “farmer, professor, or engineer, but he is all (99).” The role of man has been parceled into numerous multitudes, and separated according to different types of jobs so that there is great difficulty in finding a whole man. He goes to the extent of saying that man, as well as society, is more like an amputated being cut into sections instead of functioning as a whole. Throughout his essay, he presents his idea that every man is a student, more so a scholar, and that when he is in his correct state of being, he is man thinking and not a mere thinker. The importance of this idea of Emersons is to say that man is not limited to a single role, but has a plethora of actions he could, and should take part in.
The education system, to Emerson, should work similarly to that of a young mind. “To the young mind, everything