Charles William Eliot
Charles William Eliot ( born March 20, 1834 in Boston, Massachusetts, † August 22 1926 in Northeast Harbor, Maine) was an American professor of chemistry, author and publisher. With a tenure of 40 years ( 1869-1909 ), he is still the longest-serving president of Harvard University.
Life
Born and raised Charles William Eliot in Boston. His father, Samuel Atkins Eliot (1798-1862) was mayor of Boston, U.S. Congressman and 1842-1853 Treasurer at Harvard. Charles W. Eliot himself visited in 1849 and Harvard College, where he graduated in 1853. There he taught mathematics and chemistry in 1854. Between 1858 and 1863 he held a position as assistant professor, before he lived in Europe two years. Here he studied in particular the education systems of France and Germany. In 1865, he returned and was Professor of Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In particular, his two-part article The New Education: Its Organization, which dealt with the reform of the education system in the United States and in 1869 appeared in Atlantic Monthly, was well received and eventually earned him the presidency in a Harvard.
Eliot as president
During his tenure, Harvard walked out of college into a modern university. At the Law School, he established the three -year training and completed the curriculum to specific case studies. The Medicine training was practical: The newly introduced laboratory work was soon enriched by the collaboration of Harvard University Boston hospitals. In addition, all subjects had to be filed written exams. Since 1872 it is possible to obtain a doctorate at Harvard. Eliot's efforts also extended to the training in secondary schools. So he called for increased teaching of foreign languages and mathematics in the seventh classes. With the introduction of Junior High Schools in the United States in 1910, these claims were eventually implemented.
In order to recruit the best staff met Eliot different decisions. Already in the first year of his presidency, he increased the salaries of 3,000 to 4,000 U.S. dollars. Also, were - unusual for this time - faculty members of any religion welcome as long as only improved the quality of education. So you could disconnect faster unneeded professionals, 1880 a pension system was introduced. There should be an incentive to retire.
However, the most famous innovation under Eliot is the electoral system that made it possible for undergraduates to choose next Mandatory events also from courses for more advanced students, rather than following a rigid predetermined timetable. The Graduate was left even completely free choice. That he called for more freedom for the students was also evident that during his presidency, the rule book has been reduced from forty to five pages.
1894 Eliot was the first to propose standardized entrance exams, which eventually led to a better coordination of the various colleges themselves. Already at the turn of the century Harvard had developed into an outstanding research institution. In 1909 he resigned from the office of President and was replaced by Abbott Lawrence Lowell.
Other activities
In addition to his post at Harvard, Charles W. Eliot was also active in the National Education Association (NEA ), the U.S. teachers' union, whose president he became in 1903. He also was a member of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In 1910, he gave the 50 -volume anthology Harvard Classics ( Dr. Eliot 's Five Foot Shelf called ) out, which should enable every man approach with a short daily learning to obtain a liberal education. Between 1914 and 1917 he was also active in the Rockefeller Foundation and was appointed in 1919 Honorary President of the Progressive Education Association.
Death and legacy
Charles William Eliot died on August 22, 1926 in Northeast Harbor, Maine, and was interred in the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was married twice. His first wife Ellen Derby Peabody, whom he had married in 1858, died in 1869 of tuberculosis. From their marriage had two sons. Among them was Charles Eliot (1859-1897), who was a famous Boston landscape architect. With his second wife, Grace Mellen Hopkinson (1846-1924), he had no children.
Charles W. Eliot was with Andrew D. White, James Rowland Angell and Daniel Coit Gilman of the outstanding educational reformers of the expiring nineteenth and early twentieth century in the United States.