Noah Webster
Noah Webster (1758-1843) hated elementary school. He thought his teachers weren’t very good and he didn’t like what he was being taught. These experiences could have made him want to avoid education. Instead, he spent many years of his career reforming education for a new nation, the United States. He was patriotic and a great believer in the American Revolution and wanted to change old ways of education for a current time period and country.
He is most remembered for his dictionary which helped to spread new American ways of spelling and educate generations of students. Appropriately, his dictionary has changed with the times, adding new words, and changing its format, right up to the present time. In addition to the over-sized dictionaries, student dictionaries, and pocket dictionaries, the Webster dictionary is also online.
“It is an object of vast magnitude that systems of education should be adopted and pursued which may not only diffuse a knowledge of the sciences but may implant in the minds of the American youth the principles of virtue and of liberty and inspire them with just and liberal ideas of government and with an inviolable attachment to their own country.” — Noah Webster
The House
A visit to the Noah Webster House in West Hartford, Connecticut, allows you to learn more about this interesting and revolutionary character.
This is the fourth stop on our Connecticut Author Adventures Trail.
Rebecca Blake Beech
You must be logged in to post a comment.