John Griscom

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John Griscom (born September 27, 1774 in Hancock's Bridge , Salem County , Province of New Jersey , † February 26, 1852 in Burlington , New Jersey ) was an American educator . He made a major contribution to early childhood education in the United States and was also one of the first American teachers to teach chemistry.

Life

John Griscom belonged to a Quaker family and, like all sons of small farmers, spent his teenage years preferring agricultural activities and attending only part of his time in nearby schools. At the age of 17 he opened a small school himself. Although he had to work partly as a farmer every day, his company made such progress that he decided to devote himself entirely to teaching. To complete his education he attended the Friend's Academy (Quakers) in Philadelphia for a while and then took a teaching position at the Quaker School in Burlington, with which he remained in contact for 13 years. He began with three students, but made the school so famous that it attracted students from Philadelphia, New York, and even New England .

Griscom diligently read the English classics and formed a club for reading newspapers published in England . His favorite study, however, was chemistry , and after obtaining the necessary literary tools and apparatus, he opened a course of public lectures on the science in his classrooms in 1806. The following year Griscom moved to New York, where he has been a teacher for 25 years. In connection with his school he expanded his lectures on chemistry here, and as early as 1808 he was able to erect his own building with rooms for school lessons and also for his lectures. The following winter his course gathered a large audience. Many respected teachers and doctors in New York followed his lectures closely. Griscom used the annual vacation to go on trips to more distant parts of the United States. In 1818 and 1819 he made a major trip across Europe, visiting the United Kingdom , France , the Netherlands and Switzerland . During this stay in Europe he turned his attention not only to educational institutions of all kinds, but also to factories, prisons and philanthropic institutes. He reported the results of his trip in an interesting book: A year in Europe, comprising a journal of observations in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Switzerland, the north of Italy and Holland, in 1818 and 1819 (2 volumes, New York 1823).

Even before that, Griscom had turned its work several times to philanthropic endeavors in its homeland. He played a key role in founding the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism (1817), for which he drafted the statutes and published the first report on the causes and means of remedying pauperism , which was well received. Associated with the efforts of this society were efforts to reform the reform system and the penal institutions. In particular he worked for the establishment of special prisons for juvenile offenders and in 1828 obtained the establishment of a House of Refuge in New York, the first institution of its kind in the United States. Another Griscom undertaking was the establishment of a Lancaster system high school in New York , which flourished from 1825 to 1831, often numbering around 650 students. This institute was under his supervision and he himself gave lectures and examinations on all subjects.

Meanwhile, Griscom had been appointed to the chemistry chair at Rutger's medical college . This school had separated from the New York State Medical School and soon had more students than the state institution, but was closed after some time because the state invalidated the degrees it had granted. In the winter of 1829/30 Griscom gave a cycle of lectures on physics for the Mercantile library association . In 1832 he took over the management of a Quaker college in Providence , but he resigned this post after two and a half years of service. At the same time he held courses on chemistry and natural philosophy in several places . He then retired to Haverford , Pennsylvania , where he lived with his married daughters. He later turned to Burlington, New Jersey, where he has remained ever since. During the last years of his life he lectured more often in various places and also served as the director of the public school system in Burlington. He also participated in the reorganization of the elementary school system in New Jersey. He died in Burlington on February 26, 1852, at the age of 77.

For many years, Griscom had written abstracts of chemistry-related scientific articles that had appeared in foreign journals for the American Journal of Science founded by Benjamin Silliman . He also wrote Monitorial Instruction (1825). He first had a born Haskins married, had several children by her and after her death at an old age she married Rachel Denn from Salem. A biography of Griscoms ( Memoir of John Griscom , New York 1859) was written by his son John Hoskins Griscom (1809–1874), who lived as a respected doctor in New York.

literature

Remarks

  1. ^ Thomas Shourds: History and Genealogy of Fenwick's Colony , 1796, p. 144 ( online on Google Books).
personal data
SURNAME Griscom, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American educator
DATE OF BIRTH September 27, 1774
PLACE OF BIRTH Hancock's Bridge , Salem County , New Jersey
DATE OF DEATH February 26, 1852
Place of death Burlington, New Jersey