Guided Response: Review several of your classmates’ posts, analyzing their reasons American Colonial colleges did not emulate the Oxford and Cambridge ideal. Respond to two of your classmates, making suggestions for expanding their viewpoints. Provide justification for your reasoning. 

Thelin (2011) noted that the English universities Oxford and Cambridge greatly influenced early American higher education. In addition, Oxford and Cambridge were autonomous, privately endowed and linked to a federation. The collegiate system of combining learning and living was a seminal plan for higher education that college founders tried to capture for the American colonies. Discuss the various ways in which early American Colonial colleges did not emulate or resisted replicating the Oxford-Cambridge ideal. Describe the reasons for these changes and what the change agents were.  Consider important factors such as college funding, curriculum, religion, architecture, and the student population. What is your opinion about the changes? Do you feel that the established political powers should have taken a different direction or kept some of the key elements of the Oxford-Cambridge ideal? Explain why or why not.

English Universities were the original trend-setters for prestige level of higher education. The education of this English Universities is distinctive and yet made difficult to emulate.  An agent of this is that these schools such as Oxford and Cambridge had more financial funding supports than the American Colonial Colleges. The funding allowed for the Oxford- Cambridge to operate differently and conduct academic procedures in a more sophisticated way.  Oxford and Cambridge consisted of a smaller breakdown of colleges that were intended to preserve each its own heritage, tradition, funding, and emphases (Thelin, 2011). Their education ideologies and pedagogy encompass both extracurricular learning and academic coursework. Meanwhile, the American College just focused on the academic curriculum, however, the level of the curriculum was still far below the academic expectation of the English Universities.

Even in the appearances of the two different institutions is hard to replicate. In told society, we value the architecture of those old historical build college. However, according to the text “America’s colleges took more than two centuries to match the appearance of Oxford and Cambridge” (Thelin, 2011).  I think the ideal and concepts of the designed building resembled the influences of the England colonies. Both types of institutions hosted building that reflects the cultural Anglo-Saxon England society.

During this time period, the political establishment was still being governed by religious influences. However, I think it was an excellent choice to not replicated the English Schooling institutions. The American Colonial Colleges hold vital American cultural values and it is the core of all higher education learning in today’s post-secondary educational system.

Reference

Thelin, J. R. (2011). A history of American higher education (2nd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 

Amanda Baker

Week 1: Discussion 2
Thelin (2011) noted that the English universities Oxford and Cambridge greatly influenced early American higher education. In addition, Oxford and Cambridge were autonomous, privately endowed and linked to a federation. The collegiate system of combining learning and living was a seminal plan for higher education that college founders tried to capture for the American colonies. Discuss the various ways in which early American Colonial colleges did not emulate or resisted replicating the Oxford-Cambridge ideal. Describe the reasons for these changes and what the change agents were. Consider important factors such as college funding, curriculum, religion, architecture, and the student population .What is your opinion about the changes? Do you feel that the established political powers should have taken a different direction or kept some of the key elements of the Oxford-Cambridge ideal? Explain why or why not.

From what I have read, it seems that the colonial colleges really responded to the Oxford-Cambridge ideal of “mixing living and learning.” (Thelin, 2011) However, beyond that, there were a lot of differences in the vision that the colonial colleges had for themselves that went against the Oxford-Cambridge ideal. They found that Oxford and Cambridge were “distinctive in their governance and formal legal structures.” (Thelin, 2011) Oxford-Cambridge chose to have academic instruction and activities centered within the respective college itself. Any and all examinations and degrees to be awarded with through the university. This ran in stark opposition of the American colonial college. The colonial colleges were among the first to actively fuse student instruction with certification.There was not that separation of college and university, they wanted to marry the concept of being all inclusive versus keeping them apart.

There was also the “honeycomb” to consider. Each university was branching and had not one, but a network of colleges within it. The text states that there were sixteen colleges in all. It seems a bit needlessly complex, which might have helped motivate American colleges to provide the singular college experience. In addition, the money simply wasn’t there for the American colonial college system. In fact, “America’s colleges took a long time – more than two centuries – to match the appearance of Oxford and Cambridge.” (Thelin, 2011)The financial issues were highlighted in the architectural differences between Oxford and Cambridge over the American colleges. When attempting to emulate Oxford-Cambridge’s buildings, most colleges ended up running out of money before they could even complete the construction. This model also was considered self-indulgent with buildings that were present for looks and not function whereas buildings that needed more were neglected (i.e. laboratories and provisions).

After reading our text, I actually prefer the method that the American colonial colleges chose. As gorgeous and forward thinking as Oxford-Cambridge was, their ideal was in some ways, guided by aesthetic and not function. Smaller schools with a greater focus on learning seems to be the way to go. There were some benefits to this ideal, but at the end of the day, what worked for that time would not necessarily work in a 21st century classroom with the modern student in mind. The focus to not separate the learning and examinations/degree awarding seemed to be a smart one to make. Sometimes it’s just better to keep things simpler and less complicated.

References

Thelin, J. R. (2011). A history of American higher education (2nd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.