William Torrey Harris
| William Harris | |
|---|---|
 |
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| United States Commissioner of Education | |
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In office September 12, 1889 – June 30, 1906 |
|
| President |
Benjamin Harrison Grover Cleveland William McKinley Theodore Roosevelt |
| Preceded by | Nathaniel Dawson |
| Succeeded by | Elmer Brown |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
September 10, 1835 North Killingly, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Died | November 5, 1909 (aged 74) Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Yale University |
| Signature |  |
William Torrey Harris (September 10, 1835 – November 5, 1909) was an American educator, philosopher, and lexicographer.
Born in North Killingly, Connecticut, he attended Phillips Andover Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. He completed two years at Yale, then moved west and taught school in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1857 to 1880, where he was superintendent of schools from 1868 to 1880, and established, with Susan E. Blow, America's first permanent public kindergarten in 1873. It was in St. Louis where William Torrey Harris instituted many influential ideas to solidify both the structural institution of the public school system and the basic philosophical principles of education. His changes led to the expansion of the public school curriculum to make the high school an essential institution to the individual and to include art, music, scientific and manual studies, and was also largely responsible for encouraging all public schools to acquire a library.
As Commissioner of Education, Harris wrote the introduction to then Commissioner of Indian Affairs, Thomas Jefferson Morgan's, Bureau of Education Bulletin (No. 1, 1889) on Indian Education. Harris called for the forced and mandatory education of American Indians through a partnership with Christianity in order to promote industry. It was Harris who called for the removal of Native children from their families for up to 10 years of training for the "lower form of civilization" as opposed to the United States government's policy of exterminating them. Harris wrote, "We owe it to ourselves and to the enlightened public opinion of the world to save the Indian, and not destroy him. We can not save him and his patriarchal or tribal institution both together. To save him we must take him up into our form of civilization. We must approach him in the missionary spirit and we must supplement missionary action by the aid of the civil arm of the State. We must establish compulsory education for the good of the lower race."
As a patriarchal elitist, Harris chose to forgo the separation of church and State in order to subjugate the basic human rights of a group of people he deemed as socially inferior. Through his educational practices, Harris influenced generations of discrimination in high school and college instruction.
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