Joseph Baldwin

Joseph Baldwin (October 31, 1827, some sources indicate October 27, 1827 – January 13, 1899) was a pioneering American educator, and called by some the "father of the normal school system".

Baldwin was born to Joseph and Isabella (née Cairns) in New Castle, Pennsylvania. His lifework has been characterized by a pair of related tensions: between religious zeal and a recognition of the need for teachers well-educated in secular subjects, and between potentially opposed emphases on technical training and the liberal arts in teacher preparation. He founded a series of educational institutions which survive into the present day, each of which still bears some mark of his influence.

A story told by his sister relates that, while plowing his father's fields, upon reaching the end of each furrow, he would pick up a book, find where he last left off, read the next paragraph, put the book down, and proceed to plow the next row. Headed back across the field, he meditated on the newly acquired fragment of knowledge.

He was educated in Bartlett's Academy, near New Castle, Pennsylvania. At the age of 18 he began keeping a diary which bears witness to a religiosity which would remain deeply interwoven with his educational philosophy throughout his career. "Saved" during a serious illness at fourteen, he continued to struggle with his "direful condition" in a search for salvation. He visited the sick and dying and attended the dead. Conversion and baptism renewed him (April 2–3, 1845), and he dedicated himself to serving Christ (May 1, 1845). At this early period, a sense of the tension between his religious and worldly impulses is evident. Secular reading was one of his distractions. He lamented: "I have spent a considerable portion of my time in reading History and Biography and thus have neglected the most important of books to wit the Bible. May in future make this my study and may I use it as my sword" (September 14, 1845).

Even at the age of eighteen, he had consciously dedicated himself to a religiously-conceived mission of educating the young. He thought "youth" (such as himself), deserving of eternal punishment but nonetheless worth "saving". In 1847, he attended school a full forty weeks and worked about a month and a half. Practicing what he preached, when he was invited to a party, he chose to spend his time studying rather "than in hurtful folly" (February 6). Passing a room where "many youths were engaged in mirthful danceing [sic]", he writes, "I was struck with the reflection that all these thoughtless youths must soon appear before the judge of all" (March 10). His stated ambitions evince an ambivalence between the desires for prominence and service: "I long to become an orator; that I may do good to my fellow men."

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