Humane Education Past, Present, and Future 3CHAPTER Bernard Unti and Bill DeRosa Introduction rom the earliest years of orga- need to correct children’s cruelty. tance of a virtuous citizenry devoted nized animal protection in “This tendency should be watched in to republican principles of gover- FNorth America, humane educa- them, and, if they incline to any such nance. This made education of the tion—the attempt to inculcate the cruelty, they should be taught the boy especially critical, since as a man kindness-to-animals ethic through contrary usage,” Locke wrote. “For he would assume authority over fami- formal or informal instruction of chil- the custom of tormenting and killing ly, chattel, property, and social insti- dren—has been cast as a fruitful other animals will, by degrees, harden tutions. Responsibility for educating response to the challenge of reducing their hearts even toward men; and the child for his leadership role rested the abuse and neglect of animals. Yet, they who delight in the suffering and with women, who were assumed to be almost 140 years after the move- destruction of inferior creatures, will the repositories of gentle virtue, com- ment’s formation, humane education not be apt to be very compassionate passionate feeling, and devotion— remains largely the province of local or benign to those of their own kind” buffers against the heartless struggle societies for the prevention of cruelty (Locke 1989). of the masculine public sphere. and their educational divisions—if Over time Locke’s insight raised Humane education provided one they have such divisions. Efforts to interest in the beneficial moral effect means of insulating boys against the institutionalize the teaching of of childhood instruction favoring the tyrannical tendencies that might humane treatment of animals within kindly treatment of animals. Growing undermine civic life were they to go the larger framework of the American comprehension of the importance of unchecked. Animals were nicely suit- educational establishment have had childhood experience and its impact ed for instruction that impressed only limited success. Moreover, on youthful character sustained a upon the child their helplessness and knowledge, understanding, and robust transatlantic publishing indus- dependence upon him and his consid- empirical measures of the impact of try devoted to the production of liter- erable power over them (Kerber humane education remain limited. In ature for children. In North America 1980; Grier 1999; Unti 2002). many respects humane education is the first juvenile works infused with The presence of the kindness-to- best seen as an arena of untapped the humane didactic began to appear animals ethic in antebellum child- potential rather than one of unful- in the late 1790s and early 1800s. The hood experience had still broader filled promise. earliest were reprints or excerpts of implications for the process of class English titles, but the genre quickly formation in North America. From gained important American enthusi- the 1820s onward, sympathy with The Origins of asts, including Lydia Maria Child and domestic animals, gradually encoded Harriet Beecher Stowe (Pickering in education lessons for children, the Kindness-to- 1981; Unti 2002). became an important means of incul- One explanation for the spread of cating such standards of bourgeois Animals Ethic the kindness-to-animals ethic lies in gentility as self-discipline, Christian Appreciation for the value of cultivat- its consonance with the republican sentiment, empathy, and moral sensi- ing kindness to animals in children gender ideology of the post-revolu- tivity. Moreover, as a household com- flowed directly from John Locke’s tionary United States. Early American panion, a domestic animal could observations on the subject. Although society assumed a set of paternalistic serve as a convenient real life medi- others had made the point previously, relationships both within and outside um for the practice and expression of in 1693 Locke offered the most the family, emphasizing the impor- compassionate feelings. Merciful prominent early statement of the 27 regard for animals became one hall- cruelty. Although many advocates cation they would push young citizens mark of a developing middle-class cul- adopted this approach, George T. toward what one reformer called the ture rooted in Protestant evangelical Angell of the Massachusetts Society “civilized life” of order, self-discipline, piety (Grier 1999). for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ani- civic loyalty, and respect for private In addition to their sociocultural mals (MSPCA) stood at its forefront. property. Between 1860 and 1920, the utility for instilling and enacting the Under Angell’s leadership, the common school movement, expand- principles of kindness and compas- MSPCA and its sister organization, ing its reach to include kindergarten, sion, the presence of animals in chil- the American Humane Education elementary, and secondary levels, dren’s literature fulfilled other didac- Society (AHES), provided both the became the dominant tradition in tic functions in nineteenth-century inspiration and the resources for American education. During the same domestic ideology. Narratives of ani- humane education, which became period, compulsory attendance re- mal life offered idealized conceptions central to the coalescence of a na- quirements—rare before the Civil of middle-class family relationships tional animal protection movement War—became universal, with Missis- and served as morality tales for during the last quarter of the nine- sippi the one exception (Butts and human domestic relations. By their teenth century (Angell n.d.). Cremin 1953; Cremin 1969). example the animal heroes of these Like the kindness-to-animals ethic Mann recognized the value of hu- narratives served to reinforce cher- itself, enthusiasm for humane educa- mane instruction, noting that ished norms of conduct and behavior tion of children within organized sys- the good man grows in virtue, and (Grier 1999). tems of education predated the anti- the bad man grows in sin....From Over time such functions helped to cruelty societies, coinciding with the the youthful benevolence that consolidate the place of animals in emergence of the common school rejoices to see an animal happy, the emotional framework of middle- movement. The massive influx of one grows up into a world-wide class domestic life. By the 1850s the immigrants in the 1830s and 1840s benefactor, into the healer of dis- kindness-to-animals ethic was a staple led some educators to envision the eases, the restorer of sight to the of juvenile literature as well as a fix- school as a central instrument of blind, the giver of a tongue to the ture of many middle-class homes. A assimilation, guiding immigrant chil- dumb, the founder of hospit- generation before the advent of orga- dren away from the “backward” cul- als....Another grows from cruel- nized animal protection in America, tures of their parents. Horace Mann ty to animals, to being a kidnap- the humane didactic was an estab- (1796–1859), universal schooling’s per, and enslaver, and seller of lished instrument of childhood social- best-known proponent, based his edu- men, women, and children. ization (Grier 1999; Unti 2002). cational philosophy on unlimited (Mann 1861) faith in the perfectibility of human Over time, humane values were beings and their institutions. His con- incorporated into formal systems of The Era of viction that the public school could education, including those inspired be the answer to all of the Republic’s by the object-teaching method associ- Organized problems had roots in the deepest of ated with the State Normal School at American traditions, including Jeffer- Oswego, New York, and its president, Animal sonian republicanism, Christian Edward A. Sheldon (1823–1897) moralism, and Emersonian idealism. (Sheldon 1862). Protection As Mann conceived the common Angell, influenced by Mann, After the anti-cruelty societies school, it would be a guarantor of stressed humane education’s utility formed in the late 1860s, humane social order that reduced the destruc- for ensuring public order, suppressing education became a vital objective of tive potential of class, political, or anarchy and radicalism, smoothing a burgeoning social movement specif- sectarian difference. This was not an relations between the classes, and re- ically devoted to the welfare of ani- unproblematic or unchallenged view, ducing crime. Humane education mals. In the earliest stages of anti- of course, and popular education was would be the solution to social unrest cruelty work, humane education a subject of intense debate (Cremin and revolutionary politics, he be- referred broadly to the instruction of 1969; Button and Provenzo 1983). lieved, and a valuable means for both adults and children. As the lim- By 1860 Mann’s ideals had reached socializing the young, especially the its of law enforcement-centered fruition, with public schools operating offspring of the lower classes. Angell approaches became clear, animal pro- in a majority of the states. Although also appreciated the significance of tectionists embraced early instruc- their philosophies varied, supporters the public school system as a forum tion in kindliness as a means of reduc- of the common schools hoped to for socialization in an increasingly ing adult crimes and prosecutions. improve children’s character by incul- secular society. He told the annual Accordingly they shifted their empha-