|
|
Article: A job-training pioneer. (early American inventor/educator Peter Cooper)
- Article from:
- Policy Review
- Article date:
- March 1, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 Hoover Institution Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Peter Cooper had a simple idea: to build an institution that would enable working-class men and women "to acquire useful knowledge," he once wrote, "and to find and fill that place in the community where their capacity and talents can be usefully employed with the greatest advantage to themselves and the community in which they live." The result was a landmark in the history of American education: a private institution offering free instruction in practical knowledge and technological skills to the general public--the 19th-century prototype of continuing adult education and job training.
Born in 1791, the son of a Revolutionary War officer, Cooper had almost no ...