Porter Edward Sargent (June 6, 1872 – March 27, 1951), born in
Brooklyn
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,
New York
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, was a prominent educational critic and founder of Porter Sargent Publishers in Boston in 1915.
["Porter E. Sargent (1872–1951"]
page at publisher's website (accessed 12 January 2012) In 1949, he was described as "probably the most outstanding and consistent critic of the American educational scene."
[
]
Early life
In his youth, Sargent's family moved to a ranch in San Bernardino
San Bernardino (; Spanish language, Spanish for Bernardino of Siena, "Saint Bernardino") is a city and county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a ...
, California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. In 1892, he became principal of a San Bernardino grammar school. The next year he went to study at Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, where he obtained his bachelor's (1896) and masters (1897).[ Among the professors who influenced him were ]William James
William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States.
James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...
, Nathaniel Shaler
Nathaniel Southgate Shaler (February 20, 1841 – April 10, 1906) was an American paleontologist and geologist who wrote extensively on the theological and scientific implications of the theory of evolution.
Biography
Born to a slave-holding fami ...
, Charles Eliot Norton
Charles Eliot Norton (November 16, 1827 – October 21, 1908) was an American author, social critic, and Harvard professor of art based in New England. He was a progressive social reformer and a liberal activist whom many of his contemporaries c ...
, and William Gilson Farlow
William Gilson Farlow (December 17, 1844 – June 3, 1919) was an American botanist, born in Boston, Massachusetts, and educated at Harvard (A.B., 1866; M.D., 1870), where, after several years of European study, he became adjunct professor of ...
.[ After graduation, Sargent taught school in ]Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, and did graduate research on neurology
Neurology (from el, wikt:νεῦρον, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine), medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of co ...
, publishing 10 scientific papers, but quitting before he received his doctorate. For a decade beginning in 1904, Sargent ran a travel school for boys, in which he led tours to Europe and other parts of the world.[
]
Publishing and educational criticism
In 1915, Sargent began publishing the ''Handbook of Private Schools''.[''Handbook of Private Schools'', book series, 1915–, ][Archives from portersargent.com]
/ref> Moehlman wrote that Sargent's "annual Forewords to the ''Handbook of Private Schools'' gradually evolved into the most comprehensive critiques of education published anywhere. His candid treatment of vested interests, of educational cant, of stuffed shirts, of the tradition-encrusted academic mind and, above all, the sacred cows of privilege and tradition brought them into more prominence with each succeeding edition."[ Because other publishers feared libel suits, Sargent was "forced to become his own
publisher."][
The ''Handbooks fourth edition (1918) was more than 700 pages in length, had dozens of chapters in four long sections entitled 1. "Introductory," (e.g., 'History of the private school,' 'The new school movement,' 'vocational education,' etc.), 2. "Critical Description of Schools and Summer Camps" (by gender, curriculum, region), 3. "Comparative Tables," and 4. "Educational Directories." Immediately after the table of contents, it also contained the following invitation to readers:
]
Parents and Prospective Patrons of the Private Schools are cordially invited to call upon or write Mr. Sargent for intimate information and unprejudiced advice. Please state the Problem clearly. No Fees are accepted.
Sargent's interests gradually expanded into many fields. Moehlman wrote that in the 1940s, because of Sargent's writings,
the annual critiques and other solid books, including one of poetry, that pour steadily from Porter Sargent's pen have developed a growing and regular audience. More than ten thousand people buy his books every year, and an estimated forty thousand more look over their shoulders to read without meeting the admission price.[
]
Reviewing one of Sargent's books in 1947, Edmund A. Opitz wrote that
what Porter Sargent says ... is important, but not so important as what he is. He is an independent and intelligent dissenter, a type once thought to be rather characteristic of New England and of which we were justly proud. It is our misfortune and the country's that this type is now rare ... He keeps his thinking open at both ends ... He is one of our best provokers of thought".
The ''Saturday Review of Literature
''Saturday Review'', previously ''The Saturday Review of Literature'', was an American weekly magazine established in 1924. Norman Cousins was the editor from 1940 to 1971. Under Norman Cousins, it was described as "a compendium of reportage, ess ...
'', reviewing Sargent's ''War and Education'' in 1943, wrote that "Every guild needs its gadfly, and none more than the teaching profession." It stated that readers of the book "will be shocked or delighted according to their temperaments."[
In 1949, Arthur B. Moehlman, also referring to Sargent as having the "role of a gadfly,"][ wrote that
]
Probably the most outstanding and consistent critic of the American educational scene since 1914 has been Porter Sargent of Boston, who is also a national authority on the private school. Always interesting, always stimulating, Charles A. Beard complained that he "keeps me up at night following the shooting stars and wondering what is to come next."
After Sargent's death in 1951, his son F. Porter Sargent (1915–1975) assumed leadership of the Porter Sargent publishing house.[History page at portersargent.com]
Written works (selected)
*''New immoralities: clearing 'the way for a new ethics''. Boston:Porter Sargent, 1935.
*''What makes lives''. Boston:Porter Sargent, 1940.
*''War and education''. Boston:Porter Sargent, 1943.
*''Between two wars; the failure of education, 1920–1940''. Boston:Porter Sargent, 1945.
*''The future of education''. Boston:Porter Sargent, 1945.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sargent, Porter
1872 births
1951 deaths
American educational theorists
Harvard University alumni
People from Brooklyn