Noah Webster.ppt

Noah Webster Noah Webster, Jr.?(October 16, 1758 – May 28, 1843), was a?lexicographer,, textbook pioneer, English spelling reformer,?political writer, editor, and prolific author. He has been called the Father of American Scholarship and Education. His blue-backed speller books taught five generations of American children how to spell and read, secularizing their education. His name became synonymous with dictionary, especially the modern?Merriam-Webster?dictionary that was first published in 1828 as?An American Dictionary of the English Language. Biography Webster was born in?New Hartford, Connecticut, to an established family. Though he never attended college, Websters father was intellectually curious and prized education; his mother spent long hours teaching Noah and his siblings spelling, mathematics and music.?At the age of six, Webster began attending a dilapidated one room primary school that had been built by West Hartfords Ecclesiastical Society. Many years later, he described the teachers as the dregs(渣滓) of humanity and complained that the instruction was mainly in religion. Websters negative experiences in primary school motivated him to improve the education experience of future generations. At the age of fourteen, ?he began? to prepare for entrance to?Yale College. He enrolled at Yale on his 16th birthday, studying during his senior year with the learned?Ezra Stiles, Yales president. His four years at Yale overlapped with the?American Revolutionary War, and because of food shortages and threatened invasions by the British, many of his college classes were held in other towns. His father had mortgaged the farm to send Webster to Yale, but the son was now on his own and had no more to do with his family. Webster lacked firm career plans after graduating from Yale in 1778, He briefly taught school in Glastonbury, found the working conditions to be harsh and the pay low, then left to study law to increase in earning power. After quitting his legal