author
William Torrey Harris
1835–1909
A major voice in American education in the late 1800s, this teacher, philosopher, and reformer helped shape public schooling while also bringing German idealist thought to a wider audience.
1 Audiobook
Report of the Committee of Fifteen Read at the Cleveland Meeting of the Department of Superintendence, February 19-21, 1884, with the Debate
by William Torrey Harris, A. S. (Andrew Sloan) Draper, H. S. (Horace Sumner) Tarbell
About the author
Born in Connecticut in 1835, William Torrey Harris built his career in St. Louis, where he taught in the public schools and later served as superintendent. He became one of the best-known educators in the United States, admired for his energy as an administrator and for the seriousness with which he connected education to philosophy.
Harris was closely associated with Hegelian thought and helped introduce those ideas to American readers through his writing, editing, and lecturing. He also cofounded the Journal of Speculative Philosophy, a landmark publication in the history of American philosophy.
From 1889 to 1906, he served as U.S. Commissioner of Education. His influence reached far beyond his own classrooms, touching debates about curriculum, school organization, and the broader purpose of public education. He died in 1909, remembered as both a practical school leader and a deeply intellectual public thinker.