AEE 501
Foundations of
Agricultural and Extension Education
 This is a picture
of Holiday Hall, the first building on the NCSU campus. At one time,
this single building housed the entire university. |
|
Introduction: |
By 1860 there were 300 colleges in America. Nearly all of these were private colleges based upon the liberal arts tradition. In order to be admitted one had to demonstrate proficiency in Latin and Greek. These colleges were definately not for the "common person" but were designed for the upper classes. Less than 10% of these colleges had courses in the "Natural Philosophies" (sciences). Agriculture and Mechanical Arts were not considered to be worthy of study. Even after the passage of the Morrill Act of 1862 which established a new type of college, the land-grant college where agricultural and mechanical arts were taught, it would be many years before they overcame the stigma of being "cow colleges." In this lesson we will learn more about the origin and evolution of the land-grant college. |
Lesson Objectives:
 |
At the completion
of
the lesson you should be able to:  Identify
the true father of the land-grant colleges. Describe
the provisions of the Morrill Act of 1862. Describe the
provisions of the Morrill Act of 1890. Discuss
the 1994 land-grant colleges. Explain
how the Morrill Act was implemented in North Carolina. Describe
the problems encountered by the new land-grant colleges. |
Learning Activities:
 |
Take the Land Grant Colleges pre-test to see how much
you need to learn. Michigan
State has a nice timeline
concerning land grant colleges. Watch two
videos on "Democracy's College" that show the development and growth of
a land grant college - Iowa State. Click here for the first
video and here for the second
video. See the
video about the People's
University - Penn State. Read "Reclaiming
a Lost Heritage: AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE LAND-GRANT UNIVERSITY
SYSTEM" Read Marcus's article "The Ivory
Silo: Farmer-Agricultural College Tensions in the 1870s and 1880s"
from Vol 60 No. 2 of Agricultural History. Read the Morrill Act
and the 2nd
Morrill Act Just who was Justin
Morrill? What did he look
like? A
scholarly look at the Land Grant Colleges and Morrill is provided in
the document Justin
Smith Morrill and the Politics and Legacy of the Land Grant College Acts.
The last part of this paper is refererence information. Want to know where all the land grant colleges are
located? The USDA has maps showing the locations.
View a timeline
showing
the development of agricultural and extension education in North
Carolina.
Pay particular attention to the events regarding land-grant colleges.
In 1995 the National Research Council published Colleges of
Agriculture at the Land Grant Universities: A Profile. This book is
on-line. You
are not expected to read it. However, you might want to browse the
table
of contents and flip through some of the pages. Use this as a resource
as
needed. View a a PowerPoint Presentation on Land Grant Colleges. You may also download the entire presenation as a Power
Point file. View a PowerPoint Presentation on Jonathan
Turner and Justin Morrill. You may also download
the entire presenation as a Power Point file. This presentation was
created by a former student in this class. |
Assignments:
 |
Complete the Land
Grant College worksheet. You can also open this worksheet as a
Microsoft Word document. Your American
Farmer report is due this week. |