Henry Adams Influence On Education

| | | | | Henry Adams
The “American of Americans” learning through Saint Thomas Aquinas | [ ] [ ]Maria Guadalupe Mendoza-AvilaAmerican Civilization II
Dr. Hanssen
11 April 2013 |

Henry Adams
The “American of Americans” learning through Saint Thomas Aquinas Studying at the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas (named after Washington Irving, the first man to write Christopher Columbus’ biography) in 2013 opens students’ minds to being liberal arts thinkers constantly and efficiently. With that, comes learning about Saint Thomas Aquinas in Philosophy courses and even in other courses such as Literary Traditions, Economics, Modern Languages, Psychology and American and Western Civilization courses. There is always
a reference made to this great philosopher and thinker in present time universities. Well not only are people talking about Saint Thomas Aquinas in 2013 at the University of Dallas, but so did Henry Adams in the beginning of the twentieth century. The fact that Henry Adams is widely known in the United States of America as a historian, intellectual, writer and scholar among many other things, he is also an important part of the Adams’ politically known family who influenced our country in various ways, such a being Founding Fathers, presidents, intellectuals and having other greater effects on the nation, makes him the perfect candidate to be an intellectual man who was interested in the study of Saint Thomas Aquinas.
Even though Henry Adams was already influential in him, having been raised with an enormously intellectual and eye-opening family, he had his own struggles other than the ones that were presented to him by his family about the country on its own. He was able to learn on his own that education is much more than memorizing anything, to him; it was about living it and being an example of how to make history. He knew that the only way to be as influential as he really wanted to be was by broadening his own mind as much as he possibly could. He had grown up with a president grandfather and another influential grandfather, so to him it was important that
he knew what was going on in his surroundings and how he would deal with it. Henry Adams grew with an open mind and with many kinds of educations and influences but when he grew older he sought the studies of Saint Thomas Aquinas to help him realize the truth about humans and education. Of course, he was not the only intellectual of the time to write about this great philosopher and religious figure, but Henry Adams had a sort of closer connection to him because of the struggles he had faced growing up and in his married life as well. He knew that with the loss of his wife he had to seek another truth other than just politics. He was going through an internal battle growing up trying to learn as much as possible and to be a successful man as he was “supposed” to be because of his background and family, but he was going through so much pressure that he never really took the time to get to know his true self without others telling him how to be exactly.
Henry Adams was known to be an intellectual man but not because of his own accomplishments, which he later came up with by himself after going to Harvard College, but mainly because of his family.
He had grown up with the pressure to be a great man, the same way that his elder men had been. In his book, The Education of Henry Adams readers are exposed to his way of life as a child and growing up. The first three chapters seem to be a coming of age novel, but in a satire format. His words are not to be taken completely seriously at first because it becomes obvious that a lot of the dates and times he gives are not correct, but they are rather the opposite which makes readers wonder if they can even believe anything else he writes. Readers need to know his background story to understand that he is a great friend to John Hay who is another great man in the history of the United States of America. The thing is Henry Adams never held a position of authority in the White House or anything in the United States. His main influence was his writings and books that he would send to his fellow comrades. He would also have many letter correspondences with a lot of the most influential men of the United States at the
time.
Since Henry Adams was a man with a great family he was expected to do great things. In 1858 he graduated from Harvard College as Class Poet and also received an honorary award from the Law School. He helped influence the making of Harvard University from previously being Harvard College. In his personal book, he talks about the places he had received much education. But his first six chapters seem to be the most interesting and influential to his life because they are the ones that refer to him as a child until a teenager and young adult. It is obvious that those actions and things that happened to him during those first few years of his life and in this case, the first three chapters, were quite influential and moving for him. He was able to study in Quincy, Boston and Washington, not always formally, but by simply looking and being exposed to the environment and teachings there, he was able to make his own assumptions about the way life should be led and who should be allowed to do what. At first, his soul begins to be shaped with simply being exposed to hate and misery. He had been living in Quincy with his grandfather, a founding father, and was able to only see that his mind was being warped into an evil and hateful mind. Of course, he did not know that as a child because it was all he knew, but he was able to simply accept that as the way of life. He would see his grandmother alone and sad all the time so he thought that that was the way to live. Then came his experience in Boston and Washington where he was able to see first hand that the slave trade was a huge part of his family’s success and wealth. In Boston was where he began to be exposed to a lighter way of looking at life. He was able to not only see that the slave trade was wrong, but that there were ways to make everyone happy, not just themselves momentarily. He began to believe that human nature was good and it was the environment and the life that one lives that makes one behave a certain way. On Mount Vernon Street, he was exposed to the idea of Social Perfection, the Good, Suffrage, Common Schools, the Press, etc. He was convinced that with everyone’s education, if it were good enough, they would be influentially good as well. He was able to think that education in a perfect sense would lead to a perfect world full of perfection. He was influenced by:
“Were half the power that fills the world with terror,
Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts,
Given to redeem the human mind from error,
There were no need of arsenals nor forts.”
This was a clear example that he would want that kind of world for himself. Then he went on to study in Washington. In Washington he was exposed to main things in the White House and was able to see that Human Nature was not as good as he had wanted it to be. There were a lot of things that he could not do to change the way the country was being run and he had to just accept it that way. Then he went on to study in Harvard College where he was able to make a success of himself. He came out top of his class, of course, and was able to get much recognition from his colleagues and other influential people of his country. When he went to Berlin, he was exposed to the ideas that he had never been exposed to before. He wanted to bring them back to the United States but saw that they were also a waste of time to do so because no one would want to try to change the way they had been working for so long. When he went to Rome, which was the only place that the American parents thought fit to send their children to study, he was exposed to new ideas once again. He was able to see that peace is not something that one can achieve so quickly or efficiently all at once. He was able to study Roman history and saw that the Romans had tried to have peace before. He wondered how it was that such a great power would fall so quickly. He wondered if the same thing would happen to the United States. This thought worried him the most. It was here that he was exposed to the question of why does man fall? He became obsessed with trying to find the reason and sought Saint Thomas Aquinas. He was able to try to get his ideas from his Suma into something that everyone could understand. He began writing and studying Saint Thomas Aquinas to the point that he wrote a book on him called Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartes in which he was able to really explain where it was that Saint Thomas Aquinas came from and why he was so influential to the history, in his own words. He admits that God is proved through Saint Thomas Aquinas’ works and that through God is the only good. He had been trying to look for and find the good for so long that he had not tried looking for it in the real God before. He was astonished with the idea that even though Saint Thomas Aquinas was judged and hurt many times internally, he never gave up on God’s word. He kept his promise to keep it alive as long as possible. This was what changed Henry Adams as well. He had been so hurt with the death of his dear wife that he wanted to find a true reason to why it happened. He did not find a reason why it happened, but he did find a way of consoling himself. Which was by the works of God and Saint Thomas Aquinas specifically. He had the statue built for his wife as her funeral memorial and many wondered why it had been such a big deal to him. But he really loved her and found a better feeling when he did that for her. He had to search for the answer in many things, but the main reason he sought Saint Thomas Aquinas was because his understanding of Human Good was the best one he had come across his whole life.