Birth of the Definitions Man

Yesterday Oct 16 1758 Noah Webster was born in West Hartford, Connecticut. His father was Governor of CT. He attended Yale at the age of 16 and served in the Connecticut militia. Yes he later became the author of Websters dictionary. In America he created the blue speckled book which was a grammar book for schools. At the time people spelled words how they wanted like colour or color. His dictionary unified the spellings and gave us the wonderfully fat resource that it is today!

He also wrote for textbooks, newspapers, loaned money to them and wrote essays for the Federalist political party. He even wrote out and through his cousin (a senator) got the first laws for copyrights set up.

Besides that I wanted to share with you a bit of an essay he wrote

"But every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country; he should lisp the praise of liberty, and of those illustrious heroes and statesmen who have wrought a revolution in her favor.

A selection of essays, respecting the settlement and geography of America; the history of the late revolution and of the most remarkable characters and events that distinguished it and a compendium of the principles of the federal and provincial governments, should be the principle school book in the United States. These are interesting objects to every man; they call home the minds of youth and fix them upon the interests of their own country and they assist in forming attachments to it, as well as in enlarging the understanding."

The man who was obviously dedicated to education and study, be he was also politically active and a patriot in his own right. While I would think that there maybe study material that is so important in life, he still wrote that the study of the country, history, heroes and its government was of the most importance.

Considering the state of the country now where we listen to someone who stands at a microphone and utters words that we can relate to and throws in the words change and hope as much as possible falls on uneducated ears. We are not studying of these things and most are ignorant of the bills and acts that have been and are being past and debated! Government by the people and for the people. Considering these words, if we are not educating ourselves with these most important things can we then govern ourselves or others adequately?