Harris, William Torrey

Related Category: Education: Biographies

1835–1909, American educator and philosopher, b. Windham co., Conn., educated at Yale. He was superintendent (1868–80) of the St. Louis public school system and was U.S. commissioner of education (1889–1906). In 1873, with Susan Blow, he established in St. Louis the first permanent kindergarten in the United States. He interpreted German philosophical thought, particularly Hegelianism, in his books and in the pages of the Journal of Speculative Philosophy, which he founded and edited (1867–93). His books include Hegel's Logic (1890, repr. 1970) and The Psychologic Foundations of Education (1898, repr. 1969).

See biography by J. S. Roberts (1924); K. F. Leidecker, Yankee Teacher (1946, repr. 1971).