Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Part 1 Unravelling Talcott Parsons' theoretical development
- Part 2 Talcott Parsons: the roots of his thought
- 2 Talcott Parsons in relation to the thought of his time
- 3 The Amherst Papers
- Part 3 The development of theory
- Part 4 The theory
- Part 5 Parsons' theory as it stood at 1951
- Appendix Some recent publishing on Talcott Parsons' theory: a bibliographical essay
- List of references
- Index of names
- Index of Parsonian concepts
3 - The Amherst Papers
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Part 1 Unravelling Talcott Parsons' theoretical development
- Part 2 Talcott Parsons: the roots of his thought
- 2 Talcott Parsons in relation to the thought of his time
- 3 The Amherst Papers
- Part 3 The development of theory
- Part 4 The theory
- Part 5 Parsons' theory as it stood at 1951
- Appendix Some recent publishing on Talcott Parsons' theory: a bibliographical essay
- List of references
- Index of names
- Index of Parsonian concepts
Summary
Classical schooling and Amherst liberalism
In 1920 the eighteen-year-old Talcott commenced his studies at Amherst College. He had graduated from Horace Mann School for Boys in New York, a ‘highly unorthodox’ education in preparation for college. Horace Mann, a Unitarian educationalist from Massachussets, had founded a school which aimed to give ‘the best possible preparation for college to boys intellectually and personally fit to profit by going to college’. The school was ‘no place for weaklings or idlers’. The system was strict. ‘Students who had been absent or had fallen behind in academic work had to study on weekends to make up their deficiencies and to pass special examinations. Demotion in individual subjects and the elimination of generally weak students were established principles of the institution.‘ The temperature of the classroom was kept at 55–60 degrees F, but ‘it [was] found more satisfactory to let it fall below these limits than to rise above them’. In a word it was a school which was built upon the principle of the survival of the fittest. The aim of the school could be summed up in these terms: ‘If a boy wishes to hold his place in the school, he must deserve it’ (Prettyman 1915).
Staff–student camaraderie was facilitated by a sporting ethic. The young Talcott played soccer and was the manager of the only occasionally successful ice-hockey team.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Theory and Scholarship of Talcott Parsons to 1951A Critical Commentary, pp. 19 - 38Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1990