The prevailing general aim of American education in 1895 was the accumulation of knowledge. When the Herbartian appeared on the scene, he demanded something more. He called this something more “morality.” To the Herbartian, morality was not a strictly religious concept, and he argued that the achievement of right conduct or the development of an ethical view was within the province of educational aims. He viewed morality in two interrelated perspectives. From one angle he stated the goal of education in terms of individual character because he believed firmly in the importance and the uniqueness of the individual child. From another perspective, the one which received the most emphasis in Herbartian circles, he couched the ultimate purpose of education in terms of social morality. Regarding this latter the Herbartian believed that the historical tendency in America to exalt the individual had created certain repugnant “non-social” types of character. This belief, together with his view that the social and economic forces of the then rapidly expanding industrial and urban society had created a new cultural environment, an environment in which the school had yet to recognize its crucial role, caused the Herbartian to urge strongly in his Yearbooks that education promote a “new type of citizenship,” in short, social morality.

James G. Carter (1795–1849) is remembered as a champion of free schools. His writings and his work in the Massachusetts legislature furthered their cause. Histories of education tell of his efforts on behalf of the establishment of public institutions for teacher education. A neglected aspect of Carter's thought is his conception of the inductive method of Francis Bacon and his application of it to the subject of education.

A rumor early in 1799 brought together briefly the lives of Lord Castlereagh (1769–1822) and Dr. George Miller (1764–1848). Lord Castlereagh was then a newly prominent British statesman, later to become eminent as his majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs during the Napoleonic wars; Dr. Miller was a distinguished Irish clergyman, historian, and professor. This relationship, arising from the rumor that the British government would establish a new college at Armagh in northeastern Ireland, produced a remarkable but largely forgotten exposition of the problems of higher education in the late eighteenth century.

“As to writing, I confess to being sceptical as to its value. In at least one great institution, the knowledge of how to write has led to great difficulties in managing high grade cases, the men and women communicating with each other by means of notes.”