The man who changed American Education

Noah Webster (1758 – 1843)

American lexicographer, textbook author, spelling reformer,

political writer, and editor. He has been called

the "Father of American Scholarship and Education."

His "blue-backed" Speller books taught five generations of children in the US how to spell and read and his name became synonymous with the term "dictionary", the modern Merriam-Webster, first published in 1828 as

"An American Dictionary of the English Language."

Noah Webster was born in Connecticut (as native daughter Andree reminded me) and really left his mark despite having trained as and failing to make a living as a lawyer. One thing he did love was the world of words, and he believed that Americans should write as Americans, deciding by common usage what their rules should be. At first he accepted the English "u" in such words as "humour" and "colour", but later decided to drop them. Thanks to him the words "centre" and "theatre" became "center" and "theater", among many others he thought were too upper-class elitist and not to American taste. A great man, and a great mind. And a man of the people, too!

Unauthorized printing of his books, and disparate copyright laws that varied among the thirteen states, led Webster to champion the federal copyright law that was successfully passed in 1790.

(picture and bio from Wikipedia)

"Making a Mark" by Michael Serafin

I am not a rich man or very influential, and most of the people I've met weren't either, by the measure of gold or power. Looked at statistically, so few individuals meet this standard definition of "world-shaker" we write books about them, as if they were all-worthy of worship.

Well, maybe they are worthy of praise. They have excelled. They made a mark on this planet, and they are in our memory banks as legends, living or dead. Some are more notorious than beloved, of course (we could name names) but what should that matter, really? In virtually every case someone listened to them, looked to them as leaders, or admired their spirit.

These famous people were not "loners," none of them were. Oh, they may have lived and even died alone, but they persist in history because they were not as normal as we are. They were beyond and above normal. Perhaps you could even say ABnormal. They were Special. And because of that, they were noticed. And because they garnered this notice, you really must say they were Social people... their thoughts and passions became patterns for us all.

Do you think you are Special? I hope you do. I hope that you try to prove you are worthy, every day. But bear in mind that to be special, to excel, to carry on abnormally in a very normal world, you don't have a hope without someone to share it. You can't have a dream without help with its dreaming. You won't make a mark with no eyes wide to see it.