My Schools and Schoolmasters, or The Story of My Education

Miller, Hugh, 1802-1856Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.7
Word count
1.2M words
Chapters
116

Tags

English Originals Education Portrait GalleryInspirationIntellectual EnlightenmentGrowing UpSelf-Study Guide

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. My Schools and Schoolmasters; Or, The Story of My Education by Hugh Miller. Author: Miller, Hugh, 1802-1856. Language: English. Class: QE: Science: Geology. Release Date: Dec 22, 2009.

Editor's review

Hugh Miller's My Schools and Schoolmasters; Or, The Story of My Education is a first-person account of his upbringing and self-education. Born into modest circumstances, the author never received a complete formal education, yet through work as a stonemason and close observation of nature he accumulated a wealth of knowledge and writing ability, later becoming an important popular writer in geology. The book's value lies in extending "education" beyond the classroom to life, labor, and reading, showing how one person shaped himself through curiosity, books, and field observation. The prose carries the plainness and eye for detail of nineteenth-century autobiography, offering both personal memory and finely observed descriptions of the natural world. Reading it offers insight into the intellectual path of a self-taught man and prompts reflection on the relationship between formal schooling and self-education. This is a public-domain English ebook, suited to readers willing to read slowly and interested in the intersection of coming-of-age narrative and science-humanities writing.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read the opening chapters first to understand the author's early environment, then proceed chronologically.
  2. Note the books and natural observations mentioned, and compare them with your own learning experience.
  3. After each stage, summarize in a few sentences what abilities the author gained.
  4. If geology interests you, pair this with an introductory text; don't expect systematic knowledge here.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75
  76. 76
  77. 77
  78. 78
  79. 79
  80. 80
  81. 81
  82. 82
  83. 83
  84. 84
  85. 85
  86. 86
  87. 87
  88. 88
  89. 89
  90. 90
  91. 91
  92. 92
  93. 93
  94. 94
  95. 95
  96. 96
  97. 97
  98. 98
  99. 99
  100. 100
  101. 101
  102. 102
  103. 103
  104. 104
  105. 105
  106. 106
  107. 107
  108. 108
  109. 109
  110. 110
  111. 111
  112. 112
  113. 113
  114. 114
  115. 115
  116. 116

FAQ

Is this book mainly about schooling or self-education? Though the title mentions "schools and schoolmasters," the focus is closer to the full influence of family, labor, reading, and nature observation. It shows how one person was shaped by environment, books, and those around him, with formal schooling only one part.
Can I read it without a geology background? Yes. This is autobiographical narrative; geological content is mostly tied to the author's life observations and work experience and does not require professional knowledge. For deeper understanding of the science, pair it with an introductory geology text, but no preparation is necessary before reading.
Is this book suitable for studying the history of education? It can serve as personal narrative material, helping readers understand the learning conditions, reading resources, and self-education methods of ordinary people in the nineteenth century. But it is not a scholarly work on educational history, lacking systematic statistics and theoretical analysis; it should be used alongside other historical sources.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Miller, Hugh, 1802-1856 Author

Hugh Miller (1802–1856) was a Scottish writer and geologist known for lucid, literary nature writing. Four of his works are held here, spanning geology and personal memoir. The Testimony of the Rocks blends geological observation with religious reflection; The Cruise of the Betsey records his experiences at sea; My Schools and Schoolmasters recounts his self-taught education; and Leading Articles on Various Subjects shows his journalistic side. His clear, vivid prose turns specialist observation into narrative accessible to general readers, giving him a place in nineteenth-century science popularization and autobiographical writing. Public information is limited, so biographical details are omitted; readers may chiefly come to know his style and concerns through these works.