Ebenezer G.P. Perinbaraj
1/22/2016
Robert Owen (1771–1858)
Biography (Extracted from Silver ed., 1-6)
 Born on May 14, 1771 in Newtown, Wales (Southwest Great Britain).
 Had brief small-town schooling and furthered his education by himself.
 He left to Stamford when he was ten years old and spent three years and then a short
time in London; moved to Manchester and worked as a draper’s assistant.
 In the 1790s, he studied Industrial administration.
 In 1800, he took over the management of the New Lanark Cotton Mills and he
revolutionized the industrial life and the society amidst several challenges. For
example, he increased the age of the children for employment and he introduced
infant education.
 In 1812-13, he wrote A New View of Society, that has four essays.
 In 1821, he established the London Co-operative and Economical Society
 In 1824, he landed in the U.S. and established a model community in Harmony, IN.
 In 1829, he returned to Britain and continued to be a mouthpiece for community and
humanity. Hundreds of Owenite cooperative societies emerged between 1821 and
1829.
 In 1832, he published his first newspaper, The Crisis with the aim of removing the
causes of ignorance and poverty by education and employment.
 His autobiography was published in 1857.
 Died on November 17, 1858.
Historical and Philosophical Context
 Impact of Industrialization: “Uprooted from their rural environment, the working
classes soon lost touch with the values and traditions of their former village heritage. Often
victimized by the economic and social policies of their employers, the industrial working
class became the dispossessed of the early nineteenth century. Yet this discontented class
served as a lever that affected dramatic social changes at the end of the nineteenth century
and in the twentieth century” (Gutek, 199).
 Advent of Communitarian Socialism: “Enlightened utopian socialists like Robert
Owen sought to ameliorate the workingman’s depressed condition through educational
reforms and the creation of model of factory communities” (Gutek, 199).
 Inclination toward Humanitarianism: “Although large numbers of the agricultural and
industrial poor were victims of an exploitative capitalism during the nineteenth century, this
period also revealed a decided inclination toward humanitarianism, which first took the form
of private reforming efforts by benevolent individuals such as Pestalozzi and Owen” (Gutek,
212).
Robert Owen’s Principles:
1. Character is universally formed for, and not by, the individual.
2. Any habits and sentiments may be given to mankind.
3. The affections are not under the control of the individual.
4. Every individual may be trained to produce far more than he can consume, while
there is a sufficiency of soil left for him to cultivate. (Owen 1927, 109-110)
Ebenezer G.P. Perinbaraj
1/22/2016
Robert Owen on Character Formation:
“Any general character, from the best to the worst, from the most ignorant to the most
enlightened, may be given to any community, even to the world at large, by the application
of proper means; which means are to a great extent at the command and under the control of
those who have influence in the affairs of men” (Silver ed., 71).
Robert Owen on Children:
“Children are, without exception, passive and wonderfully contrived compounds; which, by
an accurate previous and subsequent attention, founded on a correct knowledge of the
subject, may be formed collectively to have any human character. And although these
compounds, like all the other works of nature, possess endless varieties, yet they partake of
that plastic quality, which, by perseverance under judicious management, may be ultimately
moulded into the very image of rational wishes and desires” (Silver ed., 80).
Robert Owen on Children, Education & Character Formation:
“…the governing powers of all countries should establish rational plans for the education and
general formation of the characters of their subjects. These plans must be devised to train
children from their earliest infancy in good habits of every description (which will of course
prevent them from acquiring those of falsehood and deception). They must afterwards be
rationally educated, and their labor be usefully directed. Such habits and education will
impress them with an active and ardent desire to promote the happiness of every individual,
and that without the shadow of exception for sect, or party, or country, or climate (Silver ed.,
76).
Robert Owen on Knowledge:
“There is no knowledge except this which can make human nature truly benevolent and kind
to the whole of the species, and with the certainty of a mathematical demonstration, render
all men charitable, in the most enlarged and best sense of the term” (Owen 1927, 151).
Robert Owen’s Educational Components:
Students
Infants & Children
Teacher
One who is morally good and a Utopian Socialist
Curriculum
Character formation and rational education, formal book learning after ten,
reading, writing, arithmetic; sewing, cooking, and housekeeping for girls
Environment
Hospitable and kind, singing, dancing, and playing
Methodology Training, rational thinking, natural objects & visual aids, practical
experiments
Outcomes
Character formation, well-being of the individual and society, Utopia
Strategy
Educating Infants & Children for personal and societal transformation
through a good learning environment that stimulates rational thinking
Robert Owen and Traditional Philosophies:
Society - Platonic
Character - Socratic
Rationality - Aristotelian
Ebenezer G.P. Perinbaraj
1/22/2016
REFERENCE LIST
Gutek, Gerald Lee. 1995. A history of the Western educational experience. 2nd ed. Long
Grove, IL: Waveland Press.
Leopold, David. 2011. Education and utopia: Robert Owen and Charles Fourier. Oxford
Review of Education Vol. 37, no. 35: 619-635.
Owen, Robert. 1927. A new view of society and other writings. New York, NY: E.P. Dutton
& Co. Inc.
Silver, Harold. 1969. Robert Owen on education. Ed. New York, NY: Cambridge University
Press.
Tait, L Gordon. 1971. Robert Owen on character formation and education.
Religious Education, 66, no. 6: .450-456