Those Who Can’t Teach, Write Dictionaries: Approaches to Reform, 1755–1758

In the 1750s, both Samuel Johnson and Thomas Sheridan attempted to reform British society through linguistic reform. Johnson’s Dictionary took aim at the language itself, whereas Sheridan focused more broadly on systems of education. Both approaches to reform relied on top-down methods of imposing order on a society perceived to be disordered. And both approaches largely failed to achieve their highest objectives. Sheridan’s efforts to establish the Hibernian Academy illustrate the challenges of creating the kind of endowed public institution he envisioned. His failure provides a context for understanding the success of his protégé, Samuel Whyte, who approaches education reform by establishing his own school that models what an independent school can accomplish.