Horace Mann (1796-1859) is seen
as the father of American Education.
Mann had little formal education as a youth, gaining a lot of his early
education by reading books at the town library, where he learned enough to be
admitted to Brown University. After
graduation in 1819, he taught for a while, studied law and then entered
politics, where he soon became a rising star in the state assembly. Between
1837 and 1848, Mann became the best-known educator in America, and the
best-known American educator throughout the world.
To the diversity of social and
economic status, Mann wanted to introduce the "common school"; that
is, a school common to all the people that would provide a common and unifying
experience. Mann wanted to eliminate the
religious and class distinctions implicit in this dual system. Mann saw the school system as a promulgator
of class distinction where the students would be pitted against one another by
their difference in curriculum in the schools.
The common school would be commonly supported, commonly attended and
commonly controlled; its ultimate goal would be sociological and national
unity.
On the surface, this seemed
good-natured but as we see now, that we are in the future, this has allowed the
sociological to overpower the educational fundamentals.
Mann's faith was total. There were no restrictions, at least in his
mind, to what the common school could do.
He believed that the traditional curriculum could be universalized, and
that culture, previously reserved for the upper classes, could be democratized
or fairly balanced. In 1837, to the
surprise of those around this rising star of the state assembly, Mann was
appointed secretary to the board of education.
Through his post on the board, he influenced the educational system not
only of the state of Massachusetts but also of the entire United States. The basic skills of reading, writing and
arithmetic were just the start; over the decades, society has assigned many
other skills previously learned in the homes to be taught in schools. Now we have the secular and morally dysfunctional
“Department of Education”. Although the
board’s powers were limited at the time, it was able to affect public opinion
regarding school problems. Mann's only
instrument was the Annual Report he wrote, Mann’s 12 annual reports when he was
the secretary to the Massachusetts board of education are a record in which he
set forth his vision of what education should be in a free society. This strongly influenced the evolution of
modern education by meeting educational needs.
Mann, as a result of his
scholastic agenda, was then elected to the United States House of
Representatives to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John Quincy Adams,
where he served until 1853.
In Mann’s 12th annual
report, the culmination of the series, Mann contemplates the demise of the
educational system in America.
“And hence it is that the
establishment of a republican government, without well-appointed and efficient
means for the universal education of the people, is the most rash and
fool-hardy experiment ever tried by man. Its fatal results may not be immediately
developed,--they may not follow as the thunder follows the lightning,--for time
is an element in maturing them, and the calamity is too great to be prepared in
a day; but, like the slow-accumulating avalanche, they will grow more terrific
by delay, and, at length, though it may be at a late hour, will overwhelm with
ruin whatever lies athwart their path. It may be an easy thing to make a
Republic; but it is a very laborious thing to make Republicans; and woe to
the republic that rests upon no better foundations than ignorance, selfishness,
and passion.”
Mann goes on to say that a republic may grow in
numbers and in wealth; its armies may be invincible and its military power may
strike fear in the heart of nations around the world, but if the Republic of
America is “devoid of intelligence” it will eventually “rush with the speed of
a whirlwind to an ignominious end”.
Mann also adds this to his contemplation of an ignorant
United States of America.
“However elevated the moral
character of a constituency may be; however well informed in matters of general
science or history, yet they must, if citizens of a Republic, understand
something of the true nature and functions of the government under which they
live. That any one who is to participate
in the government of a country, when he becomes a man, should receive no
instruction respecting the nature and functions of the government he is
afterwards to administer, is a political solecism ( a mistake).”
Mann knew the dangers of
introducing the constitution to the classroom without a common and proper
teaching platform, because of the different renderings citizens held of the
constitution. He feared that teachers
and instructors would be chosen on account of their party affiliation: “or that
teachers will feign affinities which they do not feel”. Given the chance teachers would invent ways
to look attractive to those that are heading the school boards and even teach
falsehoods in which they do not even believe in so that they would be kept or
hired. Mann also knew that if the “tempest” of political strife were let loose
on the “Common Schools”, ‘they would be overwhelmed with sudden ruin.” The schoolroom is a theater for party
politics and Mann wondered with “what violence will hostile partisans struggle
to gain possession of the stage, and to play their parts upon it!” Mann’s solution was to elect prudential;
committees in each state that would make the political decisions for the
school, thus taking the fight out of the schools and placing them in the
streets and at the ballot box. This
reasoning demands that the school districts would be responsible for their own
political viewed school and course of study.
This of course gave the Federal government the opportunity after the
Civil War, during the Reconstruction period to take on a larger role in public
education, attempting to ensure Southern States would rectify the inequalities
caused by slavery. The lines between
public and private remained blurred much longer in higher education than in
elementary schooling mainly for the reason that the elementary and secondary
schools funding was provided by local money and a closer look by school boards
and parents controlled what the local schools were teaching.
Previous to the Civil War, it
had been planned to expand college attendance.
The Morrill Act of 1862*
established land-grant colleges enabled this to happen. By 1867, just after the
Civil War and during the period of reconstruction the House of Representatives
created the Education and Labor Committee.
Congress first authorized the Department of Education along with the US
Office of Education in 1867, eight years after the death of Horace Mann and
thirty years after his appointment to the position of secretary of the board of
education of the state of Massachusetts.
The department was just supposed to collect and disseminate information
on education.
I find it interesting that all
of these committees and departments were enacted almost 30 years to the date
after Horace Mann’s acceptance of the seat on the Massachusetts Board of
Education. 30 Years allows for a total
of three sets of students to finish the 10th grade. So, it might be safe to say that there were
some of Mann’s educated graduates that had been elected to Congress by that
time. Since this gave a generation of
instruction to students and the student’s children, it only follows that there
were those that grew up learning the thoughts of Mann and permitted this style
of education to become stronger and more developed. As Lincoln said, “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the
philosophy of government in the next”.
* Morrill
Land Grant Act gave to each state the proceeds from the sale of 30,000 acres of
public land for each member it had in Congress.
The money went to support vocational college courses in agriculture and
the mechanical arts. In some instances,
established colleges added these vocational courses, but in most cases, new
colleges were founded.
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