What a Man, Horace Mann

Horace Mann...who in education knows the name? Who in education knows the Mann? It is possible that in one of the many education courses I have taken, Horace Mann was mentioned; however, his name did not ring any bells when I began reading chapter two of Saving Schools. As a Massachusetts state legislator, Horace Mann first began trying to make laws that directly impacted adults. After figuring out that "men are cast-iron; but children are wax" (27), he turned his focus to bettering the lives of children, especially in regards to education. With his efforts, Massachusetts had its state Board of Education created, with Mann becoming the first state secretary in 1837. His goal was to move the state's schools from locally controlled and church dominated, to a more uniform, secular system of free education, with more a common curriculum and better teacher trainings. His ideas were there, but he did not quite meet all his goals.


Mann met resistance to his reform campaign; so much so that the Mass. Board of Education itself was challenged. Through his perseverance, the Board of Ed. remained and Massachusetts became the first state to introduce a compulsory education law in 1852. It was not until 1918 that every state had a compulsory education law, with Mississippi being the last. What I found interesting is that Horace Mann did not believe that schools were for everyone; his own children were taught at home by his wife Mary. This reminds me of public school teachers sending their own children to private schools because they do not believe in the schools of their own district...but that is for another discussion.


After Mann's death in 1859 and the Civil War, an office of the federal government, the United States Office of Education, began to gather statistics on schools. It was also around this time that states decided that most of the costs of schools should be supported by the local districts, and not the parents, which was previously the case. As with everything in education, it seems to revolve around money.


So what else from the chapter? Oh...immigration and xenophobia.


After WWI, the U.S. entered an anti-immigrant period (Sound familiar?). The patriotic spirit, along with the push for universal education, created an atmosphere of tension, especially between public and private education in Nebraska and Oregon. Both states attempted to close private schools. Nebraska believed that students should only be taught in English, whereas in Oregon, people wanted to ban all private schools. These cases went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which (obviously) declared the states' laws to be unconstitutional. Did you know that the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment provides individuals the right to send children to private schools? Well, now you do.



The leading argument between public and private schools was between Protestants and Catholics. For many years Catholic leaders asked the government to help offset the costs of their schools, stating that they too were taxpayers and because the public schools were mainly Protestant, Catholics had to send their children to private schools so that they would not be taught with Protestant prayers and from the King James Bible. (For those of you familiar with Teaching Tolerance Magazine, there is a great teaching resource, The Shadow of Hate: a History of Intolerance in America, which contains a story about this battle between the Protestant and Catholic schools, and the riots that ensued.)


Problems also arose relating to the new education battles regarding the schools of African Americans and whites, in the South as well as in in North. Also, in 1885, in San Diego, only four percent of Chinese Americans attended public elementary school, and San Francisco didn't open their doors to high school for Chinese students until 1905.


With the help of Mann, the U.S. education system made a gigantic leap, but as with everything, there are hurtles to overcome. His main contribution was his help in the spread of compulsory education. According to Peterson, it spread rapidly, mainly due to four reasons (35):

1. Rural communities saw local schools as a community-building institution.



2. Immigrants saw it as a way ahead for their children.



3. Trade unions saw it as a way to help end child labor.



4. Politicians saw it as another source of patronage and perquisites (a right or privilege).

With Mann helping to pave the way for education to receive more government attention, the door was opened for others to add their ideas of what could be done to improve the knowledge and learning of American students...make way for Chapter Two John Dewey and the Progressives.

Peterson, Paul E. "Horace Mann and the Nation Builders." Saving Schools: from Horace Mann to Virtual Learning. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap of Harvard UP, 2010. Print.