Heard somewhere in time, behind the walls of education, the words:
"God seems to have made woman peculiarly suited to guide and develop the infant mind, and it seems...very poor policy to pay a man 20 or 22 dollars a month, for teaching children the ABCs, when a female could do the work more successfully at one third of the price."
-- Littleton School Committee; Littleton, MA (1849) Source: PBS
It is hard for some people to believe but such was the thoughts behind starting public schools in the early days. Only then, the school would be known as "common school." Seems there was never really enough money to make compulsory education work, and this even from the very beginning. It seems that some things never really change. And try as you might, you just cannot improve on a home grown education.
There is no doubt, that learning is important, but learning is something human beings naturally do... learn and think. School is not a bad idea, neither is the concept of public education. What is a bad idea, is learning, without learning about God. It is also poor policy to skip on paying someone to do a very important job. And think about this too, if education is such a great thing, something desirable, why then make it a point to force all children to leave home at the age of five to be educated outside of the family home. Interesting, to this day, parents still want to be educating their own children and many public school teachers feel over-worked, and underpaid.
But let's go back to the year 1849, when the newest thing in America was public schools, and the state was hiring educated women to teach, because it was a waste to pay "too much" (the normal pay for a man, earning a living for a family) to have someone simply teach children the ABC's. Common Schools, as they were called back then, were intended to give everyone a common root, a common education, and were started by none other than "the Father of American education" Horace Mann.
Have you heard of Horace Mann? He has written several books, there are schools and insurance companies named after him. He is quite famous, even dubbed, "the Father of the Common School" or "the father of American Education..." but he himself, is a self-taught, self-educated man, who never went to elementary school himself. How is it then that he would start schools for the masses?
Horace Mann, peer to John Quincy Adams, relative of Nathaniel Hawthorn, was himself quite well- educated. He was born in 1792 on a farm in Massachusetts, the books say, to a "poor farmer." The books also tell us that as a child he was under great hardship because his family was "poor" and he did not get to have an education, instead he had to work to earn money for his books, from which he learned. (A plug for free and public government paid-for education?) One thing is obvious as you read about Horace, is that he always had an interest in learning. Resources said that he spent time in the Benjamin Franklin library as a youth, reading and learning. The history books on Horace Mann, make it sound like he lived the "American Dream," the kind of man who succeeded, "despite the odds."
My various sources also said that he got "formal " education only about six weeks out of every year until he was twenty years old. Then, when he was twenty, he went off to university. At University, Horace did so well, that after being there only three years he graduated as valedictorian of his class! Seems to me, his personal history is a lot like the home-educated (homeschoolers) of today! It is all validation for homeschooling your own inquisitive, self-motivated, hard working children if you can.
After graduating from the university, Mann went on to teach Latin and Greek to others and in time he even went on to pass the Massachusetts bar exam. As a lawyer he then became interested in governmental affairs and went into politics. HE was a man interested in the politics of the day, social justice issues, (temperance, abolition, woman's rights, and creating hospitals for the mentally ill,) but most notably, he was interested in the idea of creating public education, where everyone would have the opportunity to learn to read and write.
Horace Mann eventually became the first secretary of the first school board that his home state of Massachusetts ever had and as such became a part of education's history. Thus began his life's work of creating and promoting to Americans in the New World the idea of government-run, tax paid for, compulsory education for all America's children.
His concept of mandatory, state-sponsored education, was not his own however; nor was it modeled after his own (homeschool-like) educational experience. If you will remember, Horace himeslf was self-taught and a self-motivated learner, not taught to the tune of a hickory stick kind of guy. In fact, as mentioned earlier, by today's educational standards one would think of a man like Horace to be what we would call, a "homeschooled" child..
No, Horace had never been to school himself, instead Horace spent his days under his parent's care and tutelage, observing nature and working side by side with his mom and dad and reading books. He admittedly got little, if any "formal school," and yet, he was able to both learn and then go on to higher education and do quite well, like most men and women of his day, like many other famous homeschoolers in history. Horace was the kind of person that appreciated the value of education....and altruistically, education, was something he loved. Altruistically, Horace, as a politician and visionary social reformer, wanted everyone in America, every citizen, to be able to have an "free" education.
Unfortunately, and maybe outside of his scope of what he imagined, Mann's ideal educational system locked children behind the four walls of a mandatory institutionalized classroom every day. Such compulsory schooling served only to erode the family and home businesses, not to mention the freedom of a young child to self-study things of interest to him, to play and be a kid, to explore the world around him on his own, to be close to nature and siblings in his family. The idea for such a system came to him as he traveled abroad, to see what other countries did to educate their youth. He went to PRe World War 1 Germany, and there he fell in awe of Prussia and Prussian education. Upon his return from Europe, Mann began his most notable work, "education reform," modeling American education after what he has seen abroad.
Perhaps this idea of "Education Reform, " will always be a "work in progress." It was an issue in the 1800's and it is an issue on the forefront of our politically minded minds even today. The notion appears to rear it's head time and time again. Perhaps this perpetual "educational reform concept," is just more ecclesiastical evidence to those with ears to hear, that there really "is, nothing new under the sun."
Mr. Mann, now armed with his new and great, almighty vision of what an ideal educational system looked like, (this based upon Germany... then better known as the Kingdom of Prussia,) and with his political power in tow, he basically justified a state takeover of all existing schools. It seems that the diverse educational experiences that they offered, and in particular, their oft, Christian religious overtones were "a problem," a giant to be conquered by legislation, controlled via more and more government money and of course, control. The new and improved, approved form of education was government owned and operated, and compulsory schools, (common school) for all the people, paid for by the people who paid taxes to the state.
Horace Mann's goal, however, was more than merely that of providing an education. As a humanist and as a Unitarian (religiously speaking,) was to replace the obviously Christian instruction that then took place in America's independent schools, to work more to secure the common "good." Mann is often quoted, having said, “What the church has been for medieval man the public school must become for democratic and rational man. God will be replaced by the concept of the public good…The common schools…shall create a more far-seeing intelligence and pure morality than has ever existed among communities of men.” He was in the business of creating public (man-made) schools, and he believed that these would prove to be better than both God and church in the lives of men.
One realistic and very tangible problem with the new idea from the very inception of it, was that there were never enough teachers...well, at least, not enough men, and with a new and small governement, there was not enough pay offered.. not enough taxes generated ... (yet...) to keep an educated man, interested in teaching children what they could easily be taught at home by their own parents. Most men had businesses to run, farms to work and the more educated "school masters" of the day would not stoop so low as to actually teach children the ABC's ." The plan was nearly thwarted, except smart people decided that "a female could do the work more successfully at one third the price."
From 1830-1880, the call then went out to women everywhere, to leave their homes and earn a wage, particularly if they were fifteen or sixteen (unencumbered) and could read and write. If older, they could put their own children in common school, and earn a second income for their families. Both their wage and the children's education would be paid for by the government. Teaching was not an easy job, teachers soon had to answer to strict rules and regulations, besides, sometimes there was as many as 60 students in one "common school" classroom. Such was the beginning of Mann's "common schools," in America.
Common schools though, were not enough. Soon it was apparent that teachers needs training... and what was called "normal schools" were established by the government as well, (now replaced by teacher in-service days and workshops.) These Normal schools... (also encouraged by Horace Mann,) were schools for teachers, a place for teacher training, where one would go and study a "scientific" curriculum, learn what values and standards to teach in class. But these Normal Schools were phased-out over time, Christian Colleges and State Universities sprang up and took the lead, offering education degrees to those interested in teaching as a profession.
Horace was an innovator... he wanted to see change, and he sought to change the way that people learned, to change the way education in the life of an individual came about. Mann was a man who was not particularly interested in church, not particularly interested in the God of Christianity, but he was a moral man, a pietist of sorts, who wanted fairness and wanted to work for the betterment of all human beings. He believe that humanity was kind and compassionate, and that people everywhere, if given a chance, desired to do good things, much like himself.
Today, even the Horace Mann School in New York is innovative. They don't just want to educate children, they want to train them to better the world, to create environments where people are respected for who they are, to have environments "free of harassment, racism, bullying, and other behaviors that could make someone feel unsafe or unvalued." Like our current public schools they even strive to partner with parents so that the "values taught in the home and those presented in school are mutually respected and supported." All of these are good goals, but something is missing in the mix. There is no absolute of God. There is however, belief in something called humanity.
One of Horace Mann's most quoted statements is:
"Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity."
Morals, character, service to humanity... Horace Mann, no doubt, had noble aspirations, but unfortunately he believed in humanity's goodness and this instead of God. Mann's personal philosophy was one that gave him insight into life and learning, he was an avid learner himself. He was someone who made a difference, who had a vision for a better world. But unfortunately in this he set out to replace the church and the family, with government. He gave the free world "forced education" and higher taxes.... needed to pay for his grand idea of government owned and operated, non-sectarian, common schools. As an educator he leaves us his legacy of school replacing church in the lives of individuals today.....and teachers, following in his footsteps, learning Mann's philosophy,
"There's really nothing more rewarding than seeing a student who has incredible potential being reborn as a good student." -- Alex White, an English teacher at New York's Urban Academy. New York, on a PBS program, Only a Teacher, Public School Pioneers; 2000
Lisa B.
A small sampling of the wisdom of Horace Mann (1796 - 1859)
"The experience of the ages that are past, the hopes of the ages that are yet to come, unite their voices in an appeal to us; they implore us to think more of the character of our people than of its vast numbers; to look upon our vast natural resources, not as tempters to ostentation and pride, but as means to be converted, by the refining alchemy of education, into mental and spiritual treasures-and thus give to the world the example of a nation whose wisdom increases with its prosperity, and whose virtues are equal to its power."
~Horace Mann
" Jails and prisons are the complement of schools; so many less as you have of the latter, so many more must you have of the former." ~Horace Mann
"As an apple is not in any proper sense an apple, until it is ripe, so a human being is not in any proper sense a human being until he is educated." ~Horace Mann
" Education is best provided in schools embracing children of all religious, social, and ethnic backgrounds." ~Horace Mann
"In our country and in our times no man is worthy the honored name of statesman who does not include the highest practicable education of the people in all his plans of administration. He may have eloquence, he may have a knowledge of all history, diplomacy, jurisprudence; and by these he might claim, in other countries, the elevated rank of a statesman: but unless he speaks, plans, labors, at all times and in all places, for the culture and edification of the whole people, he is not, he cannot be, an American statesman. " ~Horace Mann
"The object of punishment is prevention from evil; it never can be made impulsive to good." ~Horace Mann
"In trying to teach children a great deal in a short time, they are treated not as though the race they were to run was for life, but simply a three-mile heat." ~Horace Mann
For Further Information of your own, you may want to explore the websites I did:
pbs.org ONLY A TEACHER , TIMELINE
http://www.reacheverychild.com/feature/horace.html (Unit Study on Horace Mann)
Horace Mann Website. HoraceMann.com
The Horace Mann League
and Wikipedia -Horace Mann
