Education has undergone many changes over the years thanks to crusaders and reformers in American history. One of those such reformers was Horace Mann.
Early Beginnings
Horace Mann was born in 1796. Born to a poor farmer, Mann was almost entirely self-taught. From ages ten to twenty, Mann never had more than six weeks of schooling in any given year. Benjamin Franklin had founded the library where Mann grew up (appropriately named Franklin, Massachusetts), and Mann spent much time there. Mann went to Brown University before being elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He would later become a Senator.
Secretary of Education
Mann was appointed Secretary of Education in 1837. Mann had previously showed no interest in education reform and only took the job because others encouraged him, saying it was a paid office position that was created by the legislature. However, Mann soon leapt into action by gathering teachers, delivering lectures, and traveling to every school in Massachusetts. Mann also created public school systems in Lexington and Bridgewater. Mann was against the use of corporal punishment in public schools, leading him to have conflict with many schoolmasters.
In 1838, Mann launched The Common School Journal, which he also edited. THe journal stated several principles that are still in existence today. Some of these include that education will be best provided when the school accepts children from all different backgrounds, that education should be free, that education should be non-sectarian, and that education should be taught by professional and highly trained teachers.
Mann paid for his own trips to Europe so he could visit schools there (particularly in Prussia). He then published a report that laid out what he’d learned in Europe. These publications were passed on to other states, who also benefited from Mann’s hard work.
Today, Horace Mann is often called the “father of American public education.”