Horace Mann's Education Reform

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Education Reform
There is no doubt that education has revolutionized the world. However, at one point in time, education was seen to be only for the rich and not a necessity to all like it is today. Receiving an education in the early 1800’s was not important in the grand scheme of things because the poor children were expected to work on farms or in factories to provide for their families. Therefore, since many Americans did not believe education was valuable, it took a great reform powered by one man to reveal the significance of schooling; this individual was Horace Mann. Self-taught and self-motivated, Horace Mann desired to gain as much knowledge as he could, and additionally he wished to influence others’ lives in a positive way by creating …show more content…

According to Lawrence Cremin, in “Horace Mann,” the public school system had been instituted in the mid 1600’s. However, during Mann’s own lifetime, the quality of the education system had severely degenerated. Additionally, one of Mann’s former colleagues in the Massachusetts legislature conducted a study and determined that about one third of the children in Massachusetts were attending school, Yourdictionary.com, in “Horace Mann Facts,” asserted. Also, the teachers were inadequately paid and were typically of poor quality (Yourdictionary.com). Due to the worsening education system, public reform movements began. Reform movements eventually caused the implementation of a board of education in 1837, Lawrence Cremin, in “Horace Mann,” expressed. After serving two years in the Massachusetts Senate, Horace Mann decided discard his political career to join the first board of education as the secretaryship, Cremin continued. Funding for education was minimal; therefore the board was in need of enthusiasm and leadership, and Mann was the ideal man for the job, Biography.com, in “Horace Mann Biography,” stated. Passionately campaigning for a dozen years, Horace Mann stated that education was “the balance wheel of social machinery,” according to Yourdictionary.com, in “Horace Mann Facts.” Mann’s quote translated to that if education was not made available to all, then the people who were born poor would always be poor, additionally that a “faction” system would surface leaving the country in divided sections. Originally being a man born into poverty, Mann understood that if he did not educate himself, that he would have remained in the lower class for the rest of his life. Mann perceived education as “the great equalizer of men.” In addition to his quotes, Mann wrote a biweekly Common School Journal, Lawrence Cremin, in “Horace Mann,” highlighted.