Prussia Comes To Americ Leaders Of The Common School Movement

The common school movement was very much rooted as a means for control and conformity for a budding nation with a growing diverse population. A few of the front-runners of the common school movement were Horace Mann, Henry Barnard, Calvin Stowe, and Calvin Wiley among others (Gutek, 84; Groen, 6). They were a part of the Whig party and shared the belief that public education system would prevent class divisions and it would be an institution key in assimilating immigrants to the “American” mainstream (Groen, 6). Through assimilation in the schools the education of all citizens would stabilize and sustain the “American” culture (Groen, 6; Perko). The leaders of the common school movement felt that the district schools lacked standards and

By investing in the development of the teachers not only would they be successful in academics, but instilling common morals and values in all students regardless of what school they are in (“Horace Mann, Part II: Prussia Comes to America”). These points were more openly considered and discussed with the Boston Grammar schoolmaster’s. However, Mann also felt very moved by Pestalozzi’s theories on teaching the child. Not just the Boston schoolmaster’s, but also the majority of educators at the time was hard set on the doctrine of “emulation” (Urban and Wagoner, 97). Mann’s embrace of Pestalozzi school of thought that you must meet children where they are was to progressive for educators at the time. The two main points of contention between Mann and the Boston schoolmasters were views on corporal punishment and reading

However, in the South there was not support or importance on educating all children as many of the religious groups like the Puritan’s up North believed (Groen, 256). One of the leaders for the common school movements from the South was Calvin Wiley (Groen, 256). Despite not having the same foundation for the common school movement as in New England, Wiley was able to create a public school from nothing in North Carolina (Groen, 6). It was very difficult to gain supporters in the South for the common school movement because the exclusivity of education helped reinforce the social hierarchies of aristocrats all the way down to slaves. The South understood knowledge is power and felt that it would threaten their economy. Wiley had to be very careful about how he voiced his views on slavery in an effort to gain support for the modern school movement from his constituency. His being on the fence however created tensions between his counter parts in New England. Horace Mann speeches to congress stressed the opposition to slavery and how in fact slavery threatened the success of public education, “Slavery would abolish education if it should invade free state; education would abolish slavery if it could invade a slave state.” (Groen,