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Why Did Lancaster's Ideas Appeal To American Reformers

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In the colonial days of the United States, most children did not attend school. Instead, they worked on farms or learned a craft. Wealthy children may have attended private schools or had tutors, but children from poorer families did not have such opportunities.

Many American reformers wanted to change this. They were impressed by a pamphlet published in 1807 by a British teacher, Joseph Lancaster. Lancaster wrote Improvements in Education as It Respects the Industrious Classes of the Community, which included ideas for providing a good education to children from all walks of life. Read excerpts from the pamphlet to find out Lancaster's method for teaching many students at one time. Why did Lancaster's ideas appeal to American reformers? How …show more content…

He believed that children needed to learn about a wide variety of topics, as well as the moral way to treat one another. In 1835, he began writing primers, which were school books that helped children learn to read progressively harder stories while also learning lessons on patriotism and good behavior. McGuffey Readers were filled with stories, poems, essays, and speeches and were among the first textbooks in the United States designed to be more challenging with each …show more content…

While an impoverished young man named Horace Mann was school-aged in the early 1800s, he mostly taught himself from books in the local library. Eventually he went to college and became a lawyer and state senator.

Mann helped establish the Massachusetts Board of Education, and he became its secretary. This was the first such board in the nation.

Mann introduce the following six principles of education, many of which were controversial at the time: (1) Universal education is necessary because citizens cannot enjoy both freedom and ignorance. (2) Schools should be paid for and controlled by the public. (3) Schools should welcome children from all religious, ethnic, and social backgrounds. (4) There should be no religious influence over public education. (5) Children should be taught in the spirit of a free society. (6) Teachers must be well-trained and professional.

In his last year as secretary of the Board of Education, Mann wrote the following report. Read these excerpts and describe what Mann means when he says education is “the great equalizer.” Why does he believe education should be available to all? Why might this report and Mann's six principles have been controversial, and who might have disagreed with

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