Reformation Of Public Education In The Age Of Reform

One of the many changes in the Age of Reform was the reform of public education. The first schools were built for religious purposes, but during this period, the reformers wanted better schools to make sure that the future voters would be informed. Also, these schools would help immigrants become part of the culture of American society. Massachusetts was

This paper discusses the influence of Horace Mann on the issue of education of the masses, evident in his dedication to improving the quality of education through the process of improving teacher education, increasing available funding, and standardizing the quality of educational experience provided to its students. It addresses specifically the areas presented in several of Mann’s Annual Reports published during his tenure including the areas of school buildings, moral values, school discipline, and the quality of teachers.

When talking about the reformation movement of the public school’s educational system it’s hard to leave out Horace Mann. Horace became the Secretary of the newly-created Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837, he used his position to enact major educational reform. [ ] Once he was in this position, Horace started working to end Free-Market Education and put education in the hands of the state. Horace Mann and the other education reformers' purpose was to have local school districts under centralized town authority and to attain some level of regularity among towns through a state organization. On the board, Mann combined an evangelical fervor for the common school with adroit political skills to accomplish three objectives: (1)

Should public schooling be redefined? Public schooling will always be public schooling, but we should acknowledge the way we attend school now a days.

The second wave had a social impact, generating popular support for sobriety, the abolishment of slavery, and other social reforms. Before the reform the schools were small and experienced very limited educational opportunity. The school reform wanted to amend their education system, which would assist in their children becoming more responsible. Horace Mann of Massachusetts passed the common school movement that caused public schools to be funded by local property taxes. Horace Man would set a list of six principles for public education: ignorance and freedom will not be upheld by the citizens, the public should pay for the training, as well controlled and preserved, the schools should accept all children, the instruction should be nonsectarian, it should be prepared by means of the tenets of a free society, and teachers must be professional and well-groomed. (Horace Mann Biography, 2016)

Their eyes met from across the room, and any student paying close enough attention could see the loathing in the teacher’s eyes as the principal walks into the room for the bi-semester teacher evaluation. In the blink of an eye the teacher returns her focus back on the students, but the obvious exchange between the two individuals makes those of us in the classroom that understand the source of the icy gaze extremely uncomfortable. My teacher hates the principal with a passion. Ever since the principal assumed control of the school three years prior to this particular evaluation, she terrorized my band director. Through micromanaging, criticizing relentlessly, organizing meetings incessantly, and sabotaging schedules, my principal fostered a hate from not only my band director, but also from the majority of teachers in my high school. The attitude and leadership techniques utilized by my former principal directly contradicts current theories of the scholarly community on how to effectively lead a school.

Horace Mann was one of the most influential reformers in the history of American education. He was responsible for the Common School Movement, which was to ensure that every child receive free basic education funded by local taxes. Growing up in poverty where there was lack of access to education, the first secretary of Massachusetts Board of Education strongly believed that tuition- free education would be the “great equalizer,” and the key to fight against poverty and crime. As a result, Massachusetts’ residents were the

In the farming society of the early 1800’s, education was not possible for many children. Horace Mann, a farm boy himself and an early advocate for educational reform, saw the deficiencies in the educational system. He pushed for “common schools” that would retain local control, be co-educational and revolve around the agricultural year. Mann’s ideas began to be adopted around the country in the second half of the nineteenth century. By the start of the twentieth century, mandatory public schooling was the norm. This was the height of the industrial revolution. As Davidson notes in “Project Classroom Makeover”, “Public Education was seen as the most efficient way to train potential workers for labor in the newly urbanized factories (197).” Schools began to work like an assembly line with a focus on efficiency, attention to detail, memorization of facts and staying on task. Curriculum became standardized and states began to replace the local management of education. Critically thinking outside the box was less valued. Regardless of ability, children started school at the same age and were moved through their education in a regulated process.

Reformers had the desire to create moral order, and between the 1830s and 1840s, they established new institutions which were meant to heal the human being spiritually and morally. Institutions like prisons, orphanages, asylums and poorhouses started to proliferate. The common ideology was that of perfectionism, by which someone who was once considered incurable could now be set free. In fact, the belief was that people who entered an institution could be rehabilitated and eventually released back into society. However, with time, many institutions would prove to be crowded places where people were simply kept away from society. On the other hand, institutions like tax supported state schools were made available for all children. Horace Mann,

While the 1800’s were full of groundbreaking inventions it is also home to many changes in quality of life and living, including the educational reform, the prison reform and the abolition movement. In the early 1800s getting an education was not a priority or option for most children. While it was often class based and varied between the north and south. Most children attended little to no school and the education they did receive was provided by unqualified teachers who received little pay. The education reform directed by Horace Mann helped bring about state sponsored public education, with curriculum and local property tax to finance education. Horace Mann believed that “popular schooling could be transformed into a powerful instrument for social unity.” (https://www.mackinac.org/2035) The organizarional model Mann and others adopted for massachusetts was the Prussian educational system. Allowing for the state to control education from lower grades up to the university level. Along with the state supervising the training of the teachers, children were

During Mann’s twelve years as secretary of the Massachusetts board of education he sent back reports to the board as to the condition of schools and what he thought should be taught in them. His ideas in these reports revolved around six ideas: “(1) that a republic cannot long remain ignorant and free, hence the necessity of universal education; (2) that such education must be paid for, controlled, and sustained by an interested public; (3) that such education is best provided in schools embracing children of all religious, social, and ethnic backgrounds; (4) that such education, while profoundly moral in character, must be free of sectarian religious influence; (5) that such education must be permeated throughout by the spirit, methods, and discipline of a free society, which preclude pedagogy in the classroom; and (6) that such education can be provided only by well-trained, professional

During this period, the most influential person dealing with educational reform was Horace Mann. Horace Mann believed that “education was the only way to ‘counterwork this tendency to the domination of capital and the servility of labor’” (Brinkley

Mann served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1827–1833 and the Massachusetts Senate from 1834–1837. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1848 after serving as secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Education. He is often called “the father of American public education”. Horace Mann, American educational reformer: Horace Mann was an influential reformer of education, responsible for the introduction of common schools—non-sectarian public schools open to children of all backgrounds—in America. Mann advocated a statewide curriculum and instituted school financing through local property taxes. Mann also fought protracted battles against the Calvinist influence on discipline, preferring positive reinforcement to physical

Before the educational reform there were very little public schools. If there was a public school in a town it was part time and only one room. Wealthy families could afford to send their children to private school or

Education reform is a topic that every student, parent and teacher should be interested in because it effects everyone in the community. Many different approaches to education reform have been tried, and even though they seem to work for the time being, there are always more improvements that need to be made. One of the best ideas that has been discussed in the most recent years is getting the parents and students more involved in the actual reform process. Many school administrators see a problem with involving students, even though they are the ones most affected by the changes within schools. Student’s opinions should be taken into consideration because they are the ones who see what happens inside the school and within the classroom, and are the most affected by it. Involving parents and students in the reform of their schools will improve the quality of education, improve parent and teacher relationships and reduce parent and student complaints.