MODERN EDUCATORS (_Continued_)
HORACE MANN (1796-1859)
=Literature.=--_Mrs. Mary T. Mann_, Life of Horace Mann; _Hinsdale_,
Horace Mann; _Winship_, Horace Mann, the Educator; _Lang_, Horace Mann;
_F. W. Parker_, Article in Educational Review, Vol. XII, p. 65; _Wm. T.
Harris_, Educational Review, Vol. XII, p. 105; _Martin_, Education in
Massachusetts.
Colonel Parker says, "It would be difficult to find a child ten years of
age in our sixty-five millions who does not know of Abraham Lincoln or
George Washington; but the third, at least, in the list of the builders
of the American republic is not known to millions of intelligent people.
Washington and Lincoln represent the highest types of heroism,
patriotism, and wisdom in great crises of republic-building; Horace
Mann, the quiet inner building, the soul-development of the
nation."[164]
Horace Mann was born at Franklin, Massachusetts, May 4, 1796. Inured to
the hard work of the farm, with but a few weeks' schooling in the
winter, never blessed with very rugged health, left at the age of
thirteen by the death of his father with the responsibilities of a man,
it is no wonder that he "retained only painful recollections of the
whole period which ought to be, with every child, a golden age to look
back upon."[165]
When nearly twenty years of age, through the influence of Mr. Barrett,
an eccentric teacher who came to the village, he decided to go to
college, and in six months he prepared for the sophomore class of Brown
University. This preparation was a tremendous undertaking which broke
down his health for life. He now had an opportunity to satisfy the
cravings for knowledge, which the hardships of his early life had not
been able to stifle. He was graduated with the highest honors of his
class and decided to study law. He spent two years at Brown University
as tutor, meanwhile privately studying law, and then resigned that
position to enter the law school at Litchfield, Connecticut. Two years
later, at the age of twenty-seven, he was admitted to the bar.
=As Statesman.=--He was called upon to serve his state in the
legislature, and later as representative in Congress.[166]
The year 1837 marks a new epoch in the educational history of
Massachusetts. "Although Massachusetts had had schools for nearly two
centuries, the free school had been, to a great degree, a charity school
the country over.... Horace Mann, like Thomas Jefferson, saw clearly
that there could be no evolution of a free people without intelligence
and morality, and looked upon the common school as the fundamental means
of development of men and women who could govern themselves. He saw
clearly that the whole problem of the republic which was presenting
itself to intelligent educated men rested upon the idea of public
education."[167]
=As Educator.=--Accordingly, having secured the passage of a law
establishing a State Board of Education, Mr. Mann was made its
secretary at a salary of one thousand dollars a year. To accept this
work, he gave up a lucrative law practice, fine prospects of political
preferment, and probable fortune, as well as professional fame. He
entered upon an educational campaign full of discouragement, colossal in
its undertaking, and sure to arouse bitterest animosities. Of this
period Colonel Parker says, "The story of his early struggles in this
direction has not yet been written. When it is, it will reveal a
profound depth of heroism rarely equaled in the history of the world."
Mr. Mann visited all parts of the state, lecturing to parents and
stimulating the teachers. He was often received with coldness, sometimes
with active hostility.
=His Annual Reports.=--But he persevered until the whole state was
awakened. He continued in this work for twelve years, and presented its
results in his Annual Reports, the most remarkable documents of American
educational literature.[168] In the meantime, he visited Europe, studied
the schools, and gave the results of his investigations in his
celebrated Seventh Annual Report.
Mr. Martin summarizes the work of Horace Mann during these twelve years
as follows: "In the evolution of the Massachusetts public schools during
these twelve years of Mr. Mann's labors, statistics tell us that the
appropriations for public schools had doubled; that more than two
million dollars had been spent in providing better schoolhouses; that
the wages of men as teachers had increased sixty-two per cent, of women
fifty-one per cent, while the whole number of women employed as teachers
had increased fifty-four per cent; one month had been added to the
average length of the schools; the ratio of private school expenditures
to those of the public schools had diminished from seventy-five per cent
to thirty-six per cent; the compensation of school committees had been
made compulsory, and their supervision was more general and more
constant; three normal schools had been established, and had sent out
several hundred teachers, who were making themselves felt in all parts
of the state."[169]
=Love for the Common Schools.=--He believed most fully in the common
school, declaring that, "This institution is the greatest discovery ever
made by man.... In two grand characteristic attributes, it is
supereminent over all others: first in its universality, for it is
capacious enough to receive and cherish in its parental bosom every
child that comes into the world; and second, in the timeliness of the
aid it proffers,--its early, seasonable supplies of counsel and guidance
making security antedate danger."
In his first Annual Report Mr. Mann asserts that, "The object of the
common school system is to give to every child a free, straight, solid
pathway, by which he can walk directly up from the ignorance of an
infant to a knowledge of the primary duties of man." Horace Mann could
hardly have anticipated the kindergarten for the infant years, and the
high school at the end of the course, as they now stand in the common
school systems of our country. And yet, what has already been
accomplished in our educational scheme fulfills the prophecy implied in
his words.
The best known and most important of Mr. Mann's written documents is his
Seventh Annual Report, in which he gives an account of European schools.
Concerning this Mr. Winship says, "He had made a crisis, and his Seventh
Report was an immortal document; opposition to the normal schools was
never more to be heard in the land, and oral instruction, the word
method, and less corporal punishment were certain to come to the Boston
schools."[170]
After severing his connection with the State Board of Education, Mr.
Mann served in Congress from 1848 to 1853, and was defeated in his
candidacy for governor of Massachusetts. At the age of fifty-six he
accepted the presidency of Antioch College at Yellow Springs, Ohio, a
position which he held until his death in 1859. He closed his last
address to the graduating class at Antioch with these noble words: "_Be
ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity_." He
himself had won many great victories for humanity,--in the improvement
of the common school systems of his native country; in the establishment
of free schools; in the founding of normal schools where teachers might
be trained; in the adoption of milder means of discipline; in the
improvement of schoolhouses; in the better support of schools; in better
methods of instruction; and in the inspiration he gave to teachers for
all time. Therefore he at least had no need to be "ashamed to die."
FOOTNOTES:
[164] _Educational Review_, Vol. XII, p. 65.
[165] Mrs. Mann, "Life of Horace Mann," p. 10.
[166] Mr. Mann completed the term made vacant by the death of John
Quincy Adams, and was reelected for the two succeeding terms.
[167] Colonel Parker in article cited.
[168] For an analysis of these Reports, see Dr. Harris's article in
_Educational Review_, Vol. XII, p. 112.
[169] "Education in Massachusetts," p. 174.
[170] "Horace Mann," p. 76.