"The Story of Schools" 1800-1900

Someone who really stuck out in my mind while watching this episode was Horace Mann. He has been considered as the paragon for the promotion of public schools. Horace Mann was the Secretary of the Board of Education, and he took it upon himself to travel on horseback to visit schools in various towns. He accomplished the visitation of 1000 schools in about six years time, writing reports on each school's physical condition. What he came to find and write about was that the conditions varied by school, but at most materials were inadequate and teachers had no training at all in many of the schools. On average about forty to sixty children were crowded into little school buildings, and Horace Mann remarked that livestock was treated better than children were in schools. Many children were leaving these public schools to go to private schools, and Mann, knowing this, wanted public schools to be funded by the government. He made reports recommending things like chairs with backs, blackboards, and standardized textbooks. He had a lot of ideas on school reform, and eventually started the concept of Common Schools. Common Schools were open to all white children, did not charge tuition, were governed by local school committees and were somewhat regulated and overseen by the state. It wasn't so much what Horace actively did but what he expressively and earnestly wrote and reported to all who would listen.