Important People
in the History of Education
EDU 224 | Newberry College
Important People in the
History of Education
• Think about Horace Mann, John Dewey, and
Paulo Freire. Who were they? What did they
say (and what did it mean)? How did their
work affect education today?
• Who were some other influential people?
Horace Mann
The Father of American Public Education
• 1796-1859
• Influential politician; first Secretary of the
Massachusetts State Board of Education;
President of Antioch College
• Self-educated; enrolled at Brown
University at the age of 20
• Published extensively – annual reports,
The Common School Journal
Horace Mann
Quotes from The Education of Free Men
(Tenth Annual Report and Twelfth Annual Report,
1846 and 1848)
“We can cite no attribute or purpose of the
divine nature, for giving birth to any
human being, and then inflicting upon that
being the curse of ignorance, of poverty
and of vice, with all their attendant
calamities.”
Horace Mann
“The Common School, improved and energized, as it
can easily be, may become the most effective and
benignant of all the forces of civilization.
“When its faculties shall be fully developed, when it shall
be trained to wield its mighty energies for the protection
of society from the giant vices which now invade and
torment it; - against intemperance, avarice, war, slavery,
bigotry, the woes of want and the wickedness of waste,
- then, there will not be a height to which these
enemies…can escape….”
Horace Mann
“Education, then, beyond all other devices
of human origin, is the great equalizer of
the condition of men – the balance-wheel
of the social machinery.”
Horace Mann
What ideas about education did he give us?
• All children – rich and poor
– should be educated.
(Mann established public
elementary schools.)
• The public should pay to
school its children.
• Education will create social
harmony and alleviate
poverty.
John Dewey
Progressivism
• 1859-1952
• Philosopher and psychologist; President of
American Psychological Association (APA)
• Believed in democracy and truth/knowledge
as a function of experience
• Published extensively – The School and
Society (1900), Democracy and Education
(1916)
John Dewey
Quotes from Experience and Education (1938)
“If one attempts to formulate the philosophy of education
implicit in the practices of [progressivism], we may…discover
certain common principles…. To imposition from above is
opposed expression and cultivation of individuality; to external
discipline is opposed free activity; to learning from texts and
teachers, learning through experience; to acquisition of
isolated skills and techniques by drill is opposed acquisition of
them as a means of attaining ends which make direct vital
appeal; to preparation for a more or less remote future is
opposed making the most of the opportunities of present life;
to static aims and materials is opposed acquaintance with a
changing world.”
John Dewey
“Everything depends on the quality of [the
learning] experience which is had. The
central problem of an education based
upon experience is to select the kind of
present experiences that live fruitfully and
creatively in subsequent experiences.”
John Dewey
“It is…a much more difficult task to work
out the kinds of materials, of methods, and
of social relationships that are appropriate
to the new education than is the case with
traditional education.”
John Dewey
What ideas about education did he give us?
• A school’s curriculum
should be broad (include
health and vocational
education).
• Knowledge is actively
constructed through
experience, not passively
memorized.
• Teachers should build on
students’ interests.
Paulo Freire
Critical Pedagogy and Consciousness
• 1921-1997
• From background of poverty in
Brazil
• Became a teacher working with
the poor (at that time literacy was
a requirement for voting)
• Published extensively –
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
(1968)
Paulo Freire
Quotes from Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968)
“In the banking concept of education, knowledge
is a gift bestowed by those who consider
themselves knowledgeable upon those whom
they consider to know nothing.”
“Attempting to liberate the oppressed without
their reflective participation in the act of
liberation is to treat them as objects that must be
saved from a burning building.”
Paulo Freire
“It is necessary to trust in the oppressed and in
their ability to reason.”
“While no one liberates himself by his own
efforts alone, neither is he liberated by others.”
Paulo Freire
"The correct method lies in dialogue. The
conviction of the oppressed that they must fight
in their liberation is not a gift bestowed by the
revolutionary leadership, but the result of their
own conscientização [critical consciousness].”
"It is essential for the oppressed to realize that
when they accept the struggle for humanization
they also accept, from that moment, their total
responsibility for the struggle."
Paulo Freire
What ideas about education did he give us?
• We need to educate
native populations with
education that is nontraditional and anticolonial.
• Democratic classroom
practices – teacher as
learner/ student as
teacher
• Praxis = informed action
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Other Famous Educators from
the 1700s to today
Friedrich Froebel
Prudence Crandall
Maria Montessori
Mary McLeod Bethune
For Piaget and Skinner, use the
textbook Online Learning Center. Go
Jean Piaget
to www.mhhe.com/sadkerbrief2e, click
Student Edition, choose Chapter 5, and
B.F. Skinner
look under “Profile in Education.”
Sylvia Ashton-Warner
Kenneth Clark
What’s Due?
• Both Chapter 5 quizzes are
due by Friday, 2/5.
• Bring your finished Class 7
Worksheet and Chapter 5
Reflection to class on
Tuesday, 2/9.