Education Reform
Ben Bishop and Sally Seitz

1815-1848
“In a republic,
ignorance is a crime.”
-Horace Mann
(http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com)
“In its broadest definition, education
is the entire process of cultural
transmission” (HOW, 452).
Horace Mann:
“Father of American Public Education”












Secretary of Massachusetts State Board of Education from 1837-1848
“Education is a great equalizer of the conditions of men – the balance wheel of the
social machinery.”
Made Massachusetts the state leader in “Educated America”
Schools would not only help America, but would also enhance American relations on
a universal level
Creation of Public Schools was an act of justice
Created idea that all children are entitled to education, contrary to European theory
Wanted schools to explain the government of the country the children live in
Stated that “a republic with an uneducated population is a very rash action”
Persistent in majority of education being free to the public and with Protestant
foundation
Organized conventions in every county in Massachusetts to spread the interest of
education and to also train teachers.
Favored the idea of moral education over corporal punishment
Created first teacher training school in Lexington in 1839
Horace Mann:
Letter to State Legislature
 This was Horace Mann’s last letter to
the State Legislature on the Education
Board’s activities.
 “Without undervaluing any other
human agency, it is safely affirmed
that the common school, improved
and energized as easily as it can
be, may become the most
effective and benignant of all the
forces of civilization”
(http://americanhistory.abcclio.com).
Henry Barnard


Ideology similar to Horace Mann
Served three terms on Connecticut General
Assembly
 Biggest achievement was sponsoring bill for
improvement of common schools
 Established State Board of Education
Commissioners, which was to be led by a State
Secretary of Education
 Ends up actually being State Secretary of
Education
 Set up schools for teachers and founded and
edited Connecticut common school journal,
which was also known as The American journal
of Education
 Superintendent of the schools of Connecticut
 Had many followers who agreed with his idea
that education reduced poverty
Mary Lyon:
Higher Learning for Women

1837- Started one of the first Secondary
School for Women

Called Mount Holyoke Female Seminary

Mary Lyon was first head of the college

First class had 80 graduate students

Taught classes such as natural science,
mathematics, “modern history,” and
Latin

Started as a 3 year program, but
extended to four years

Used college-level textbooks

Most common professions taken after
graduating were teachers and
missionaries
William Holmes McGuffey
 Wrote Eclectic Reader in 1836,
which taught students basic
reading skills
 Created idea of moving from small
words to sentences and
henceforth
 All characters in his books were
white with Anglo-Saxon traditions
(very patriotic)
Religion and Education

Sunday Schools
 Originally started because states wouldn’t start primary school
 Provided reading lessons one day a week
 Started to teach only religion after public schools were implemented
 1827- Sunday Schools were teaching 200,000 kids how to read

African American Studies
 Religion played an important role in African American’s schooling
 Teaching slaves was outlawed in most states
 Some masters felt a religious obligation to teach slaves
 Negro schools existed in Free Slave areas (not publicly supported)
Worcester vs. Georgia:
Education problems with Native Americans
 Georgia determined to end education of Native
Americans and expelled missionaries; sparked Supreme
Court case Worcester vs. Georgia



Cherokees, led by John Ross, challenged the
constitutionality of Georgia’s laws
Court held jurisdiction that Cherokees couldn’t strike
down Georgia’s laws, but declared Cherokees a
“dependent” nation in the case Cherokee Nation vs.
Georgia
Samuel Worcester: missionary from Vermont
 Challenged Georgia’s extension laws
 John Marshall ruled against Georgia’s extension laws and
that the Cherokee were a separate, sovereign nation
Common Schools



Tuition-free, tax-supported
Modeled after French system “école normale”
Rural schools varied in size, but usually remained at one room;
were compliant to agricultural needs
 Schools brought towns together
 Exclusively white
 Knowing education marked class advancement
 Began to hire more women because they believed women
provided nurture and encouragement; chances for unmarried
women
 Hinted at social acceptance of unmarried people
 Females still had to focus on roles of “average” woman
(cooking, sewing, etc.)
Common Schools (continued)
“The ideology of the American common schools included
patriotic virtue, responsible character, and democratic
participation, all to be developed through intellectual
discipline and the nurture of the moral qualities” (HOW,
453).
 Met statewide standards of education
 Had up-to-date textbooks and facilities
 Teachers were actually trained
 States assumed role of education because they promoted
growth of towns and communities
 Helped keep children off the street
 Common religion instruction and reading the bible were
implemented

Secondary Schools
 University of Virginia
 Dartmouth College
 South Carolina College
Secondary Schools before 1848
Literacy Rates
in 1840
 New England: No state lower than 98% literacy;
comparable to Sweden and Scotland, where
Protestant programs were in effect
 91% of American Whites were literate; comparable
to Prussia, whose education system was also run by
church
 Including African American Adults, US literacy was
78%; to compare, England’s was 59%
 North Carolina had lowest literacy rate at 72% (89%
by 1860)
Bibliography










1. "Common schools." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 7 Nov. 2011
2. "File:Horace Mann.jpg." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia Images, 11 Mar.
2009. Web. 08 Nov. 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Horace_Mann.jpg.
3. "Henry Barnard." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 7 Nov. 2011.
4. "Henry Barnard." Image. Library of Congress. American History. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 7
Nov. 2011.
5. "Horace Mann: Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education (1848)." American
History. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 7 Nov. 2011.
6. Howe, Daniel Walker. What Hath God Wrought: the Transformation of America, 18151848. New York: Oxford UP, 2007. Print.
7. Kennedy, David M., Lizabeth Cohen, and Thomas Andrew Bailey. The American Pageant.
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2009. Print.
8. "Mary Lyon." Image. Library of Congress. American History. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 7
Nov. 2011.
9. McGuire, William, and Leslie Wheeler. "Mary Lyon." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2011.
Web. 7 Nov. 2011.
10. "Univerity of Virginia Rotunda." Test Page for the Nginx HTTP Server on EPEL. 1 Jan.
2006. Web. 09 Nov. 2011. <http://dc-cdn.virtacore.com/>.