![]() Mann also differed from the schoolmasters in the area of reading instruction, a debate that continues to this day. His opponents, however, many of them schoolmasters at the Boston Grammar Schools, pushed the doctrine of student “emulation” based on the correctness of the teacher and the imposition of the teachers’ correct views on the children in his care. In addition, Mann felt that only moral improvement could heal the rifts formed by the social and economic changes taking place in Massachusetts at the time. Mann was influenced in his ideas by Heinrich Pestalozzi, who advocated that education should start with the children’s interests, not with the demands of the subject matter. Social harmony would become the new norm. He also believed that, with education, crime would decline sharply, along with moral vices like violence and fraud. Mann believed a common school would be the “great equalizer,” eliminating poverty as an educated populace tapped new treasures of natural and material wealth. ![]() He wanted a “common” school, one that would be part of the birthright of every American child, rich and poor alike. During his time in this role, he published 12 annual reports on aspects of his work and programs, as well as what he felt was the integral relationship between education, freedom, and Republican government. On April 20, 1837, he left his practice to accept the post of the newly created Secretary of Education. In addition to his law work, Mann had a keen interest in school policy. He studied law at Litchfield Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1823 won a seat in the state legislature in 1827 and became a state senator in 1833, all while maintaining a private law practice. This, combined with a brief period of study with an itinerant school master, allowed him to join the sophomore class of Brown University in 1816. His formal schooling only lasted 8-10 weeks a year, but he educated himself with extensive reading at the Franklin Town Library. Sometimes called “The Father of American Education,” Horace Mann was born in 1796 in Franklin, Massachusetts.
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