Whose Children Are They?

Observing the Grassroots of Public School:

Why Mann’s Philosophy Was Not the Answer

By Whitney Dotson

Less than a span of two centuries ago, an institution termed the “common school” was introduced with great expectations to Massachusetts soil. Notable schoolmaster and head of state school board Horace Mann deemed the historic landmark the hope of social “improvement,” and the means of producing moral, enlightened citizens of the country’s children (ASSS). By as early as 1860, legislations regarding the length of the school day and year had been confirmed as nationally binding, and Mr. Mann had earned the title “father” of the nation’s government-funded establishment (Gangel, 277). The briefest glimpse into academic and moral significations within America’s modern school system, however, would certainly disappoint the pedagogue’s aspirations. As a disconcerting forty-three percent of children under the age of twelve leave grade school illiterate and rates of suicide, premarital sex, and pregnancy out of wedlock increasingly incline among the country’s scholars, statistics would appear to disprove Mann’s revelations (Brown). In his zeal, he had erroneously discounted the reality of sin and assumed the perfectibility of man. A basic review of the historical context and foundational thoughts effectuating the educational philosophy of Horace Mann would disclose that education which is simultaneously redemptive and liberating is found only in a biblical understanding of knowledge and man in their relation to God.

In Colonial America and prior, the majority of children were instructed to an extent domestically through parental instruction or self-schooling—some being so well-prepared as to enter college at age thirteen. When more rigid establishments became prevalent, parents continued to recognize their roles in child-training and understood the warrant of their position in doing so, often over-seeing administrative duties as school board members themselves (Beliles, 104). The esteem placed upon Christian knowledge within these sectors was evidenced in the fact that horn books and slates reflected theological truths (Beliles, 103). The ecclesiastical field in the pursuit of academics was so revered and closely tied that clergy often advised curriculum choice or served as instructors, and the Bible typically represented the doorway to reading as well as to personal piety and understanding. Universities such as Harvard and Princeton, in addition, were later constructed in hope of propagating the ministry (Beliles, 104). Compulsory restrictions of any kind were hardly considered as teachers and school board alike relied heavily upon the advice and participation of parents (ASSS). Primary schools and universities, also, were tax-exempt and operated without the use of governmental subsidies. Contrary to popular assumption, literacy rates soared within this period, and students capable of independence and trade were produced (ASSS).

The concept of subsidized schooling first gained serious consideration in America with the expansion of religious differences and poverty posed by increased European immigration, and the onset of surrounding national advances (Thattai). Until this time, children were generally sent to private facilities or common schools, locally authorized and supported (Beliles, 103). Denominational groups including Anabaptist and Presbyterian credence were expressly designed so that familial guardians could expose the next generation according to the doctrinal training that they chose. Respected figures, however, had begun to imagine a non-sectarian system as beneficial to the virtuous upbringing of varying social classes (Gangel, 137). William Penn envisioned the establishment as the opportunity of protecting Quaker children from persecution in a largely Calvinistic America; Reformation leaders John Calvin and Martin Luther had years before sanctioned the public school as a potent channel for furthering the Great Commission in which every child could freely learn the Bible (Gangel, 226). Nearly always, the thought of universal education was primarily understood as a crusade against the negative elements of religious persecution or atheism. Such considerations ironically rendered the admiration for an approaching foreign advancement which would succesively contribute to changing the face of American schooling—and eventually serve, in part, as the outline for the philosophical devising of Horace Mann.

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