Observing the Grassroots of Public School:
Why Mann’s Philosophy Was Not the Answer
By Whitney Dotson
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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