Blog #8

 

 

      Horace Mann saw that society was being divided as classes started forming. He believed that religious sectarianism and cultural conflict threatened American institutions and the principle of democratically elected government, which is why there were so many different concepts and systems being used in different areas. Mann wanted to put together one system to be used across the country, and he wanted public schools to allow education for all children no matter their religion or cultural traditions, which is how the term “common school” came about. He got a lot of criticism from people for introducing this type of public school, especially the religious groups, because they felt it was taking away from the children learning about God and only God. But there were enough people who had similar ideas as Mann that drastic changes started happening to the education system, including longer school terms, teacher training, and systematic examinations. Mann also spent a lot of time convincing political and social constituency groups to help fund public education, as all these changes were costly. It was an impossible uphill battle, because Mann had to convince quite a large number of people, including parents, legislature and local school authorities, that public school was something needed for the children and worth investing in. His investments and efforts to improve the education system set an unshakable foundation for the education system we see in the United States today.