Questions: Why were common schools established? What were the main aims of early public schools?

Questions: Why were common schools established? What were the main aims of early public schools? How was the modern public school structured in the mid-nineteenth century? What social forces were most important in their development?

The Common Man. The notion began with President Andrew Jackson, identified as a “commoner” because he was from the state of Tennessee. Jackson wanted to remove government from economic affairs because the govt. only acted on behalf of the wealthy (p. 96). “Jacksonian” political philosophy centered upon catering to the needs of the common man. The Whigs, a political party formed in opposition to Jackson and his supporters, but also attempted to reach and meet the needs of commoners, rather than just the elite, through a strong, central government, also endorsed this idea of a common man.

The Common School is an idea developed by the Whigs to benefit all citizens through education. The schools were to be focused on primary/elementary age and were free (no tuition charged), “universal”-open to all children, and controlled by local and state governments. Common school reform was more political and organizational than pedagogical or curricular,” it promoted “a more efficient form of school governance and management, one that would permit the schools to assimilate the great numbers of students Factors leading to common school movement included and economic shift to industrialization and resulting class inequities, a physical and psychological “dislocation,” and increased immigration

Mann and the Common Schools • Served as secretary to the Massachusetts State Board of Education 1837-1848 • Powers limited to the collection and dissemination of information regarding education in Massachusetts • Created county educational conventions • Distributed annual reports • Established Common School Journal in 1839 (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

School buildings Moral values Lessons from the Prussian school system School discipline Quality of teachers Economic value of schooling Mann’s Central Issues (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

School Buildings • Improved physical setting of schools through • Use of surveys • Public encouragement for model districts • Publication of school expenditures by town (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

Moral Values • Schools as agents of social harmony • Moral values as “common elements” of the common school • Anti- Catholic bias • John Stuart Mill’s argument for secular education • Foreshadowed continuing separation of church/state issues in schools (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

Lessons from the Prussian School System • Designed to develop Prussian nationalism and position German states for world leadership • Aristocratic tier • Vorschule • Gymnasium • Military academics/universities • Common tier • Volkshule • Workforce/technical schools/normal schools • Reinforced Mann’s support for free, state-financed, state-controlled universal and compulsory schools (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

School Discipline • Spoke out against harsh treatment of students • The “pedagogy of love” rather than overt authoritarianism • Teacher’s responsibility as moral agent • Self-discipline ultimately supports self- government (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

Quality of Teachers • Emphasized need for special teacher preparation • Normal schools created with pedagogical methods dominating curriculum • Teachers as moral role models • The feminization of teaching • Lower costs • More nurturing of children (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

Economic Value of Schooling • Forerunner of human capital theory • Material well-being for the masses • Worker productivity and satisfaction • Inherent contradictions not acknowledged/addressed (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

Success of Common School Reforms • Supported by diverse interests in Massachusetts, including financial interests • Mann’s “common elements” was a satisfactory compromise for religious interests • Reforms incorporated popular classical liberal thinking (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

Concluding Remarks • Massachusetts political economy and ideology hospitable to state-funded and state-controlled schools • Horace Mann as leading proponent of schooling as agent of cultural uniformity • Questions remain about the implications of the common school era’s reforms (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

character education decentralization discipline and a pedagogy of love feminization of teaching humanitarian reform normal school Prussian model sectarianism university urbanization Developing Your Professional Vocabulary (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

Resistance & ‘The Appeals’ Religion Protestants vs. Catholic To the Wealthy (industrialists) The productivity of educated vs. uneducated workers Property & Taxation “For the benefit of all” To The Working Class Child labor: & “the domination of capital and servility of labor”

Horace Mann and his notion of the Common School - Mann, most famous Common School advocate from Massachusetts, had experience in law and state politics. He advocated “Protestant Republicanism,” (Christian values with belief in nation’s republic), nonsectarian morality (broad Christian values without commitment to a specific sect), and assimilation (partly because of the high immigration rates at this time) He also argued that schools would morally educate future workers, schools would funded by taxes for the benefit of all, (interesting to note his socialistic, religious rationale for taxing all, even those with no children in schools), and benefit workers by creating social stability.

Race, Religion, and Gender in the Common School. Racially, non-white students were not included in Common School plans. In terms of religion, schools were overwhelmingly Protestant (although claimed to be nonsectarian), which caused Catholics to begin their own network of parochial schools (105). Common schools were coeducational (education of both sexes), yet we begin to see that schools are viewed as a “nurturing” environment, thus women were allowed to work in educational sphere as it was an extension of family life (women’s traditional “place”) – also notice that at this time period women’s pay for teaching is lowered and standardized.

Sarah C. Roberts vs. The City of Boston. The general school committee of the city of Boston have power, under the constitution and laws of this commonwealth, to make provision for the instruction of colored children, in separate schools established exclusively for them, and to prohibit their attendance upon the other schools. THIS was an action on the case, brought by Sarah C. Roberts, an infant, who sued by Benjamin F. Roberts, her father and next friend, against the city of Boston, under the statute of 1845, c. 214, which provides that any child, unlawfully excluded from public school instruction in this commonwealth, shall recover damages therefor against the city or town by which such public instruction is supported. http://www.masshist.org/longroad/02education/roberts.htm

Mann, “Tenth Annual Report” Mann’s justification for free public schooling in the Tenth Annual Report, dates back to the founding of American colonies, yet he also connects in to major nineteenth century ideas of religion and republicanism (the best form of government in Mann’s opinion). He strongly defends the right to tax for school with what he sees as an “immutable, natural law,” (of divine origin), to educate all children in a common school, but one wonders if he meant to educate all children (2). Moreover, Mann endorses education, a “general diffusion” in light of principles (seen during Jefferson and the Enlightenment) of civic and social duty (i.e., for the collective good) and education as essential for the preservation of the country’s new-found rights and liberties (3). The religious rhetoric Mann uses seems to ensure that at least broadly conceived religious principles would be taught in these schools.

Resistance & ‘The Appeals’ Religion Protestants vs. Catholic To the Wealthy (industrialists) The productivity of educated vs. uneducated workers (Bartlett’s letter) Property & Taxation “For the benefit of all” To The Working Class Child labor: & “the domination of capital and servility of labor” Pedagogy & Phrenology Student vs. Teacher centered learning

Questions: Why/how were common schools established? What were the main aims of early public schools? How was the modern public school structured in the mid-nineteenth century? What social forces were most important in their development?

What did Mann mean regarding the following: Equal opportunity for all? Social harmony? Schools are the "great equalizer?" Did Mann believe education would reduce crime?

Considerations Taxes pay for public schools. Is there a relationship between having everyone pay for schools and what Mann felt resulted in the educational process -- social harmony? Mann wrote education equips students to be part of a self-governing people. How does this relate to required classes like history, civics and social studies? Mann published an article that stated, "Intelligence is Primary Ingredient in the Wealth of Nations." What did he mean? Mann wrote a school should be filled with students who reflect the community. In that way they can learn from and about each other and maintain common values. If this is true, what happens when students go to a school without a mix of students? What would happen if there were no public schools?

Discussion Questions What do you think Mann meant when he said public education would increase the wealth of individuals, communities, the state and the country as a whole, while teaching respect for private property? Why is public education seen as the most successful progressive social ideal in American history? What does this quote mean? "Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is a great equalizer of the conditions of men, - the balance wheel of the social machinery. I do not here mean that it so elevates the moral nature as to make men disdain and abhor the oppression of their fellow men. This idea pertains to another of its attributes. But I mean that it gives each man the independence and the means by which he can resist the selfishness of other men."

Questions: Why were common schools established? What were the main aims of early public schools?