This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized

by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the

information in books and make it universally accessible.

[Link]
 COLUMBIA LIBRARIES OFFSITE

CU53530128
LB695.M39 H3 Horace Mann,
H3

HORACE MANN
M39

HARRIS
 Columbia University

intheCity of New York

LIBRARY
I
ILNV RAC

‫יהוה‬
TVOINE

[Link]
BO
M

LVMEN
VI E
IA
NO AB

I-PET-11-1-2-

Gift of
President

Nicholas Murray Butler

1937

GENERAL LIBRARY
 SCHOOL- ROOM CLASSICS . XI

COLUMBIA

HORACE MANN

LIBRBY

WILLIAM TORREY HARRIS, LL.D.

L

COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION
UBLICATION

IN
L ET
B UL
OL
HO
SC

-1874 SHO

SYRACUSE, N. Y.
C. W. BARDEEN, PUBLISHER
1896

Copyright, 1896, by C. W. BARDEEN

 LB

695

.M39

+13

AGMUJOO

YTIZAVIMU

SCHOOL BULLETIN PRESS C. W. BARDEEN, SYRACUSE, N. Y.

GIFT OF
PRESIDENT N. M. BUTLER

NOV 16 1937

5
812 4 151
173 15
212

CH
 NOTE
3340-8A

This address was delivered before the National

Educational Association at its meeting in Buffalo,
8-go-80

1896. It is printed from a copy revised for us by

the author.
698
ce
 HORACE MANN

The educational history of our country is

divided roughly into two epochs Rural and
-that of rural and that of urban city educa-
tion
education . This is also the strug-
gle that is going on now- to eliminate rural
methods and supplant them by urban
methods. For it often happens that a city
grows in population but is slow to avail itself
of the opportunity that a large population
and accumulated wealth afford for superior
methods of instruction.
The number of cities within the United
States containing 8,000 inhabi- Increase in
cities
tants and upwards was in 1790
only 6 ; between 1800 and 1810 it increased
to 11 ; in 1820, 13 ; in 1830, 26 ; in 1840,
44. In the fifty years between 1840 and
1890 it increased from 44 to 443, or ten times
the former number. The urban population
of this country in 1790 was, according to the
superintendent of the census, only one in 30
of the population ; in 1840 it had increased
(5)
6 Horace Mann

to one in 12 ; in 1890 to one in 3. In fact,

if we count the towns on the railroads that
are made urban by their close connections
with large cities, and the suburban districts,
it is safe to say that now one-half of the
population is urban.
In sparsely settled regions & district of four
District square miles will furnish only
schools twenty, thirty, or forty children
of school age ; and it follows as a matter of
course that the schools were small, their
annual sessions very short, the funds to pay
teachers scarce, the teachers themselves
poorly educated and not professionally
trained . For the first forty years of this
nation such was the condition of nine-tenths
of all the schools. By 1830 the growth of
cities began to be felt.
As villages grew, and after the railroad
Graded had connected them to the large
schools cities, bringing them into con-

tact with urban life, graded schools began to

exist, and to hold an annual session of ten or
eleven months. This required the services
of a person whose entire vocation was teach-
ing. One of the chief defects of the rural
district school was to be found in the fact
 Professional Teachers 77

that the man who taught the winter school

took up teaching as a mere makeshift, de-
pending on his other business or trade (sur-
veyor or clerk or farmer, etc. ) for his chief
support. There was small chance for the
acquirement of any knowledge of the true
methods of teaching. Another evil more
prominent than the former was the letting
down of standards caused by the low qualifi-
cations of the average committeeman . The
town as a whole could afford a school commit-
tee of high qualifications ; the average dis-
trict rarely. The township system therefore
attains a far higher standard of efficiency
than the district system.
When the village began to catch the urban
spirit and establish graded schools Professional
teachers
with a full annual session, there
came a demand for a higher order of teach-
er, the professional teacher in short. This
caused a comparison of ideals and the most
enlightened in the community began an agi-
tation of the school question, and supervis-
ion was demanded . In Massachusetts , where
the urban civilization had made most pro-
gress, this agitation resulted in the forma-
tion of a state board of education in 1837
8 Horace Mann

and the employment of Horace Mann as its

secretary (June, 1837) . Boston had been
connected with Providence and Worcester
and Lowell by railroads before 1835, and in
1842 the first great trunk railroad had been.
completed through Springfield to Albany,
opening to Boston a communication with the
great West by the Erie canal and the newly
completed railroad from Albany to Buffalo.
This was the beginning of the great urban
epoch in America that has gone on increas-
ing in intensity to this day.
Horace Mann came to the head of educa-
tion in Massachusetts just at the
Horace
Mann's earl- beginning of this epoch of rail-
iest work
roads and the growth of cities.
He attacked with unsparing severity the
evils of the schools
as he found them,
these evils being
chiefly the sur-
vivals of the rural
school epoch .
The school dis-
trict system, in-
troduced into
Connecticut in 1701, into Rhode Island about
 Graded Schools g

1750, and into Massachusetts in 1789, was

pronounced by Horace Mann to be the most
disastrous feature in the whole history of
educational legislation in Massachusetts.
Side by side with the new impulse given to
education in villages, no doubt the district
system seemed very bad. Its evils were
manifest in the opposition to central graded
schools which were needed in the populous
villages, but which would break up the old
district lines. Local power is never given
up to a central power without a struggle.
The stubbornness of this contest on the part
of local committeemen was continued long
after the adoption of the township system in
Massachusetts and elsewhere. The district
fought for its " rights " through its repre-
sentatives on the town board, thereby post-
poning the feasible consolidation of districts
and the formation of properly classfied
schools.
Let us dwell a moment on this advantage
of consolidated or " union " Graded
schools as called in New York schools
State and the West . In the rural school,
isolated as it was, all grades of pupils from
10 Horace Mann

the lowest primary up to the secondary came

together under one master, who had to give
individual instruction to each, finding only
five minutes or a little more for such lesson .
Under such circumstances he could not well
manage over twenty or thirty pupils.
In his classes, each formed of one pupil
Larger in those branches other than read-
classes
ing and spelling, he might have
done better teaching had he had two pupils
instead of one. For the child learns almost
as much from paying attention to the efforts
of his classmate to recite as from his own.
A skilful teacher can make recitation by an
entire class of twenty or thirty pupils of
even grade of advancement far more instruc-
tive to each pupil than a private tutor can
make the same lesson to his one pupil. The
other pupils of the class furnish a sort of
bridge between the teacher's mind that sees
(or should see) the topic under discussion in
its relations to all human learning, and the
individual pupil's mind that sees the topic
in its barest outlines and has scarcely learned
ts relations to other topics. For each pupil
gets some one-sided view of it for him-
 Economy of Effort 11

self in preparing his lesson, and sees in the

class exercise (which we call " recitation "
in our American school technique) many
other one-sided views presented by his fel-
low pupils, who are not likely to repeat his
one-sided view, but to have others equally
distorted of their own .
Suppose two ungraded schools to be united
in one and divided again accord- Longer
recitations
ing to grade ; the thirty pupils
youngest, and in lowest elementary studies ,
taken by one teacher and the other thirty
pupils taken by the other teacher. One half
of the number of classes is saved by consoli-
dation and each teacher has twice as much
time for each class exercise or recitation.
He can find more time to go into the merits
of the subject when he has ten minutes in-
stead of five minutes.
In a populous village, a school of five hun-
dred pupils is collected . There Economy of
effort
is a teacher for each fifty pupils,
making ten in all ; for nearly twice as many
pupils can be taught by each teacher in a
well-graded school as in an ungraded school.
Each of these ten teachers divides his fifty
12 Horace Mann

pupils into two classes according to advance-

ment, and classes average a half year's differ-
ence in their intervals of progress from the
classes above or below. He has thirty
minutes for each recitation. It is now pos-
sible to promote a bright pupil, who is not
finding enough to do in the tasks set for his
class, to the next class above. For he can
soon make up what he has omitted by the
leap from one class to another. So, too, a
pupil who is falling behind his class can take
up his work with the next class below and
find it better suited to his powers.
It was an insight into this principle that
Martin led Martin Luther to insist on
Luther
grading the schools. The Jesuits,
who were the first to seize on the chief
weapon of the Protestants- namely educa-
tion for the people-and turn it against them
in the interest of the Catholic church, formed
a school system in 1590 and also took much
pains with grading and classification .
Horace Mann's efforts did not at once
Consolida- abolish the district system in
tion of
districts Massachusetts, but it prevailed
to consolidate districts in popu-
lous sections of the State. His school re-
 Consolidation of Districts 13

ing of school funds by taxation ; the creat-

ports were widely read outside of the State
and spread the agitation of the school ques-
tion into Rhode Island, Connecticut and New
York and elsewhere . Connecticut succeed-
ed in abolishing her district system in 1856,
but Massachusetts clung to it until 1869,
when she got rid of it. In this action she
was followed by Maine in 1872. And this is
what the State superintendent of Maine says
of the evils of the district system, in an able
summary :
" First, the school moneys were inequably
divided, some districts receiving much more
than they could profitably expend, others
much less than was absolutely needed ;
second, poor schoolhouses in remote and
sparsely settled districts ; third , short schools ,
or poor ones, if the agent attempted to
lengthen them by hiring cheap teachers.
Little money, poor schoolhouses, short
schools are the necessary attendants of this
system."
Horace Mann extended his criticisms and
suggestions to the examination of teachers
and their instruction in institutes ; to the
improvement of school buildings ; the rais-
14 Horace Mann

ing of a correct public opinion on school

questions ; the care for vicious youth in ap-
propriate schools. He discarded the hide-
bound text-book method of teaching and
substitued the oral discussion of the topic in
place of the memorizing of the words of the
book. He encouraged school libraries and
school apparatus.
Horace Mann's influence aided in found-
The first nor- ing the first normal school in the
mal school United States at Lexington (after-
wards removed to Framingham) , and a
second one at Barre, both in 1839, and a
third one at Bridgewater in the fall of the
next year.
Inspired by the example in Massachusetts,
Connecticut was
aroused by Henry
Barnard, who car-
ried through the
legislature the act
organizing a State
board of commis-
sioners,and became
himself the first
secretary of it
(1839) . In 1849 Connecticut established a
 Massachussetts in 1839 15

normal school. In 1843 Mr. Barnard went

to Rhode Island and assisted in drawing up
the State school law under which he became
the first commissioner, and labored there
for six years .

These were the chief fermenting influences

in education that have worked a wide change
in the management of schools in the Middle
and Western States within the past fifty years.
Let us consider some of those points more
in detail and get a little closer to Massachu-
setts in 1839
the personality of the hero whom
we commemorate .
There had been in Massachusetts from 1789
to 1839-a period of fifty years— an appar-
ent retrogression of education.
This apparent retrogression-on the whole
a healthful movement- was due to the in-
crease of local self- government and the de-
crease of central, especially parochial au-
thority. It was a necessary and on the
whole a healthful movement . The central
power had been largely theocratic or eccle-
siastical at the beginning. But the reaction
against ecclesiastical control went too far in
the direction of individualism. The farth-
16 Horace Mann

est swing of the pendulum in this direction

was reached in 1828, when the districts ob-
tained the exclusive control of the schools
in all matters except in the item of examin-
ation of teachers. The public schools dimin-
ished in efficiency, and a two-fold opposition
began some years before 1828, which took,
on the one hand , the shape of an attempt to
remedy the deficiency of public schools by
the establishment of academies ; and, on the
other hand, that of a vigorous attack by edu-
cational reformers, such as Horace Mann
and his devoted contemporary, James G.
Carter. The establishment of a State board
of education, and the appointment of Horace
Mann as its secretary, therefore mark an
era of return from the extreme of individual-
ism to the proper union of local and cen-
tral authority in the management of schools.
Horace Mann's function at this very im-
An educa- portant epoch was that of educa-
tional tional statesman. We must not
statesman
permit our attention to be dis-
tracted from this point if we would behold
the greatness and beneficence of his labors.
Pestalozzi was essentially an educational
missionary, a teacher of pupils in the first
 An Educational Statesman 17

grade of the elementary school. Horace

Mann was equally an educational missionary,
for he consecrated himself religiously to the
task of promoting the school education of the
people. Other people, all people, select
vocations in which they are to work and earn
a livelihood. But the missionary consecrates
his whole life to a chosen work, not for what
it will return to him in wealth or honor, but
for the intrinsic worth of the object to be
accomplished as a good for the human race.
The enthusiasm of Horace Mann shone
out of his soul in his praise of the act of the
Massachusetts legislature establishing the
State Board of Education in 1837 : " This
board I believe to be like a spring, almost
imperceptible, flowing from the highest
tableland, between oceans, which is destined
to deepen and widen as it descends, diffus-
ing fertility and beauty in its course, and
•
nations shall dwell upon its banks . It is
the first great movement towards an organ-
ized system of common education , which
shall at once be thorough and universal. "
It was he that was to succeed in making
that State Board of Education the Board of
education
fertilizing spring that he de-
18 Horace Mann

scribes . It was a board with limited powers.

It could not found schools, nor direct or
manage them after they were founded . It
should only collect information and diffuse
it. It could persuade the people but not
command them. In a nation founded upon
the idea of local self-government, it was a
very great achievement to show what can be
accomplished by a board that cannot coerce
but only persuade. This is the point of
view to see Horace Mann's greatness . One
thinks of the potency of Peter the Hermit
preaching a crusade. It was a crusade that
Horace Mann preached in his twelve reports
and in his hundreds of popular addresses,
and in his thousands of letters, written with
his own hand.

The 1st report of Horace Mann as secre-

Mann's tary was made in 1837, and con-
twelve tains the best statement ever made
reports
of the duties of school committees ,
especially in the selection of teachers. It
sets forth the apathy of the people regarding
the schools and regrets the employment of
incompetent teachers. (48 pp. )
There was a supplementary report on
 His Twelve Reports 19

school-houses which discussed the matter of

ventilation and warming, the proper kind of
desks, the location of the building, the light-
ing of the room, the play-grounds, and the
duties of the teacher in regard to light and
ventilation . (60 pp . )
In the 2d report, 1838, there is much dis-
cussion of the method of teaching reading,
whether by letters or by the word method .
A just criticism is made upon the character
of the school reading books. (60 pp . )
In the 3d report, 1839, he discusses the
responsibility of the people for the improve-
ment in common schools, the employment
of children in manufactories, the importance
of libraries, and the kind of books needed,
the effect of reading on the formation of
character ; and recommends strongly the
establishment of school-district libraries.
(52 pp. )
The 4th report, 1840, points out the de-
sirability of union schools for the sake of
grading and classifying the pupils, and
cheapening the cost of instruction. It shows
the value of regularity and punctuality in
attendance. (40 pp. )
20 Horace Mann

The 5th report, 1841, has a world-wide

fame for its presentation of the advantages
of education, the effect of it upon the for-
tunes of men, the production of property,
the multiplication of human comforts and
all the elements of material well being. He
showed how education awakened thought,
increased the resources of the individual,
opened his eyes to the possibility of combi-
nations not seen by the uneducated . The
circular letter which he prepared making
enquiries of manufacturers and men of busi-
ness, is the most suggestive letter of its
kind. This report deserves to be published
in a pamphlet and placed in the hands of
the people of every generation. ( 37 pp . )
In his 6th report, 1842, he presents the
subject of physiology and its importance as
a branch to be taught in the schools . (100
pp. )
The 7th report, 1843, records his observa-
tions in European schools, and starts endless
questions regarding the methods of organi-
zation and instruction, bringing into light
the questions of corporal punishment and
the overcultivation of the memory of words.
 His Twelve Reports 21

He describes in an eloquent manner the

evils of a partial system of education, and
treats in a judicial manner the advantages
and disadvantages of the schools that he
found in Scotland, Prussia, and Saxony.
(190 pp . )
In the 8th report, 1844, he treats of the
employment of female teachers and of the
method of conducting teachers ' institutes,
teachers' associations, and the study of vocal
music . (30 pp. )
In his 9th report, 1845 , he discusses the
motives to which the teacher should appeal ;
describes the school vices to be avoided ;
points out the transcendent importance of
moral instruction ; and shows how obedience
should be secured by affection and respect,
and not by fear. He treats of the dangers
of truancy and the prevention of whisper-
ing, and a variety of practical difficulties
that meet the teacher in the school-room.
He shows how to avoid the evils of emula-
tion, and commends the system of instruc-
tion by induction instead of deduction, and
the importance of substituting investigation
for memorizing. ( 104 pp . )
 22 Horace Mann

The 10th report, 1846, gives the history

of the common-school system in Massachu-
setts, and shows the relation which educa-
tion holds to the future generations of the
commonwealth . (35 pp. )
The 11th report, 1847, makes a strong
presentation of the power of the common
schools to redeem the State from social evils
and crimes. There is a circular letter of in-
quiry with regard to the effect of education
in the prevention of vice and crime. The
letter of 1841 had inquired regarding the
effect of education upon thrift and industry ;
replies obtained to the letter of 1847 gave
encouraging facts and opinions in regard to
the moral effect of school education. The
report continues to discuss the qualifications
of teachers and the methods of securing
regular attendance of children , and paints a
picture of the effect of universal education :
" Every follower of God and friend of
human-kind will find the only sure means of
"
carrying forward the particular reform to
which he is devoted in universal education .
In whatever department of philanthropy he
may be engaged he will find that depart-
 Controversy with the 31 Schoolmasters 23

ment to be only a segment of the great circle

of beneficence of which universal education
is the centre and circumference." (80 pp . )
The 12th and last report of Horace Mann
presents anew the capacity of the common
school system to improve the pecuniary con-
dition and elevate the intellectual , moral,
and religious character of the common-
wealth, repeating with new force the argu-
ments brought forward in previous reports.
He shows the importance of religion and the
reading of the Bible in the common school ;
shows the importance of health and the ne-
cessity of providing for physical training in
the school-room ; sets forth the necessity of
the schools for the political education of the
citizens. His devices to show the use of in-
telligence gained in the schools to the me-
chanic, the merchant, and the farmer, seem
inexhaustible. (120 pp . )
As a consequence of the seventh report,
which sets forth the advantages Controversy
with the 31
of the schools of Germany, there school-
masters
arose the famous controversy with
the thirty-one Boston schoolmasters .
In studying the records of Massachusetts
24 Horace Mann

one is impressed by the fact that every new

movement in education has run the gauntlet
of fierce and bitter opposition before adop-
tion. The ability of the conservative party
has always been conspicuous, and the friends
of the new measure have been forced to ex-
ert all their strength and to eliminate one
after another the objectionable features dis-
covered in advance by their enemies. To
this fact is due the success of so many of the
reforms and improvements that have pro-
ceeded from this State. The fire of criti-
cism has purified the gold from the dross in
a large measure already before the stage of
practical experiment has begun. In review-
ing this long record of bitter quarrels over
new measures that have now become old and
venerable because of their good results in all
parts of the nation, we are apt to become
impatient and blame too severely the con-
servative party in Massachusetts.
We forget that the opposition helped to
Tried as perfect the theory of the reform ,
by fire and did much to make it a real
advance instead of a mere change from one
imperfect method to another . Even at best
 Use of Text-Books 25

educational changes are often only changes

of fashion, the swing of the pendulum from
one extreme to another, and sure to need
correction by a fresh reaction . Again, it is
patent in Massachusetts' history that the de-
fects of old methods were in great part
remedied by the good sense and skill of many
highly cultured teachers who still practised
them, and hence the wholesale denunciation
of the old methods was felt to be unjust.
The best teachers resented the attack on their
methods. It seemed unfair, because it
charged against the method all the mistakes
committed by inexperience and stupidity ;
and, because, too, it claimed more for the
new device than could be realized . The old
was condemned for its poor results in the
hands of the most incompetent ; while the
new was commended as the ideal, without
considering what it would become in the
hands of unfaithful teachers .
Take as an instance of this the use of
text-books . Everyone will admit Use of
that what is called the " slavish text-books

use " of such means is a great evil . The

memorizing of words and sentences without
26 Horace Mann

criticism and reflection on their meaning is

a mechanical training of the mind and fit
only for parrots. But, on the other hand,
the proper use of the printed page is the
greatest of all arts taught in the school.
Howto get out of printed words and sentences
the original thought and observation recorded
there- how to verify these and critically go
over the steps of the author's mind- this is
the method of discovery and leads to the
only real progress . For real progress comes
from availing oneself of the wisdom of the
race and using it as an instrument of new
discovery. That other method sometimes
commended of original investigation with-
out aid from books forgets that mankind
have toiled for long thousands of years to
construct a ladder of achievement, and that
civilization is on the highest round of this
ladder. It has invented school education in
order that its youth may climb quickly to
the top on the rounds which have been added
one by one slowly in the lapse of ages. The
youth shall profit vicariously by the thought,
and experience of those who have gone
before. For the child of the savage tribe
there is no such vicarious thinking and liv-
 Defects of the Oral Method 27

ing ; he begins practically at the bottom of

this ladder and with no rounds on which he
may climb.
Now there was in Massachusetts and else-
where much excellent teaching in the acad-
emies and common schools-teaching which
trained the pupil to criticise and verify in-
stead of to accept the statements of the book
with blind credulity. The good teachers
knew that their methods were good , and felt
indignant to hear them caricatured and an
inferior method recommended as a substitute.
For the merely oral method does not pos-
sess in it the capability of pro- Defects of the
ducing the independent scholar, oral method
who can be trained holding him responsible
far mastering critically the printed page, and
making alive again its thoughts and per-
ceptions.
It was a sense of something valuable in
the old method that was not touched by the
criticisms of Horace Mann, that led to the
reply of the Boston masters.
Here we come to the closer view of the
character of Horace Mann . He A Hebrew
was like so many of the great men prophet
of the Puritans modelled on the type of the
28 Horace Mann

Hebrew prophets . The close and continu-

ous study of the characters portrayed in the
Old Testament, the weekly sermons, most of
which were studies of those characters, had
educated all Puritans to see ideals of charac-
ter in ancient leaders who devoted them-
selves to a cause and withstood popular
clamor, fiercely denouncing whatever form
of idol worship they saw among their coun-
trymen.
The ideal of a strong, serious- minded,
independent manhood, unswerved by per-
sonal interest, thoroughly patriotic , and de-
voted to the public interest, it draws its sup-
port from a sense of righteousness that gives it
a backbone co-terminous with the axis on
which the universe revolves. So long as
this character is recognized and respected,
and has in the main the support of the com-
munity, small and great, it stands firm like
an oak, and thrives on the hostility of the
elements in the society that it opposes.
But this species of character, modelled on
the Hebrew prophet, it should be said, is far
more likely to be an inward tragedy than a
genuine historical one. The average man
 A Hebrew Prophet 29

puts on the air of a censor of his age or his

community, and develops an overweening
egotism ; or he poses as an unappreciated
genius for poetry, or philosophy, or philan-
thropy, or statesmanship, or theology, or
ethical purity of character.
The pathway of history for eighteen cen-
turies is strewn with wrecked individualities
of men who have become fanatics or cranks
through the demoniac possession of a single
idea ; and the self-delusion-a suggestion of
the evil one- that they are exceptionally
wise and gifted above their fellow- men : that
they, in short, are right and the world all
wrong.
It is saved from being a tragedy in Horace
Mann and in other great men before and af-
ter who have personified this Hebrew prophet
type of reformer, by the greatness of the
cause they have espoused and by their self-
sacrificing devotion to it.
The Great Teacher gave the one prescrip-
tion to ward off the fatal disease that attacks
this Hebrew individualism, and that pre-
scription is humility and self-abasement. Its
intellectual rule is the measure by service of
30 Horace Mann

one's fellows : Be their servant if you would

rule over them .
But we have from this ideal the most im-
Development portant fruition of all human
of indi-
vidualism history : namely, the develop-
ment of individualism and the
formation of a set of institutions to nur-
ture it.
We have characters that are so strong that
they can withstand any amount of opposi-
tion from their fellow-men and still stand
erect without fear. " One with God is a
majority. "
Thus Horace Mann was entrenched in his
Fundamental fundamental principle, and on
principle all occasions returned to it to
rally his strength. In his own words he de-
scribes his conviction, and at the same time
lays down the details of his policy and meth-
ods of winning success :
" The education of the whole people, in a
republican government, can never be at-
tained without the consent of the whole
people. Compulsion, even if it were desir-
able, is not an available instrument. En-
lightenment, not coercion, is our resource.
 Fundamental Principles 31

The nature of education must be explained .

The whole mass of mind must be instructed
in regard to its comprehension and endur-
ing interests. We can not drive our people
up a dark avenue, even though it be the
right one ; but we must hang the starry
lights of knowledge about it, and show them
not only the directness of its course to the
goal of prosperity and honor, but the beauty
of the way that leads to it.
" In some districts there will be but a
single man or woman, in some towns scarcely
half a dozen men or women, who have
espoused this noble enterprise. But whether
there be half a dozen or but one, they must
be like the little leaven which a woman took
and hid in three measures of meal. Let the
intelligent visit the ignorant day by day, as
the oculist visits the blind man and detaches
the scales from his eyes, until the living
sense leaps in the living light.
" Let the zealous seek contact and com-
munion with those who are frozen up in indif-
ference, and thaw off the icebergs wherein they
lie imbedded . Let the love of beautiful child-
hood, the love of country, the dictates of
32 Horace Mann

reason, the admonitions of conscience, the

sense of religious responsibility be plied, in
mingled tenderness and earnestness, until
the obdurate and dark mass of avarice, ignor-
ance, and prejudice shall be dissipated by
their blended light and heat. "
He preached the same doctrine regarding
Education the right of the state to educate
by the at public expense that James G.
state
Carter had preached . It is stated
in these simple propositions :
1. " The successive generations of men
taken collectively constitute a great com-
monwealth. "
2. " The property of the commonwealth
is pledged for the education of all its youth
up to such a point as will save them from
poverty and vice and prepare them for ade-
quate performance of their social and civil
duties."
3. " The successive holders of this prop-
erty are trustees bound to the faithful exe-
cution of this trust by the most sacred obli-
gations ; and the embezzlement and pillage
from children and descendants have not less
of criminality and far more than the same
 What He Accomplished 33

offences when perpetrated against contem-

99
poraries."
The net result of Mr. Mann's labors in his
bright career as educational what he
statesman is put tersely by Mr. accomplished
Martin in these words :
" In the evolution of the Massachusetts
public schools during these twelve years of
Mr. Mann's labors :
" Statistics tell us that the appropriations
for public schools had doubled ; that more
than $2,000,000 had been spent in providing
better schoolhouses ; that the wages of men
as teachers had increased 62 per cent, of
women 51 per cent, while the whole number
of women employed as teachers had increased
54 per cent ; one month had been added to
the average length of the schools ; the ratio
of private school expenditures to those of
the public schools had diminished from 75
per cent to 36 per cent ; the compensation
of school committees had been made com-.
pulsory, and their supervision was more gen

eral and more constant ; three normal teacher's 's )

schools had been established , and had sent. eacher )
out several hundred teachers, who were mak-

BR
34 Horace Mann

ing themselves felt in all parts of the State. "

(Martin's Education in Mass. , p. 174).
In conclusion I suggest again the thought
Missionary of Mr. Mann as a character in-
zeal
spired with missionary zeal to re-
form society by means of the school system.
It was this missionary zeal that led him to
advocate in the Massachusetts legislature the
first insane asylum, and secure its establish-
ment-to favor the establishment of asyl-
ums for deaf, dumb, and blind ; to secure
normal schools, humane school discipline,
methods of instruction that appeal to the
child's interest and arouse him to self-activ-
ity, and finally to devote the evening of his
life to the Antioch college experiment .
It is this missionary zeal for the school
that works so widely and in so many follow-
ers to-day ; what enthusiastic teacher is not
proud to be called a disciple of Horace
Mann ?
 DEMCO
UCC 27 1039