School As a Public Institution: the Common School Era

School & Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives

Chapter 3

School as a Public Institution: The Common School Era

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

Among the objectives that Chapter 3 seeks to achieve are these:

1. Students should understand the contrasts between the political economy of Jefferson’s agrarian Virginia and the urban centers in Massachusetts, and how each created different conditions for the growth of common schools.

2. Readers should understand how a wide range of components interacted in the political economy of Massachusetts during the common school era. They should understand that a combination of Irish immigration, the beginnings of industry, the Jacksonian revolution, and other factors created fertile ground for common school legislation.

3. Readers should seek to understand the ideological framework of religion, republicanism, and capitalism within which the school reformers operated.

4. Students should become acquainted as much as possible with the mind and career of Horace Mann to understand the dominant ideology of his historical setting. They should evaluate how Mann’s ideological orientation, particularly toward democracy, was or was not consistent with Jefferson’s democratic ideals.

5. Readers should understand and evaluate how Mann and others thought the specific curriculum of the common schools would address the cultural needs of Massachusetts at that time.

6. Students should assess the degree to which Mann’s conception of the teacher and teacher education were adequate for that time and for ours.

7. Finally, this chapter is designed to help readers critically interpret the primary source reading at chapter’s end.

CHAPTER OVERVIEW

An understanding of the beginning of common schooling in the United States requires attention to such social changes as urbanization, early industrialization, and patterns of immigration, all in the Northeast. Ideologically, the common school era was rooted in classical liberalism, which had practical consequences in urban New England different from those in rural Jeffersonian Virginia. These variations were due to differences in regional political economy as well as shifts in religious thought. While Jefferson had encountered difficulty gaining consensus for a state-

Tozer 5e, Instructor’s Manual, Ch. 03 | 1 of 4 School & Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives funded but locally-controlled school system, Horace Mann sought a state-funded and state- controlled school system. In part because of the contrasts in political economy between Massachusetts and Virginia, and in part because of differences between the paternalistic Whig liberalism of urban Massachusetts and the more laissez-faire liberalism of agrarian Virginia, Mann succeeded in creating a school system in Massachusetts. The interaction of political economy and ideology was sharply illustrated by U.S. citizen responses to Irish immigration. The moral and cultural judgments made by New Englanders about the Irish Catholics, and the way schooling was used as a solution to the “Irish problem,” illustrates one way of responding to cultural diversity. The efforts of Mann and others to use the schools to shape the character of Massachusetts youth for moral uprightness as well as greater social stability are detailed in this chapter. Mann’s efforts to create a system of education through common schools as well as normal schools leads to a discussion of Mann’s conception of the occupation of teaching and how teachers should be educated.

CHAPTER OUTLINE

School as a Public Institution: The Common School Era Introduction: Schooling in New England

Political Economy of the Common School Era  Demographic Changes  Political Developments  Economic Developments

Ideology and Religion  Consolidation of Classical Liberalism

Horace Mann: An Exemplar of Reform  Early Life  Mann’s Political Career

Mann and the Common Schools  School buildings  Moral Values  Lessons from the Prussian School System  School Discipline  The Quality of Teachers o Normal schools o Teachers as exemplars o Feminization of teaching  The Economic Value of Schooling  Opposition to Mann’s Common School Reforms  Accounting for the Success of the Common School Reforms  Lessons from Horace Mann’s Common School Reforms

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Building a Philosophy of Education

Primary Source Reading  Decentralization: Alternative to Bureaucracy?

Developing your professional vocabulary

Questions for Discussion and Examination

TEACHING SUGGESTIONS

Although the students cannot yet see it at this point in the volume [text? course?], there are some ways in which Mann can be seen as a transitional figure from Jeffersonian democratic localism to modern liberal paternalism. Students might miss the significance of Mann’s ideological orientation if they are not specifically asked to think about it. They should be engaged in seeing how Mann’s commitments to the primary tenets of classical liberalism identified in Chapter 2—natural law, rationality, virtue, progress, nationalism, education, and freedom—identify him as a classical liberal yet separate him from Jefferson in specific ways. Students should thus be reminded that classical liberalism was not a specific doctrine and that differences existed between Jefferson and some of the classical liberal protagonists in his own era. The religious issue is an interesting one that gives insight into the culture of urban Massachusetts in terms of both ideology and political economy. Students should be asked to evaluate Mann’s position on public tax support for those schools that were non-sectarian Protestant in orientation but not for schools that were Catholic. Note especially the critical leverage provided by the Orestes Brownson selection. Students can think and talk about the legacy of that policy today, as well: Why shouldn’t tax dollars be used to support any or all schools that have religious orientations? The Brownson reading illustrates a view of democracy that clearly competes with Mann’s, and Brownson is familiar with the Prussian influence on Mann’s thought. Students should be asked to evaluate Brownson’s critique of Mann because it calls into question Mann’s views on democracy and education, and students need to continue thinking about where they themselves stand on these concepts.

BUILDING A PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION

One of the keys to understanding Horace Mann’s vision for education is noting that Mann saw schools and education not as a private good reserved for the elite or financially well-off, but rather as a public good accessible by all segments of the population. This notion of the public mission of public schools is a tension that educators continue to deal with today. Who is the public whose beliefs and values should be represented in the schools? Whose vision of social change should direct the teacher’s work? When teachers take a position in the schools, it is important to recognize that they are expected to serve the ideals of a democratic culture, which is

Tozer 5e, Instructor’s Manual, Ch. 03 | 3 of 4 School & Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives supposed to respect difference, diversity, and pluralism of values among different social and ethnic groups. In order to continue developing a philosophy of education, it is important that students are able to articulate the “public good” they feel their teaching will serve. Students should be asked to reflect on the following: what public goals do you think are appropriate for the public schools, and how will you help achieve these? How does a teacher today help induct young people into full participation in the dominant culture while respecting the diverse origins, languages, and values of students from the wide variety of cultures and language groups who populate the schools of today? Students’ philosophy of education should make clear what public goals they think are appropriate for the public schools, as well as how they will help achieve these goals.

DEVELOPING YOUR PROFESSIONAL VOCABULARY

 character education  normal school  decentralization  Prussian model  discipline and a pedagogy of love  sectarianism  feminization of teaching  university  humanitarian reform  urbanization

Students might be asked to identify and indicate the significance of an assigned number of the above vocabulary words in an essay question format. They might also be asked to discuss any combination of these terms in class, possibly using the perspective provided by the analytic framework. Both the meaning these terms have in the context of the chapter and their meaning for education for today might be explored.

TIMELINE

The common school-era timeline provides a brief overview through the mid- nineteenth century, featuring both Massachusetts-specific and national events and innovations. Notice the focus on women’s education and its evolution, especially throughout the first half of the century. What kinds of impact might the less obviously education-related events, such as the Irish “potato famine” and the attempted Harper’s Ferry slave insurrection have had on educational development in the United States?

“ONLY A TEACHER” VIDEO

Much of Episode One is useful as accompaniment to this third chapter of School and Society. Horace Mann and his drive for common schools are featured early on in the video, and the progression of the teaching profession from male- to female-dominated is well illustrated. The comments and film clips illustrating teachers’ enduring role as “moral agents,” both in terms of their popular image and as advocates for the less advantaged in America, should bring to life Mann’s directives to the teachers of the nineteenth century.

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