In my Civic Engagement Essay, the leader I choose was Horace Mann who lived from 1776 to 1859 and had a profound influence on what we call the education system. Mann started off his career in life as a lawyer in Massachusetts. While he was good at being a lawyer he soon found himself elected to the senate set for Massachusetts State. In this position he quickly came to realize that the state’s schools were performing poorly and was highly unorganized. At this point in history teacher were either poorly trained or not trained at all. In addition to the lack of qualified teachers the state also faced high levels of poverty which kept many children from attending school (Baines, 2006).
In Order to rectify the situation of depressed attendance numbers and lack of qualified educators; Mann took on this challenge to enact reformation of the education system. He accomplished through many different avenues. His first advance in education what to establish a school for the mentally handicapped which during his time was unheard of. Before then there had never been a school that catered to a specific subset of children with special needs. Following this same path he also implemented the idea of having colleges setup that would cater specify to the education and training of teacher. He felt that it was important to have well trained teacher in order for the schools to be successful in teach children (Baines, 2006).
Mann’s highest achievement in the advancement of education was when he created was the first interracial, coed, and free school system. This would allow anyone from any race to attend school without the financial burdens that had kept the poor out of school in the past. Mann’s vision for doing this was to create a unified collective within his state in order to advance diversity in education. He was able to push for this reform in education by inspiring others is the fact that education was a way to influence moral behaviors. He saw education as the tool guild the morality of others (Baines, 2006).
Mann was held as a leader in the education reform movement for much reason. The first if the qualities he possessed. Leaders often have certain quality that makes them leaders of others. In Mann’s case, his most notable quality was his concern for other. Concern for others by definition is a leader that cares for and nurturers the concept of humanity while considering other first and foremost (Manning, and Curtis, 2012).
Ever since slavery has been established there has been negative and positive influences for white Americans. Some white Americans did not show any remorse for the African Americans and believed they deserved to be slaves. However, there were good white Americans like Horace Greeley that went to their grave to abolish slavery, and the brutality the Africans Americans faced. There was fairness for the African Americans because they were considered not human. People like D.L. Moody who was an evangelist that preached only his sermons to whites. Certain events like the yellow-fever epidemic of 1878 blamed the African Americans for the cause of it, yet some political leaders took it as an advantage to help stop slavery. These influences were not only bad influence, but positive as well.
While some citizens of the United States, between 1825 and 1850, believed that reform was foolish and that the nation should stick to its old conduct, reformists in this time period still sought to make the United States a more ideally democratic nation. This was an age of nationalism and pride, and where there was pride in one’s country, there was the aspiration to improve one’s country even further. Many new reformist and abolitionist groups began to form, all attempting to change aspects of the United States that the respective groups thought to be unfair or unjust. Some groups, such as lower and middle class women and immigrants, sought to improve rights within the county, while other reformers aspired to change the American education system into a more efficient way of teaching the county’s youth. Still other reform groups, particularly involved in the church and the second great awakening, wanted to change society as a whole. This was a time and age of change, and all these reforms were intended to contribute to the democratic way our country operated.
Horace Mann was an American education reformer and also was a politician known for encouraging universal public education. His efforts were to establish that education should be universal, free. Also, that education should be social efficiency oriented.
Mount Holyoke College is a liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Originally founded by Mary Lyon as Mount Holyoke Female Seminary on 8 November 1837, it is the "first of the Seven Sisters" and is the oldest continuing institution of higher education for women in the United States. In addition, according to the United States Department of Education, "Mount Holyoke’s significance is that it became a model for a multitude of other women’s colleges throughout the country." (contributors, 2008) 1834 was a turning point for Mary Lyon. She decided to leave Ipswich Female Seminary, where she was assistant principal, and focus all of her time and efforts on founding an institution of higher education for women. For the next three years, she crusaded tirelessly for funds and support. It was not the best time to ask people for donations, the U.S. was in a severe economic depression. But Mary Lyon persisted. She wrote circulars and ads announcing the plan for the school, raised money, persuaded prominent men to back her enterprise, developed a curriculum, visited schools and talked to educators as far away as Detroit, chose the school's location, supervised the design and construction of a building, brought equipment, hired teachers, and selected students. She endured ridicule from those who felt her ambitious undertaking would be "wasted" on women. Her constant travels often left her in a state of exhaustion. Yet, Mary Lyon never doubted her belief that women deserved to have the same opportunities for higher education as their brothers.
Schools have evolved constantly throughout the years starting when they were first created, to our present day. Society has been testing multiple schooling styles to try and find the best form to benefit all students equally. In the reading assigned in class from the textbook, “School and Society: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives,” I agree with Orestes Brownson’s assessment that Horace Mann’s plan for common schooling and establishment of normal schools was undemocratic, because it did affect our free society as a country, produce conservative teachers and the board did have influence on what books should be placed in school libraries.
Schugurensky, D. (March 2003). History of Education – Selected Moments of the 20th Century. Retrieved March 20, 2004 from
...Of Frederick Douglass." Philosophical Studies In Education 39.(2008): 24-34. Education Research Complete. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, education became an overwhelmingly important weapon in the fight against ignorance and injustice of earlier times (Urban, 2009). With the spread of Enlightenment across several countries, the newly created world in America was one of hope, fear, and uncertainty of new ideas. Education and enlightenment were to become the keys to future of the new world and the building blocks for our modern society. Unbeknownst to many at the time, education was going to be the missing link between the present and the future. It would be the stepping stones from the ideas of Enlightenment to the actuality of newly developed philosophies, discoveries, and theories about a changing world. Progress was
Throughout history, there have been great leaders, some for the good of humanity, and some for the not-so good of humanity. The one element all leaders have in common is in some way, have changed the course of history. The one great leader I have found to be interesting and envision of a great leader is William Bradford, an original passenger on the Mayflower, and the first ever governor elected on what is to become, American Soil.
Mann believed “people were created and brought into life with a set of innate, organic, dispositions, or propensities (Mann 1969, pg. 125) and Thomas Jefferson gave the idea of an assigned nature where he believed schools function was for the select, superior people with gifts of virtue and wisdom. He also thought that education could improve a person’s endowment, but gave the failure to provide educational opportunity as it does create abilities or talents (Jefferson (1944) 430-431). These ideas gave a realization of what are associated with our present day education of Equality of Educational opportunity in today’s school system and a remedy for socioeconomic inequality to include education for the poor as well as the rich.
Mann wrote about, in varying degrees, his improvement interests in the areas of public versus private school attendance, preparing the student for real life experiences, equality among people, gender roles and gender expectations, recognition of teacher accomplishments and attributes. In addition, teacher safety, morality, classroom management and discipline, academic content, salary, books and qualified teachers were among his primary concerns.
Teachers are a very important aspect of children and adult learners’ lives. Educator professionals’ work is inextricably linked to the success of students, schools, and states. The shortage of teachers is increasing due to some having a lack of certification and being qualified. This paper will address the shortage of special education teachers, the shortage of teachers in rural areas, and other educators; also, how to recruit and retain teachers who are already in the teaching profession and what contributes to the decreasing numbers of teachers.
Within the last couple of centuries, there have been a great number of influential leaders in the education field, but one that always stood out to me and impacted me the most is Booker T. Washington.
Dr. Montessori’s first notable success was when she had several of her eight year old students apply to take the State examinations for reading and writing. The children who were “defective” did not just pass but had above average scores. After the results came in Maria thought “If mentally disabled children could be brought to the level of normal children then (she) wanted to study the potential of ‘normal’ children” [Michael Olaf’s Essential Montessori: School Edition for ages 3-12+].
“Leadership for educational equity: About LEE.” Leadership for educational equity. Web. 19 Apr. 2014 http://educationalequity.org/about/