Thesis: I agree that teacher qualification is an essential element in providing excellent education in public schools and many of the concepts Horace Mann advocated continue in public school education even today.
Horace Mann, the Father of American Public Education, politician, and educator who promoted educational success for the poor as well as the wealthy as a means of making America a more stable, competitive county wrote twelve annual reports during his tenure as Massachusetts Secretary of Education. Fourth Annual Report of the Board of Education Together with the Secretary of the Board 1841 The Indispensable Teacher and published ____ . More familiarly known as The Indispensable Teacher Mann’s fourth annual report voices his concerns with the present status and improvements to public education.
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.
So profound were Mann’s ideas that many of them, continue as integral components of public education today in the twenty-first century. As an example of efforts to ensure that districts hire qualified teachers, Mann presents the need for Prudential Committees, precursors of teacher selection committees and human resources departments, to secure needed qualified teachers in advance because to delay would mean “the good teachers are all pre-engaged”. In a similar ma...
... middle of paper ...
...usetts for the years 1839 – 1849. Boston: Lee and Shepard Publishers 1891.
[Online]. Google.com: Google Books Online. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from http://books.google.com/books?id=RfwAAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_ r&cad=0#v=snippet&q=fourth%20annual%20report&f=false
Mann, H. (1841). Fourth annual report of the Board of Education Together with the Secretary of the Board. The indispensable teacher. Retrieved February 5, 2014, from Mercer
University Blackboard, Resource Readings for Foundations of Education mercer.edu Mullenholz, G. (2013) Op-Ed: We are on desperate need of more male elementary school teachers. Retrieved February 5, 2014 from
http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/07/19/we-need-more-male-elementary-school-teachers
In “The Teacher Wars”, by Helen Goldstein, the book focuses on the historical implications of school policy and how it affects teachers. The author goes into depth with everything from the rise of female teachers to the rise of technology in today’s teachers. As Goldstein argues teachers have an incredible ability to be able to widen equality, yet can also narrow the achievement gap that is created from birth. Her showcase of the constant strife against teachers throughout the ages gives way to multiple ways politics and decisions affect the achievement gap.
Orestes Brownson engaged in open opposition of Horace Mann’s vast reform policies of the Massachusetts State Board of Education. He directly opposed Mann’s work in Massachusetts on the formation of a centralized, state run school board on the grounds that state power over the educational process would result in biased and undemocratic instruction lending favor to one political interest group or another. In addition Brownson held the belief that the state normal schools which were conceived and vehemently supported by Mann would produce teachers well informed in pedagogic methodology, while nearly uninformed in the area of academic concepts beyond the scope of elementary education.
Born in Pampa, Texas, Stephen B. Oates has been known for his distinguished books of American history and has received many honorable awards. Despite his early years in pursuing a business career, he ended up specializing in American history. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude) in 1958. Having received his Masters in 1960 and nine years later, his PhD in education, Oates has been a lecturer and guest speaker at many colleges and has appeared on television and radio. One of his notable awards includes the Master Teacher Award from the University of Hartford in 1985. He was a semi finalist in the National Professor of the Year competition winning the silver medal that same year. He has nearly 35 years of teaching experience and is currently a professor at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He also holds membership in the Society of American Historians, the American Antiquarian Society, and the Texas Institute of Letters. In his books, Oates has been recognized for writing controversia...
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.
The book contained Ted Sizer's thoughts on a study of high schools over a five-year period; in which he used a fictional teacher named Horace to illustrate a number of instructive examples. The mission of the program is "to create and sustain equitable, intellectually
In our time of uncertainty one of the most stable institutions is the school system for children. Thus, being a teacher and providing the most stable atmosphere along with providing the children with an education must be handled delicately. I believe a mixture of essentialism, progressivism, perennialism, behaviorism, and social reconstrctonism is essential in achieving those goals.
In early America, the funding for schools mandated subjects taught were reading, writing, arithmetic, geography with English grammar except theology. Founded during the revolution era were eight colleges including Harvard; prior wealthy families sent their boys to Europe for higher education. First printed was the original New England Primer in Boston, during the 1680-1690 periods. It was the staple of American Education for over 150 years. The first children’s prayer “Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep” first appeared in this Primer.
http://www.eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED032986. New York State Education Dept. Albany, NY. Published Sep, 1962. Web. Retrieved 3 Nov 2013. .
In order to establish a PHILOSOPHY ON TEACHING, a sequence of events happen in history to open a doorway to “Society about Education and Schooling”, as the description of Public Education Goals for Our Educational System came from the ideas of two famous men, Horace Mann and Thomas Jefferson.
166-173). Linda Darling-Hammond (2000) discusses how teacher education has changed and how it has affected our education system (p. 166). The author also notes how even the most intelligent people found it hard to prosper in the field without the right skills and preparation (Darling-Hammond, 2000, p. 166-173). In the article, she presents how post baccalaureate programs are carefully structured, versus alternative routes which can be no more than backup employment options. Darling-Hammond (2000) also addresses how it becomes difficult for aspiring teachers to learn both subject matter and pedagogy (p.
An outstanding educator possesses unique qualities that set him or her apart from others in the field. Ask any student about a favorite teacher and listen intently as he or she describes that person with a smile. Ask a parent of a child who will enter first grade in the fall about the teacher choice for their child. The parent would describe the outstanding educator in their desire for that special teacher. The qualities of an outstanding educator are easily recognized by those whose lives they touch, shape, and change on a daily basis. It is in this writing piece that they will be described and discussed.
It is argued that there are 4 elements critical to the effectiveness of the instructional process: 1. the learner, 2. the teacher, 3. the home, and 4. the academic programs and the physical facilities at the school. These are interdependent and interactive and must function in unison for effective teaching to take place. The teacher's primary responsibility is to help the learner grow intellectually, physically, emotionally, and socially. Therefore, teachers should be competent, dedicated, and committed to the profession of teaching and to the service of the students. Teachers should have adequate academic and professional preparation and the requisite traits of character. Teachers should be respected, appreciated, and sumptuously remunerated to enable them to devote themselves with total concentration to the task of teaching. A home where education is valued contributes in immeasurable ways to the quality of learning of the child. Finally, the school should have innovative, creative, differentiated, and challenging academic programs."</cite> For example, if the schools physical facilities aren't in a good, safe condition, the learner will have a hard time learning because his mind will be on his own personal safety and well being. A lot of the inner city schools in the United States are older than the teachers that teach in them. Some schools are so overc...
There are many ways to compile data on a teacher and determine that person’s performance. Teacher performance can be based upon classroom observation, a teacher’s continuing development and education, and students’ standardized testing scores. The controversy centers around using student test scores to determine the performance of a teacher and thus her pay. Scott Andes, a research analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation voices the merits of performance based pay with his article “Getting Serious with Education: Why Can We Measure Students but Not Teachers?” High School English teachers, Jordan Kohanim and Ashley Ulrich vehemently state why there is no merit with performance based pay with their article, “No Merit to Merit Pay Arguments.” In each article both sides debate how performance based or merit pay will affect students, teachers, schools, and com...
Since its inception, the American public education system has undergone various reforms and equitable and adequate funding has been a reemerging issue in school finance. The challenge of providing equitable and adequate funding in the American public schools was addressed as early as the mid 1800’s. Horace Mann, the Father of the Common School, was influential in advocating the need for equity and adequacy in public schools. “However,” writes Baines (2006, p.269), “perhaps his greatest contribution was the idea that American children should be provided with a free, nonselective, academically challenging, fair, and morally just system of schooling. In his appeals to the public, he posited schools as a way to unify and edify a diverse
As you can see the school board handles many issues from budgets, to tenure, to performance scores, to conferences. Although this paper did not cover everything in the meeting, it summarized what took place, and what affects it would have on teachers. The decisions made no matter how big or small can influence how and what task a teacher performs. The school board meeting was interesting because you are able to see how the changes could affect you personally.