Reform of Public Education
Cassidy Kenefick
Horace Mann
Leaders of the Reform of Public Education
Henry Barnard
Leaders & Their Contributions
Horace Mann
Horace Mann was the first secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education and established the first state-supported teachers' college. Mann and his followers believed that education could end the domination of capital and labor. They also believed that it could protect democracy because educated people would be in office. Horace Mann of Massachusetts led the common school movement in the early 1800s, in which public schools were financed by local property taxes. Mann also emphasized positive reinforcement instead of punishment. Horace Mann was the father of public education.
Mann worked for:
improved schools.
mandatory student attendance.
a longer school year.
increased teacher preparation
Henry Barnard
Henry Barnard was instrumental in legislation that created a state board of common schools. Serving as secretary of that board, he founded and edited the Connecticut Common School Journal and Annals of Education (1838–42) and established the first teachers’ institute (1839). In 1843 Barnard was called to Rhode Island to make a study of that state’s schools, and in 1845 he became the state’s first commissioner of education.
Henry Barnard worked for:
- a new education system in Rhode Island
- a new education system in Connecticut