Annual Reports, and influence of the board depended almost wholly upon the intelligence and character of the new Secretary. During his twelve years in the office, Mann subserved the interests of the state most faithfully. To awaken the people, he made an educational campaign through Effected his reforms by every portion of the state each year, but an even more educational campaigns, effective means of disseminating his reforms was found in his series of Annual Reports. These documents were by law to give information concerning existing conditions and the progress made in the efficiency of public education each year, and they deal with practically every educational topic of importance at the time. Sometimes they seem commonplace, but it must be remembered that they were not so then, and that the work of Mann did much to render them familiar. They vitally affected school conditions everywhere in New England, and were read with great interest in all parts of the United States, and even in Europe. He also published semimonthly the Massachusetts Common School Journal, to spread information concerning school improvement, school law, and the proceedings of the State Board. But it consisted of only sixteen pages, and was not as valuable as some of the educational journals that had preceded it (see pp. 204 f.). Another medium in the improvement of educational facilities was Mann's general establishment of school libraries by state subsidy throughout Massa- school lichusetts. But probably the most permanent means of propagating his reforms came through securing the foundation of the first public normal schools in this country. Massachusetts was in 1838 induced to estab- and state norlish three schools, so located that all parts of the state might be equally served. The course in each school con School Journal, braries, mal schools. Opposed by Boston schoolmasters, sisted in a review of the common branches from the teaching point of view, work in educational theory, and training in a practice school under supervision, and, while not largely attended, these institutions were a great success from the start. The arduous and unremitting labors of Mann in instituting and promoting the various means of school reform made the greatest inroad upon his strength and financial resources. Moreover, he was for years violently assailed by reactionaries of all types. His controversy with the Boston schoolmasters was especially sharp. Mann's Seventh Annual Report (1843) gave an account of his visit to foreign schools, especially those of Germany, and praised with great warmth the 'Pestalozzian' (see p. 289) instruction without text-books, the enthusiastic teachers, the absence of artificial rivalry, and the mild discipline in the Prussian system. The report did not stigmatize the conservatism of the Boston schools or bring them into comparison with those of Berlin, but the cap fitted. The pedagogues were disquieted, and proceeded to answer savagely. But when the smoke of battle had cleared away, it was seen that the leaders of the old order had been completely routed. A more insidious attack was that led by the ultra-orthodox. The other reaction- old schools of the Puritans, with their dogmatic religious teaching, had been steadily fading for more than a century before the new board had been inaugurated, but many narrow people were inclined to charge this disappearance to the reformer, whose liberal attitude in religion was well known. The assaults, however, were vigorously and successfully repelled by the Secretary. And while these controversies wore Mann out and prob the ultraorthodox, and aries. ably led ultimately to his resignation, they had much to do with making his reputation as a great educator. They have even caused us at times to forget that he was but a striking figure in a general movement. Men like Carter were in the field long before him, and his co-worker, Barnard, served the cause of education for nearly half a century after Mann withdrew. Universal and The Educational Suggestions and Achievements of Mann. In surveying his educational positions, we find Mann's foremost proposition was that education should be universal and free. Girls should be trained as well as free education, boys, and the poor should have the same opportunities as the rich. Public schools should furnish education of such a quality that the wealthy would not regard private institutions as superior. This universal education, however, should have as its chief aim moral character with character as chief aim; and social efficiency, and not mere erudition, culture, and accomplishments. And morality, he felt, would not be accomplished by inculcating sectarian doctrines. Mann was, however, mainly a practical, rather than a theoretical reformer, and to the material side of education he gave serious attention. He declared that school buildings should be well constructed and sanitary. This matter seemed to him so important that material he wrote a special report upon the subject during his first year in office. He carefully discussed the proper plans for rooms, ventilation, lighting, seating, and other schoolhouse features, and insisted that the inadequate and squalid conditions which existed should be improved. As to methods, he maintained that instruction should methods, be based upon scientific principles, and not upon authority and tradition. He advocated the word method equipment, scientific trained teachers, of reading, in the place of the uneconomical, artificial, and ineffective method of the alphabet, and the Pestalozzian object methods and oral instruction were introduced by him. He held that the work should be guided by able teachers, who had been trained in a normal school, and should be imparted in a spirit of mildness and kindness through an understanding of child nature. In the matter of the studies to be pursued, Mann was and practical inclined to be exceedingly practical. In discussing educational values, he failed to see any reason "why algebra, a branch which not one man in a thousand ever has occasion to use in the business of life, should be studied by more than twenty-three hundred pupils, and bookkeeping, which every man, even the day laborer, should understand, should be attended to by only a little more than half that number." Similarly, he holds that of all subjects, save the rudiments, physiology should receive the most attention. studies. In order that these various reforms might be realized, Mann insisted frequently that the state should spare no labor or expense. But in a republic he felt that "education can never be attained without the consent of the whole people." It was a general elevation of ideals, effort, and expenditure that he sought, and for which he began his crusade. And the general progress that resulted in this period covers a wide range. During his secretaryship the appropriations made for public education in Massachusetts were more than doubled, and the proportion of expenditure for private schools in the state ries, length of was, in consequence, reduced from seventy-five to thirtyyear, and the six per cent of the total cost of education. The salaries number of high schools; of masters in the public schools were raised sixty-two Doubled appropriations for public education; increased sala the school per cent, and, although the number of women teachers had grown fifty-four per cent, the average of their salaries also increased fifty-one per cent. The school attendance enormously expanded, and a full month was added to the average school year. When Mann's administration began, but fourteen out of forty-three towns had complied with the high school law of 1826, but, by the middle of the century, fifty new high schools had been established. The efficiency of supervision was largely increased by making the compensation of the town visiting committees, established through Carter, compulsory by law. The first state normal schools at last appeared, and other reforms. teachers' institutes, county associations, and public school libraries were given general popularity. Quite as marked was the improvement effected in the range and serviceability of the school studies, in text-books, methods of teaching, and discipline. Thus under the leadership of Horace Mann a practically unorganized set of schools, with diverse aims and methods, was welded into a well-ordered system with high ideals, and the people of Massachusetts renewed their faith in the common schools. Henry Barnard's Part in the Educational Awakening. But there was another important contribution to the awakening made by a New Englander, which was of a rather different nature from that connected with the influence of Horace Mann. Before that reconstruction of the common schools, which was responsible for the best elements in our national civilization, could be at all complete, it was necessary that America should have a better comprehension of what was being done in education elsewhere. The United States had for two centuries and effected |