The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-06-27

Says F. w. Parker, speaking of this
time: "We make a mistake, if we
think there was in the early days, a
general idea of universal education
at the public expense" Of the first
part of this century he says; cal
though Massachusetts, had had
schools for nearly two centuries, the
free school had been to great de-
gree charity school the country
over. The cities like Boston had
taken pattern from the schools of
Elton, Harrow and Rugby, in Eng
land. There was not the least sus-
picion of a science of education or an
art of teaching and there were no
general propositions to improve the
free schools. They were indeed
looked upon as charity schools and
one sixth of all the children of Mass
achusetts in 1887 were in academies.
Each sect had it's schools and inter-
est in public schools was either dead
or dying" The school houses were
but disreputable shanties for the
most part. In many, even in the CEN
trail and populous districts, the seats
were but rude posts with top eight
or ten inches square, without sides or
back, on the top of which the pupil
had to balance himself for six hours,
the smaller children being unable to
touch their feet to the floor. So cold
were these houses that the ink froze
/ in winter while it was being used;
the roofs were leaky; apparatus there
was none, not even a blackboard.
The outer surroundings were most
disreputable and forlorn the whole
aspect of implanted walls and often
rotting doors and window cases, for
bidding and repellant. That was the
kind of school house in which Horace
Mann had his early training. The
teachers were uneducated, being
m-hands and other workers who
picked up little money in the win
ter by excepting school" which princi
pally meant keeping the scholars to-
gether for six hours and preserving
some sort of order by hogging. There
was no real teaching. If one learned
anything it was wrought out by him
self.
Such, practically, was the state of
public education in Massachusetts
when Horace Mann entered on public
life in her Legislature, and even this
was better than the condition in
other States. From the outset he
began to move for improvement in
education. He was the leading spirit
in passing bill for the establish
ment of a State board of education.
He was not only made member of
this board but gave up his political
aspirations and his lucrative law
practice to become its secretary, de-
voting all his time to the work.
There is no time for detailed ex-
animation of his work here; with
herculean efforts he worked at his
mighty task. The public were indif
ferent to the general subject; there
were no books or teachers to guide
him in establishing true system of
teaching; he had to work out the
problem alone. Not only did he,
himself unframed, work out system
of teaching which is the basis of that
accepted by our foremost educators
to-day, but he reused the State and
the country to the need of educating
the youths of the land; he made peo-
pie see that the very stability of our
free government and the only guar
anty of progress and prosperity lay
in common school system of a
high grade. This could come only
through trained teachers. He went
up and down the State holding
teachers institutes. So little was
the interest at first that he had often
to open the school-house where the
meeting was to be held and be jani
tor. At the first institute he held he
made the fire while Governor Briggs
swept the floor. But a beggarly
number of listeners could be gath
cred, though he was one of the finest
orators of the day. But for twelve
years he persevered until he won
public opinion to his side. He got
the legislature to appropriate money
for normal training schools for teach
ers. He built the first normal school
in the country at Lexington in 1889,
in the town where the first blood of
the Revolutionary war was shed. Per-
haps the world will some day see that
the later fact is equally glorious with
the other. He laid the foundation of
female education also, by admitting
women to this school equally with
men,-the first case of the kind in