The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-04-30
U. s. ExtOlS Horace Mann,
 Father Of Public School, "
 On Centennial This Year
BY WILLIS THORNTON
NEA servIce staF corrs.ponasnt

NEA Service Stan Correspondent
 "The father of the American com- mon sclloof' is being honored this summer by students, teachers, com mencemer1t orators, educators, and parent teacher associations. Because Horace Mann chose the year 1887 to abandon a rising law practice and devote the rest of his life to education, this year is being celebrated as the centennial of his work and of the modern develop ment of the common school on which the American Republic rests.
 Many programs have been ar- ranged for May 4, Mann's birth day, throughout the nation in schools and parent-teacher associa- tions. Commencement orators have been urged by the National Educa- ton association to study his work. The associatiorl,s summer conyen- ton also will pay him honor. And American Education. Week in No- vember will also center attention on Mann's work.
 Many of the boy and girl grad uates will be hearing Mann's name for the first time from com mencement speakers.
 Though his statue stands beside that of Webster in his native Massachusetts, and though educa- tors couple his name with those of Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, and Lincoln as one of the true founders of the nation, the public knows little of Horace Mann.
 Set High Standard
 He was born in Franklin; Mass, In 1796. Washington was still president then, and the country was crude and young. Mann's father was poor, and died when the boy was 13.
 Young Mann braided straw for nearby hat factories, and that youthful toll gave him two things: an understanding of hard work, and insecure health which dogged him all his days.
 The man who was to do so much for public schools had very poor schooling himself. Until he was 15, he had never been to school more than eight or ten weeks in 8 year.
 And the schools were poor. They had no comfortable seats, no blackboards, no maps, or pie lures, and very few books. Teach CTS were poorly prepared, and re- lied more on iogging than on edu- cational knowledge. All school facilities were inadequate, and many children were unable to learn even to read.
 Mann went on through Brown university to 8 law degree and a promising law practice. Like Lin- coin, he set himself a meticulous standard at law, refusing to de- fend any cause he did not him. self consider just.
 He then served in the Massa- chusetts state legislature, and be- came more and more interested in humanitarian causes. His ex- perience as a lawyer had irn- pressed on him that much crime could be eliminated if broader education had been available. "Won Without War" In 1887, Massachusetts created the first real state board of edu- cation in America. Mann sold his law books and took the job as secretary to the board at $500 a year. He wrote: If I live and have health, T will be revenged on them; I will do them more than $1,500 worth of good"
 Then Mann began his battle to establish and improve the Amer ican school, 8 battle which Joy Elmer Morgan calls "the first great battle of the masses won without war-the first example in human history of what can be done on a large scale through in