Although schools had existed in Massachusetts for over two hundred years, Horace Mann had unique work proposals. “The right to mould the political, moral, and religious, opinions of his children, is a right exclusively and jealousy reserved by our laws to every parent; and for the government to attempt directly or indirectly, as to these matters, to stand in the parent’s place, is an undertaking of very questionable policy. Such an attempt cannot fail to excite a feeling of jealousy, with respect to our public schools, the results of which could not but be disastrous…” (Fraser, 48). Horace Mann was a very famous advocate of the common school. “Horace Mann of Massachusetts was the most famous advocate of the common school. He worked on its behalf as secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education from 1837 to 1848. Prior to that period, he had served in the Massachusetts state legislature as a member of the Whig political party. In 1840 after Man had served three years as secretary, a bill was introduced into the Massachusetts legislature to abolish the State Board of Education. The legislation was defeated.” (Urban, 85). Mann had proposals that were insanely unique because it wasn’t thought of by the people.
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Benjamin Franklin's education in the Boston Latin Grammar School was a failure. "He moved on first to another school to learn the specific skills in mathematics and bookkeeping that it offered him and then to apprenticeship that prepared him for his occupation as a printer" (Fraser, 8). Franklin saw no problem with dropping out of grammar school whether others did or not. He chose a path to help sculpt his future the way he wanted it, nobody else. "Franklin became the sole owner and began a series of publishing ventures that brought him both fame and fortune" (Urban, 42). Although Franklin failed at arithmetics and despised working for his father's candle business, he eventually got led to what he was meant to do all along and what made him successful, becoming a printer and publisher.
Thomas Jefferson’s educational plan was based on religion. “As governor of Virginia in 1779, he changed the “Indian School” at the College of William and Mary, which had been established to civilize and Christianize the original Americans, into an institution for studying Native American social forms”(Urban 69). Thomas Jefferson also wanted to help poor families be able to educate themselves still. “...of those whose parents are too poor to give them further education, and to send him forward to one of the grammar schools, of which twenty are proposed to be erected in different parts of the country, for teaching Greek, Latin, geography, and the higher branches of numerical arithmetic”(Fraser 21). Benjamin Rush mainly focused his education beliefs on making sure women were going to get educated as well as men. “The proficiency which the young ladies have discovered in reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic, grammar, geography, music, and their different catechisms since the last examination is a less equivocal mark of the merits of our teachers than anything I am able to express in their favor”(Fraser 25). Noah Webster wrote books on how to read and write and listed his democratic goals within his books. Webster wanted to help teach the American language to people. “Noah Webster...also played a key role in shaping American English. Webster outlined his democratic goals...Webster produced a spelling book, a grammar, and a reader, and in his later dictionary he put his ideas into practice, creating a new American language...it was through Webster’s ‘blue-backed speller’ with its blue cover and its detailed instructions on how to read, speak, and spell in American English…”(Fraser 18). Noah Webster, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Rush all had very different views but they also had similar views on their educational plans. “...Jefferson outlined a democratic political vision and system of education in his writings that later generations would embrace far more fervently than the author ever dreamed possible... Rush shared Jefferson’s opinion that a new form of education was needed in the new nation. ..While Jefferson, Rush, and Webster wrote about the kind of education the new nation needed, each of the newly freed thirteen colonies wrote a new constitution”(Fraser 18). Jefferson and Webster both had political views within their educational plans while Rush tied in Jefferson’s views in his educational plans as well. “The revolution in principles, opinions, and manners Rush thought essential for Republican citizens was to be effected in large measure through education. To the patriotic Rush, as well as to George Washington, Noah Webster, Thomas Jefferson, and some other notable Americans of the Revolutionary generation, it was given that their countrymen should be educated at home, not abroad”(Urban 60). The three of them also had differences in their views. Thomas Jefferson didn’t want women to be educated whatsoever, he didn’t believe there was a need for them to be educated. While Benjamin Rush believed that they should be educated in: english, dance, music, sciences, bookkeeping, history, and moral philosophy. On the other hand, Noah Webster wanted women to be educated so they can help and educate their children while at home.
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AuthorI am a Freshman at Bradley University majoring in Early Childhood Education.
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