Reader Response 1

In 1848, Horace Mann addressed the Massachusetts state legislature in regards to America's lack of a general public education system. His thought's and concern's in his article "Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education"were addressed to the white adult men of his time, due to the fact that women and men of different racial factions were not yet allowed to vote in America.  The article is split into several different aspects of learning in which Mann finds incredibly important to teach the general public these are, "Physical Education", "Intellectual Education as a Means of Removing Poverty, and Securing Abundance", "Political Education", "Moral Education", and "Religious Education".  Mann believes that if America were to educate it citizens on these topics then the country would rise in socio economic standards as a whole.

The article is based in a time where our country did not provide an education to all of it's people. Whether it was because you were poor, or because you lived in a rural area, such as Mann did growing up, the states were not responsible for providing you with an education. Mann believes that, "Education, then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men..."(120). Mann meant that regardless of where you were from, or how much property you owned you if you had an education you would be at the same level as everyone else when you began. Education of a country's people allowed for a better country.

Mann's statements obviously rang true in heart's of many Americans because we have, and have had a general public education system. What he believed also rings true in my heart, and the fact that in my own life I began in a lower socioeconomic class, and with education I will rise to a higher one is proof that the education of all allows equal starting ground. Our public school systems are based largely on Mann's guidelines and though not all of his categories are as important as they once were(i.e. Physical and Religious Education), his fundamental bases are still as important today in 2012 as they were in 1848, but now it includes everyone.