Education

• Brown University

Career Highlights

• served on Massachusettes House of Representatives and Senate
• first State Secretary of Education (Mass.)
• served in the U.S. Congress (1949-53)
• first President of Antioch College (1953-59)

Major Contributions to Instructional Development

• drafted and passed legislation called the "EducationBill of 1837." This bill mandated a powerful
  state board of education and secretary
• instituted a minimum school year of six months, a doubling of educational appropriations, 50 additional schools, increased public support, higher teacher salaries, new curricula, new teaching methods based upon European models, professional training of teachers, and professional standards overseen by one central authority
• organized annual educational conventionsall over America and he helped to create the first American schools for training teachers

Findings, Research, Studies

Raised in poverty, Horace Mann educated himself in his early years, became a lawyer, and later went into politics becoming the first great American advocate of public education. He argued for educational reform, free public education, and teacher training and worked to end slavery.

Sources

Horace Mann
http://www.pbs.org/onlyateacher/horace.html

http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agexed/aee501/mann.html
Horace Mann's contribution to education.