Educating Our Future

by: Horace Mann
It is always an asset to be educated in the business world. Now in this booming economy it is more important to be able to read and write. Providing decent schools for our future businessmen and women will help this country stay together longer.
Education was important to the Puritans some 200 years ago and it still very important now as we are working to establish more public schools. When I went to school it was boring and no the least bit enjoyable. We need to make it more fun and exciting for our children of today so they will learn even more then we did. In fact I think this is so important that I dropped my career in law to help this worthy cause. I became the first secretary of state board of education in 1837. For twelve years I have worked to better train the teachers, get them higher wages, build bigger schools, make the libraries with more resources, and improve the quality of learning through the textbooks and media they use.
The young boys should not be the only ones attending school; the young girls need to be taught in public schools as well, so they can perform outside the household. Before they were permitted the only education they had was in their own home, and without books. I am glad to say that by the late 1700s they began to attend summer sessions at the academies. Now many of our schools are co-ed where they can work alongside the young men.
These improvements have helped the development of free elementary education. There were not any laws stating that all school age children should go to school, nor were all the ones in school taught well, but it was obvious schooling would help the future of our country. For awhile there were about 300 public high schools, but about 100 were located in Massachusetts. Now many states are attempting to open up public education for high school students.

 Before we offered public education, and still while it was offered there were many private academies. There were approximately about 6,000 private academies, but only a small number of students attended. Despite the public schools availability, it was not uncommon to stop schooling at 8th grade. The few that continued on to college, I discovered, had very few choices. Many of the classes only had about 100 students enrolled and were not using advance methods.
Then the college-founding era began. During this time we saw colleges pop up everywhere. Cities saw a college as a way to get their city going. However as time progresses we have seen many of these colleges disappear.
Now we are offering classes to help the young men be educated in new practices. We have included mechanic and scientific schools for the widening job span. The women were not offered this many options however.
The education of women has progressed over the years I have spent in the education field. At first it was a big achievement for the women to write their names, Then it progressed onto a few going to secondary schooling at boy's academies. Then in 1836 the first women's college, Oberlin, was developed, about 200 years after the first men's college, Harvard. Men and women were now closer than ever to becoming equal and seeing eye to eye.
I am glad to be involved in the education process of our future United States. I can already see the children developing widely spread ideas that will help our economy prosper.