Horace Mann's Troubling Legacy

Horace Mann's Troubling Legacy

Author: Bob Pepperman Taylor

Publisher: American Political Thought (Un

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780700617456

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Reassesses Horace Mann's philosophy of civic education. Argues that Mann's approach marginalized the role of schools in training the intellect, and that this anti-intellectual component has been retained in the current model of schooling in the United States.


Horace Mann

Horace Mann

Author: Jonathan Messerli

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

Published: 1972

Total Pages: 698

ISBN-13:

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In this full-scale critical biography of Horace Mann, Jonathan Messerli has provided the first comprehensive portrait of the humanitarian reformer who helped lay the basis for the American public school system. Looking behind the father-of-the-system legend, Jonathan Messerli shows us the man himself in the context of his era, with its tensions and fears for the future of society. Mann's legal and political careers involved him in virtually every reform movement of his time -- a period when the poor, the intemperate, the enslaved, the illiterate, the imprisoned, the insane were seen by reformers not merely as objects of pity and benevolence, but as distressing challenges to the growing optimism of "the American way of life." Mr. Messerli shows Horace Mann on a one-man crusade to modify human nature through moral indoctrination of the young and systematic training in literacy and citizenship. Writing voluminously, lecturing across the country, Mann worked tirelessly to establish a public-based system of education that he would, he hoped, usher in a millennium of enlightened ethics, patriotism, brotherhood, and affluence. -- From publisher's description.


A Measure of Failure

A Measure of Failure

Author: Mark J. Garrison

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2009-09-10

Total Pages: 155

ISBN-13: 1438427859

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Asks how and why standardized tests have become the ubiquitous standard by which educational achievement and intelligence are measured.


Horace’s Hope, Friedman’s Folly

Horace’s Hope, Friedman’s Folly

Author: Curtis J. Cardine

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2024-03-12

Total Pages: 137

ISBN-13: 1475872666

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Horace's Hope, Friedman's Folly explains the forces behind the current efforts to privatize education. It also works to debunk the idea that public education should be based on a capitalistic model of action that places education of our youth into the hands of corporations. It does this by presenting the original 6 principles of public education as espoused by Horace Mann, which is the basis of most state legislation concerning the creation of public schools. Citizens may not obtain both ignorance and freedom. The public should pay for, control, and maintain education. Children of different financial ladders should get the same education. The education that is taught must be nonsectarian (nonreligious). The education taught must use tenets of a free society. This education should be taught by professionally trained teachers. These principles are contrasted with the economic model of education promoted and theorized by economist Milton Friedman. A model that is re-segregating our children by race and creed rather than preparing them for life as a member of our democratic republic.


The Case for Contention

The Case for Contention

Author: Jonathan Zimmerman

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2017-04-24

Total Pages: 129

ISBN-13: 022645634X

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From the fights about the teaching of evolution to the details of sex education, it may seem like American schools are hotbeds of controversy. But as Jonathan Zimmerman and Emily Robertson show in this insightful book, it is precisely because such topics are so inflammatory outside school walls that they are so commonly avoided within them. And this, they argue, is a tremendous disservice to our students. Armed with a detailed history of the development of American educational policy and norms and a clear philosophical analysis of the value of contention in public discourse, they show that one of the best things American schools should do is face controversial topics dead on, right in their classrooms. Zimmerman and Robertson highlight an aspect of American politics that we know all too well: We are terrible at having informed, reasonable debates. We opt instead to hurl insults and accusations at one another or, worse, sit in silence and privately ridicule the other side. Wouldn’t an educational system that focuses on how to have such debates in civil and mutually respectful ways improve our public culture and help us overcome the political impasses that plague us today? To realize such a system, the authors argue that we need to not only better prepare our educators for the teaching of hot-button issues, but also provide them the professional autonomy and legal protection to do so. And we need to know exactly what constitutes a controversy, which is itself a controversial issue. The existence of climate change, for instance, should not be subject to discussion in schools: scientists overwhelmingly agree that it exists. How we prioritize it against other needs, such as economic growth, however—that is worth a debate. With clarity and common-sense wisdom, Zimmerman and Robertson show that our squeamishness over controversy in the classroom has left our students woefully underserved as future citizens. But they also show that we can fix it: if we all just agree to disagree, in an atmosphere of mutual respect.


Journal of the Civil War Era

Journal of the Civil War Era

Author: William A. Blair

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2011-09-01

Total Pages: 154

ISBN-13: 0807852619

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The University of North Carolina Press and the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center at the Pennsylvania State University are pleased to Publish The Journal of the Civil War Era. William Blair, of the Pennsylvania State University, serves as founding editor. Table of Contents for this issue: Volume 1, Number 3: September 2011 Articles Jon Grinspan "Sorrowfully Amusing": The Popular Comedy of the Civil War Joan E. Cashin Trophies of War: Material Culture in the Civil War Era Anne E. Marshall The 1906 Uncle Tom's Cabin Law and the Politics of Race and Memory in Early-Twentieth-Century Kentucky Review Essay Wayne Wei-Siang Hsieh Total War and the American Civil War Reconsidered: The End of an Outdated "Master Narrative" Book Reviews Books Received Professional Notes Barbara Franco Planned Commemorations: Unexpected Consequences Notes on Contributors The Journal of the Civil War Era takes advantage of the flowering of research on the many issues raised by the sectional crisis, war, Reconstruction, and memory of the conflict, while bringing fresh understanding to the struggles that defined the period, and by extension, the course of American history in the nineteenth century.


Unschooled

Unschooled

Author: Kerry McDonald

Publisher: Chicago Review Press

Published: 2019-05-07

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 1641600667

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Education has become synonymous with schooling, but it doesn't have to be. As schooling becomes increasingly standardized and test driven, occupying more of childhood than ever before, parents and educators are questioning the role of schooling in society. Many are now exploring and creating alternatives. In a compelling narrative that introduces historical and contemporary research on self-directed education, Unschooled also spotlights how a diverse group of individuals and organizations are evolving an old schooling model of education. These innovators challenge the myth that children need to be taught in order to learn. They are parents who saw firsthand how schooling can dull children's natural curiosity and exuberance and others who decided early on to enable their children to learn without school. Educators who left public school classrooms discuss launching self-directed learning centers to allow young people's innate learning instincts to flourish, and entrepreneurs explore their disillusionment with the teach-and-test approach of traditional schooling.