Author: [Ashley Harris]

Interviewer: [Evan Batten]

[ Can you imagine attending a school with no water, no recess, no lighting or ventilation, and unqualified teachers? How about being taught as a five years-old in same room as sixteen year-olds by one teacher or never stepping foot into a school because it wasn't required or your family couldn't afford it? This is the state which Horace Mann found schools to be in while touring Massachusetts schools in 1837. Throughout his twelve years as Secretary of the first Massachusetts Board of Education, Mann formed plans to reform schools and lobbied for legislation to fix the state of schools. Some of his successes include tax supported public school systems, compulsory education laws, and legal standards for the condition of schoolhouses. This Podcast discusses the contributions of Horace Mann to the Common School Movement in the mid 19th century and his continued influence of the modern American public school system.]