Instead of comforting the grieving family, the local minister used the opportunity to warn the townspeople of Franklin what could happen if church rules were disobeyed. Stephen Mann had died while swimming on a Sunday. As such, all work and leisure activities on that day were strictly forbidden. Congregationalists were strict about what they could do on a Sunday, which they believed was a day solely to honor God. The town of Franklin was predominantly Congregationalist, a Protestant sect most notable as the religion of the Puritans who settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the early 1600s. Mann was thirteen that year and was already showing signs of poor health himself by then.Ī second tragedy occurred in Mann's family a year later when his older brother Stephen drowned while swimming. Neither of his parents had much formal schooling, and the backbreaking farm work probably contributed to his father's death in 1809 from tuberculosis, a disease that affects the lungs. Despite their highly regarded family background, the Manns were poor and they struggled financially. One of his ancestors was among the first settlers of the Massachusetts town of Cambridge, which is adjacent to Boston. His family owned a farm that dated back several generations. Mann was born on May 4, 1796, in Franklin, Massachusetts, a town in Norfolk County located in the mid-east section of the state. "Education … is the equalizer of the conditions of men, the great balance wheel of the social machinery." Hardship and difficulties With this system, he emphasized, democracy could truly flourish in America. He came from a humble, or modest, background and was deeply committed to the belief that public education should not only be open to all, but free to all as well. Mann's influence was still evident generations later throughout the U.S. During the mid-nineteenth century, these ideas were considered innovative, or groundbreaking, but they proved effective and were copied by other educators across the United States. ![]() Mann's guidelines included specific professional standards for teachers, a clearly defined academic year, and uniform curriculum, or coursework, standards. Through most of the 1840s he served as the secretary of education for Massachusetts and created the blueprint for a well-run, effective public school system in his state. Horace Mann is often described as the founder of the U.S.
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