Compare And Contrast Horace Mann's Education System

a) Horace Mann, the then secretary of the board of education of Massachusetts, USA travelled to Prussia in 1843 to study the Prussian education system. Subsequently, Massachusetts decided to adopt the Prussian model of education but with a common school system. Why do you think the education system in USA at that time had significant differences from the Prussian education system even when it was broadly based on the Prussian model?

The kind of education that a nation want is directly influenced by the kind of nation it want. As education was seems to be a weapon to carve the nation. The Prussian education system that started at eighteen centenaries was set up by the political elite in a way that they can shape their nation in a modern industrial

nation. Whereas the aim behind education, for The United States was, perhaps to shape the society that was set up as a result of democracy. Whereas in England and Wales, the elite carved the education system in their favor Induct the traditional to themselves only and for mass they offer only basic literacy and numeracy.

The state like England and Wales were more focused into religious education and the other forms of education there was only offered to elite. The modal of Prussian education system attracts many others nations too and influenced them to take it as a role model for their education system. The model somehow gave the structure of the modern education that was mandatory for everyone to a certain level.

After the defeat of Prussian in the battle of Jena in 1806 by the amateur army of napoleon it was found by the professionals of Prussia that the reason behind losing the battle was the selfhood of the soldiers because of what they didn’t obeyed orders. In his work “Addresses to the German Nation” the writer and

the philosopher Johann Fichte addressed that the only way to rebound the Prussia again can be done only by the forced schooling which will promote the social integrity and the moral duty in a citizen to obey the orders to fight against the mortifying defeat. In between the battle of 1806 and the death of the education minister altenstein in 1840 the nation was strongly amalgamate the national system and education. The fist important move towards the national education was by the great Frederic II compulsory attendance law of 1763 and the first crucial shift towards the state control was to create the secondary school board which offered rights to the state to control the teacher and school. In 1808 Humboldt create Volksshule system in which each of the provinces was provided with a board of secondary schools and each district with governmental board to supervise primary and junior secondary education. The 1810 law made education a secondary activity which was compulsory for 3 years but in 1812 it was incremented to 9 year of compulsory education which restricts the education to higher education to those 9 years of schooling only. The modern education and the schooling were started in 1819 where education was imposing on a nation by force. The school systems was funded by the taxes and allow all the students to study for free as well as they made attendance a compulsory factor. The schooling was mandatory for eight years to prepare child for the contemporary world.

The goals of the Prussian education system were to create obedient soldiers, subservient workers to, submissive civil servants, compliant clerks and dutiful citizens.

This educational system provides students only basic numeracy, writing, and reading. The reason that carved this education system was religion because most of the group and the Pietists, believed that god can be understand through Bible so one should know how to read? And that was also the reason behind restricting the free education only to 9 years of schooling so that it could get offered only to the elite one. The idea behind educating 92% of the children according to the Volksshule was not to develop the child but to carve him or her in a dutiful. Only 8% of the students were schooled in Real School education, to provide education beyond that 9 year was treated as the contribution towards losing

battle.

The Prussia and The USA both are different civic nations. Whereas USA was an individual state rather hen federal government on the other hand Prussia was a clear absolute and autocratic state. Both the system were quite different in the structural formation as one was individual state and other was monarchy but still USA adopt a system based on Prussian model because previously the state was govern by the British and the only need of education was to educate the children for religious purpose later on it was argued that the state comprises of people from different countries and believing in different faith and clergy are forcing them to educating them in English and enforcing their religious view on them by the mean of public education. After the independence in 1791 only seven had the provision for education out of the fourteen states and till 1840 it was found that the education was only offering to the wealthy children. The USA educators were very much fascinated by the Prussian model. All the reformers shows vigorous interest in Prussian model of education and as a result a number of American educators travelled to Prussia to analyze how the system works and after their return to USA they showed intense interest to implement it. In 1843 Horace Mann after travelled to Prussia and understood the Prussian model of education worked as an instrument in implementing the Prussian model of education in USA. Edward Everett governor of Massachusetts instituted a policy based on the model.

Mann convinced his fellow modernizers and Whig Party to legislate tax-supported elementary public education in their states. Most of the state of north whereas support one or another version of the education system established by him in Massachusetts mostly the program framed for training i.e normal school. The system constituted compulsory attendance, teacher training institute, competitive tests, age graded curriculum , a fragment of subjects and periods. The goal of education system of USA was to assert a superior claim to child than parents. Americans were very much impressed with the Prussian education model emphasis on social cohesion. The reason behind the education was different for both on one hand Prussian education model wanted a dutiful citizen and on other hand USA education model wanted a education as a tool of developing human resource. The USA wanted to copied only the positive aspect of the model so they framed common school system despite of adopting the whole Prussian model as they believed that an education system under the control of state could be effective tool to forge the citizens together and that could also work as melting pot for the diverse population of immigrants and also to offer equality to gender and race. The other reason behind adopting the common school of system was the political upheavals, and economic transformations. This gives the opportunity to build a national identity of the state without private schools, and charitable and religious institutions dominating the scene.