The common school was meant to be a place where there are no barriers. People of all social classes and religions could attend the common school. I think the common school movement was a great attempt to educate massive amounts of children and to reduce social class tensions. It was rare at this time to see the social classes mingling, the upper class kept to itself. Common school movement also wanted to “improve public morality, end crime and poverty, and provide equal opportunity.” This is a tough goal to achieve, there will always be crime and poverty someone will always be better off than the next person or worse off. Morality is an issue that’s best taught at home, school can assist but parents should set the example. In the way of equal opportunity, as much as one person might say that things were equal it is difficult to prove it was.
I agree with Curti, the common school did extend social benefits to the lower social classes. Horace Mann’s attempts to make sure that all members of society had equal access to education is extremely honorable. One thing I do not understand is if the idea was to bring all the cultures together why was the Protestant Anglo-American culture seen as the dominant culture. After the class discussion it is brought to my attention that this is still the case to this day, this culture is seen as the main one and other minor ones are rarely discussed. Even though it could be done this way to create one American identity instead of trying to be a country of many different identities.
