“The main distinctive feature of the common school movement was educating all children in a common schoolhouse to create a common culture and reduce social class conflict” ( p 80). As the United States was slowly shaping itself into a strong and unified nation, debate surged over the proper way of educating youth and what the main purpose of such education should be. Horace Mann, one of the key players in the development of the “common school”, strongly believed that the common school would provide a common moral and political education which in turn will decrease social disorder and conflict. It is interesting to note that due to the continuous unrest between Christian denominations and discrimination against immigrants, the sole purpose of education in the mid 1800’s was to mold youth to think and act uniformly.Mann also believed that the schoolteacher would, figuratively speaking, “replace the police” ( p 84).
Horace Mann’s ideal, even for its time, is unrealistic. The emphasis of morality was often tied to religious affiliation and enforcing a non sectarian view of moral education within schools would be impossible among the many fervent and homogeneous religious communities. The same applies for any political affiliations. Also, he does not propose any curriculum for the common school and if such curriculum was drawn, what would be taught within morality? or politically? Mann’s sole focus on morality and order lacks attention on academic instruction, something that should be crucial if the main goal of the common school was to have a standardized institution nationwide. The debate over the purpose of schooling and curriculum continues today. Many think that schools should be limited to scholastic preparation while others feel that schools should have a more in-depth involvement in a child’s life. The difficult issue to discern is that even though youth spend most of their time in school, there are other influential factors in their life and the school can’t be solely responsible for the successful development of the individual and that of society. The most important and difficult question to answer ,of then and now, is what should be the main purpose of school?
