Education of Women

Historically women did not get any formal education after grammar school. They stayed home and helped their mothers with the housework. Horace Mann's education reform movement helped women attend college. Mann thought women were better suited to teach young children. Women were more nuturing and loving and were less likely to seek vengence against their students.

Prussian Schools Influence on Mann

Manns vistied Prussian schools and witnessed how differently children reacted towards school. While there he noticed:

• Teachers were educated in teaching


• Schools were manditory for boys and girls


• Women taught students


• Teachers mingled with their students


• No corporal punishment


• No students in tears


• Children loved school

Mann thought children needed to feel safe at school and not be punished for all any transgressions. He knew if schools helped develop children it would set them up for higher education which in turn would be more profitable for the country.

Normal Schools

Mann's influence towards eduation helped women to attend college. The first public normal school opened Lexington, Massachuesetts in 1839. Normals schools were the first colleges to accept women. Women were taught teaching techniques and strategies. Normal schools provided women the first step to higher education and provided an opportunity to work outside the home.

Discipline

Mann saw children as rational beings and felt that corporal punishment needed to be abolished. Discipline needed to be replace by behavior management techniques. Punishment was to be instilled only as a last resort or to preven greater evils. Mann believed that children needed a rational understanding of the rules. It was the teachers duty to prevent vioalations and teacher were to teach moral values while they attended school.

Sources:

The Women of Courage. Early College of Women: Determined to be Educated. Retrieved from http://www.northnet.org/stlawrenceaauw/college.htm

King, Pam Mason. Horace Mann. Retrieved from http://www.nd.edu/~rbarger/www7/mann.html