Education in a republic
And other "Thoughts on Education" by Horace Mann
Every Individual’s Right to an Education
I believe in the existence of a great, immutable principle of natural law, or natural ethics, — a principle antecedent to all human institutions, and incapable of being abrogated by any ordinances of man, — a principle of divine origin, clearly legible in the ways of Providence as those ways are manifested in the order of nature, and in the history of the race, which proves the absolute right of every human being that comes into the world to an education; and which, of course, proves the correlative duty of every government to see that the means of that education are provided for all. In regard to the application of this principle of natural law, — that is, in regard to the extent of the education to be provided for all at the public expense, — some differences of opinion may fairly exist, under different political organizations; but under a republican government, it seems clear that the minimum of this education can never be less than such as is sufficient to qualify each citizen for the civil and social duties he will be called to discharge ; — such an education as teaches the individual the great laws of bodily health; as qualifies for the fulfilment of parental duties; as is indispensable for the civil functions of a witness or juror; as is necessary for the voter in municipal affairs; and finally, for the faithful and conscientious discharge of all those duties which devolve upon the inheritor of a portion of the sovereignty of this great republic.
Education in a Republic
In many of the more enlightened yet arbitrary governments of Europe, where the great doctrines of human rights are dimly seen in theory, and still more dimly recognized in practice, a distinction prevails in regard to the education of the community at large, which should be sedulously excluded from a republican system. According to this distinction, all the avocations of men naturally arrange themselves under three heads. The first class embraces all those industrial employments where we act with material instruments upon material things — with matter upon matter. This includes all mere manual laborers, — the hewers of wood, the drawers of water, ditchers, delvers, &c. In the second class are comprised all those who act by mind upon matter — the master mason, or architect, head machinists, head miners, foresters, engineers, &c. The third class are those who act by mind upon mind — the orator, the poet, historian, statesman, &c. Different courses of education are projected to meet the supposed necessity of these different grades. But how incongruous and absurd are these notions among a people by the theory of whose institutions the chief magistracy of the state or of the nation is open to the poorest boy that is born in the land!
The Limitations of Education
According to the highest views of education, but few are educated. Alas! such is the truth — the melancholy, incontestable truth. The past history and the present condition of the world — intemperance, war, slavery, bigotry, pride, uncharitableness, self-seeking — prove it to be true. But what is the moral conclusion from these admitted premises? Surely not that we should despair, but that we should labor, that we should agonize with laboring. The present condition of the race is as much below attainable perfection as it is above possible abasement. The empyrean above is as much without a dome that shall forbid our ascent, as the abyss below is without a bottom that shall arrest our fall. In mid-space we stand. Ascent and descent are equally open to us.
The Educated and the Uneducated Man
Both the educated and the uneducated man stand in the same material universe; the same heavens bend over them, and the same earth stretches out beneath their feet. Upon the eye of each descends the light of the same sun and the same stars, and their ears are forever open to the same harmonies of nature. Yet, while the one recognizes the overwhelming proofs of the power, and the wisdom, and the goodness of God, the other is blind amidst the splendors of the universe, and deaf to that perpetual chorus of praise which ascends from all created things to their Creator.
Does Intellectual Power Make a Man Virtuous?
A man, who, like an inebriate, an epicure, or a libertine, avails himself of the arts and powers of civilization to gratify his appetites and passions, is neither a civilized man nor a barbarian. He is a sub-barbarian. His place in the scale of humanity is to be measured from barbarism downwards. Considering barbarism as zero, we must measure off the degrees of his degradation by counting netherwards.
What is Education?
A man is not educated because he buys a book; he is not educated because he reads a book, though it should be the very best book that ever was written, and should enumerate and unfold all the laws of God. He only is educated who practises according to the laws of God.
Universal Education
In a government like ours, each individual must think of the welfare of the state, as well as of the welfare of his own family, and therefore of the children of others as well as his own. It becomes, then, a momentous question whether the children in our schools are educated in reference to themselves and their private interests only, or with a regard to the great social duties and prerogatives that await them in after life. Are they so educated that when they grow up they will make better Christians, or only grander savages? for, however loftily the intellect of man may have been gifted, however skilfully it may have been trained, if it be not guided by a sense of justice, a love of mankind, and a devotion to duty, its possessor is only a more splendid, as he is a more dangerous barbarian.
Education, Serialized, a section of EduThirdSpace: The Newsletter, features retellings of how education has been viewed over the course of history from books, reports, letters, and so forth. The posts in this section are the words of the authors and not editorialized by me, Samantha, or anyone else. However, interpretation or commentary on the texts may be published in other sections of EduThirdSpace.