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Horace Mann's Vision In Action: Bridgewater Normal School's Female Teachers, Casey Rekowski

Undergraduate Review

Through a close reading of Horace Mann’s archival material including official documents and speeches, this paper argues that Horace Mann expanded women’s social roles in the nineteenth century. Whether he intended such an outcome or not, Horace Mann’s agenda to improve common schools increased American women’s educational and professional opportunities. Drawing upon the popular ideology of the day, Mann articulated a detailed rationale for placing women, as “natural teachers” at the center of public education in Massachusetts when he became the first secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837. This can best be seen through his annual reports …