If any one person were to be given the title "father of American education," it would be Horace Mann (1796-1859). Elected to the Massachusetts legislature in 1827, Mann soon became the spokesperson for the common school movement and led a successful campaign to organize the schools in Massachusetts into a state system and to establish a state board of education.

Catharine Beecher (1800-1878), mentioned in the last chapter as the founder of the Hartford Female Seminary and the Western Institute for Women, was a strong supporter of the common schools and saw her task as focusing the attention of the nation on the need for a corps of female teachers to staff them.

The McGuffey readers were the popular and widely used textbooks of the mid- to late 19th century. First published in 1836, an estimated 100 million copies were sold between 1836 and 1890.

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827) was a Swiss educator whose philosophy of education incorporated the child-centered, sensory experience principles of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

The normal school was the single greatest force in increasing the professional training of teachers.

Horace Mann Catharine Beecher

• If I could change the outcome of one of my chosen events I would choose___ because____.
• I would have to choose Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi's way of thinking. More children should have sensory play.
• What would you say is the most important result of each of your chosen events?
• I would say the expansion of normal schools is very important to the future of education.
• These events are still significant today because____.
• Normal schools are very important and still significant today. Teachers need to be well educated to be able to be successful and as we march on as a society, it is important for teachers to keep up and never stop learning.