Who is Horace Mann?

Horace Mann was born in 1796. He was a major influence in establishing the system we know today as elementary school. In 1848, he won an election in Massachusetts to become a member of the state legislature. He was a great advocate of public education and was a major proponent of mandatory public school education for all children.

In 1839, he established the first school for teacher education in the United States. In 1848, he became a member of the U.S. House of Repesentatives where he continued to work on his goal of public education for all students free of cost. Following his retirement from the House of Representatives in 1853, he became the president of Antioch College until he died in 1859.

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