Horace Mann, the Educator (Classic Reprint)

Great men are rare. Mute, inglorious Miltons may be numerous, but greatness, as the world views it, must be judged from the way in which emergencies are met. Horace Mann was a great educator because hemet a great educational emergency. With some characters greatness is linked to a single event. Columbus discovered A merica, Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, Perry wrote, We met the enemy and they are ours. With others it is an inherited reputation of which few have any definite estimate as to the merit of the popular verdict. Walpole and Pitt in England, John Hancock and Charles Sumner in America are securely anchored in the public mind though few can give a reason for the admiration that is in them. Horace Mann sreputation is largely of the latter class. His name is a household word among teachers and yet few can tell aught of the man or of his work. The one hundredth anniversary of his birth (M ay 4, 1896) should make this entire year a memorial season so far as to give every teacher and every school acquaintance with the essential features of his character and with the leading characteristics of his work. There is one great monument to this leader in the Life and Works of Horace Mann, in five volumes edited by his widow and published by Lee Shepard, Boston. Without these volumes comparatively little could now be written of his life. His correspondence was voluminous and confidential, giving details regarding his contests and he was one of the few men fortunate enough to keep a good diary. The correspondence and the diary were both available when Mrs. Mann wrote this Life, and for the service here rendered the educational public owes her a debt of gratitude. These volumes also contain his reports and addresses.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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