Hamilton High School - Hamiltonian Yearbook (South Hamilton, MA)

Page 11 text:

The Hamiltonian 9 sions held on educational subjects. He stronjil) advocated and urged schools for the education and training of teachers. After much debate, the establishment of State .Normal Schools was accomplished. ' I ' he founding of these schools is the fore- most educational service of Horace Mann to state and nation. Mann made many tours of the state and delivered lectures and wrote reports to arouse popular interest in the promotion of public schools. I ' he school system which had been established and legalized in 17S9 was ver ' inadequate. I ' he well-to-do class- es regarded the public schools with con- tempt and sent their offspring to private schools and academies. This attitude af- fected the school system, causing short terms, dilapidated buildings, untrained and underpaid teachers, and obsolete pedagogi- cal methods. One third of the children of the state were absolutely without any edu- cational opportunities while one si.xth were being taught in private institutions. Mr. .M aim set out to remedy these conditions. The results of this great man’s efforts were remarkable. Salaries were raised, school terms lengthened, money appropriated for better schools and equipment, and more children were given the opportunit ’ for free education. He started the high school law in 1827 which provided for higher edu- cation. ' I ' his resulted in about fifty new high schools being established during his secretaryship. He introduced new and bet- ter ways of teaching and better training for instructors. It was inevitable that Mann’s aggressive efforts should sooner or later arouse bitter opposition. There was much denomination- al feeling in those days and many attacked the Hoard of Education and charged them with creating a Godless system in the schools. Some opposed reading the Bible, and others demanded that religion be taught as it was essential to the character development of the youthful minds. ' I ' he controversy was on, and, after many vigor- ous sectarian attacks, Mann won a final victory of great importance for .Massachu- setts and for the entire country. It was finally decided that sectarian instruction should be excluded from the public schools; however, the Bible continued to be read as, it was stated, this was a non-sectarian book. ' I ' his i]uestion is still in debate to-day. In 1843, Horace Mann sailed for a five months trip to Europe for the purpose of discovering what America might learn from the European schools. He studied many systems minutelt’ and returned to the United States, embodying his observations and conclusions in his famous seventh An- nual Report to the Board. But his high commemiation of the German schools vexed the Boston school masters, who thought .Mann was slandering them, their training, and their methods. A sarcastic controversy ensued between Mann and the school- teachers. Horace Mann made an attack on the school masters’ principles, summing up in three propositions his code for discipline: Eirst, it is the state’s duty to adopt measures for qualifying teachers. Secoml, that the school committee allow only the very best of teachers to procure positions in their schools and third, that school masters, in governing their schools, e.xhaust all the higher motives and agencies they can com- mand for disciplinary cases; hut, if these fail, then resort to corporal punishment only as the supplement of all the rest. ' Ehis dispute attracted much attention and made a deep impression on the public mind and had much to do with fixing Horace Mann’s place in educational history. Ehe champion of the new regime had met the champions of the old and had overthrown them in the arena of public debate. As Horace Mann was victorious, the controversy led to direct and beneficial results in the Boston schools. I ' he schoolmasters, who opposed .Mann’s new principles, were severely criticized by all and a pronounced change came in the Boston common school system. In 1848, Horace Mann resigned his secretaryship, having been elected to the Uniteil States House of Representatives. Later, he ran for the governorship of Mass- achusetts on the Eree-Soiler ' Eicket but met hitter defeat. He then accepted the Presi- dency of Antioch College in Ohio. Besides serving as President, he taught many intel- lectual subjects. Owing to bad reverses, lack of funds, etc., the college was sold for debt and reorganized. Mann, exhausted and broken by worries and persecutions amid which he labored, retired in 1859 to his home where he died within a few weeks.

Page 10 text:

8 The Hamiltonian Horace Mann T onight wc shall receive our diplomas, •symbols of our having arrived at the goal to which we have been striving through our years in the Hamilton schools. Such an achievement is due, to a great extent, to the untiring efforts of Horace -Mann in the interest of education in the U nited States and particularly in the com- monwealth of Massachusetts. d ' he history of education in the United States during the first half of the 19th cen- tury is chiefly a series of biographies of a few leaders laboring in the behalf of the nation’s posterity and its education. As is generally the case, these leaders were laughed at and condemned as impractical dreamers, d he most prominent, and recog- nized as chief among them all because of his actual achievements and the extent of his influence, is Horace Mann. This great educator was born in Frank- lin, .Massachusetts, in 1796, of poverty- stricken and poorly educated parents but ones who possessed sterling characters and imparted to their children high ideals and habits of industrv. .M ann received ver ’ little education as a outh except for the preliminaries then available in the meager district schools; but the superiority of his mental gifts and his commendable character, was revealed in his determination to attain an education. After many bo hood privations, he worked hard under the able tutelage of a college preparatory teacher and entered Brown University at the age of twent . He was a brilliant student throughout his scholastic career and was graduated at the head of his class. All his youth, he was in- flamed with the desire to aid mankind and to instill in all citizens the longing for ed ucation. After his graduation in IS 19 and having passed the .Ma ssachusetts’ bar examinations, he entered a law office where he practised successfully approximately fourteen tears, until he embarked on his career as an edu- cator. He had extraordinary success in the law profession probably due to his natural abilities and the scrupulous care with which he prepared and tried his cases. He always lived by the inflexible rule, “Never to un- dertake any cause which you do not be- lieve right.’’ ffaving proved his capabilities as a public speaker and a statesman, con- cerned with the interests of the common people, he was elected to the .Massachusetts State Legislature; first in the House, then in the Senate, and, as president of the latter body, he signed the epoch-making educa- tion bill which became a law, providing for a State Hoard of Education. Ehis board was to consist of the governor, lieutenant governor, and eight citizens to be appointed by the former. It impowered the board to appoint a secretary to make annual reports to the State Legislature. Horace Mann was selected as its first secretary in which position he served for twelve years with effectiveness and distinc- tion. He considered the new position one of importance and value and one in which he could devote himself to the welfare of man- kind, namely the education of the youth of the land. After accepting the post, he gave up his law books and office and abandoned the legal profession. He saw in this secre- taryship a means by which he could appease that burning desire of his to benefit humani- ty, and to render wide and conspicuous service to the cause of education in this country. ' I ' hat Horace .Mann should aban- don his profession at forty-one years of age to accept the secretaryship of the nascent Hoard of Education proves that his yearn- ing to develop and promote education was the uppermost objective of his life. Ehe educational situation confronting the new secretarv offered ample scope for his many talents. It was extremely neces- sary to arouse popular enthusiasm for edu- cation and, with this purpose in mind, he organized annual conventions in ever ’ county for school teachers, officials, and the public. At first these conventions proved to be of no especial interest but they did help to educate public opinion to some extent. .Mann made out annual reports to the state which were the most effective instru- ments in reaching and influencing the pub- lic in education. ’Ehe first year he inaugu- rated meetings for the teachers of Boston where lectures were delivered and discus-

Page 12 text:

lO The Hamiltonian culminatiiifi; a worthy and fruitful life in the service of mankind. Horace Mann’s influence on higher school development is difficult to ascertain, hut all judges and all competent men agree that his reputation rests chiefly on the work he did for the common schools. And let us all go out into the new lives we are com- mencing tonight with the words of fdorace Mann ringing in our ears — “He ashamed to die until vou have won some victory for mankind.” — Rita Wk i.SH. Prophecy evening, while I was reading the latest news sheet, the telephone beside me started to clang in a very important manner. I picked up the receiver rather impatiently and immediately the voice at the other end shrilled into my ear. 1 recog- nized the voice as that of my distinguished friend and famous inventor. Professor von Herring, of whom you no doubt have heard considerable in connection with his numer- ous inventions. In ver - enthusiastic tones, he related that he had just perfected his latest invention and, knowing how interest- ed 1 was in all his undertakings, he was giving me the honor of viewing it before anyone else. His sanguine and buoyant words aroused my curious nature and so, partly because of his impetuosity and, per- haps more, because of my curiosity, a half- hour later I found myself in his laboratory where he proceeded to explain the structure of his remarkable device. Hy putting his scientific terms together, I gathered that his invention was a super-camera which, when a certan person’s name was uttered, would show on an especially constructed screen a technicolor, sound, moving picture of what the named person was doing at that ' ery instant. My incoherent murmurs must have be- trayed my skepticism for the Professor im- mediately proceeded to demonstrate his machine to me. He asked me to think of some person I knew so that he could prove that his invention would work. As I was thinking, an idea suddenly popped into my head. I had not seen my classmates from the Hamilton High School for several years. If what the professor said was true, then why couldn’t 1 have a class reunion all b ’ myself? I suggested my idea to my friend and he proceeded to fulfill it. I named the members of my class and settled comfort- ably back in my chair to await develop- ments. After some delay of pulling levers. pressing buttons, and adjusting gadgets, my class reunion began. The first picture that appeared before my eyes was that of a large building. I won- dered what this magnificent specimen of architecture could be and then, somehow, the familiar lines struck a chord in my memory. Ah ! 1 thought so. A marble name plate announced to the world that this was the Hamilton Wenham Rail- road Station, the finest piece of architecture in the state, having been built in 1940. The camera clicked on and the next view showed the interior of the building which seemed to be the inside of a busy telegraph office. A young man was working indus- triously over the clicking key and he some- how looked familiar. Of course! It was Eddie Laski. As 1 looked, he suddenly ceased work, glanced at the clock, and rushed outside and jumped into a latest model of an expensive car and sped aw’ay. His car stopped in front of a cute little bungalow on the outskirts of the thriving city of Hamilton where he rushed up the steps as if he could not wait any longer and Hung open the door where he was greeted affectionately by a black-haired young lady, obviously his wife, whose former residence during high school days had been in East Hamilton. I ' he scene faded away into blackness and I eagerly awaited the next picture which soon proved to be the interior of a tennis court. A match seemed to be going on and the vast crowd of tennis fans, gathered to see the championship matches played, shouted and yelled when a particularlv brilliant pla - was made. The figures leaping and hopping around like jumping-jacks w ' ere those of women, one of whom seemed familiar to me, and I searched my rather small quanti- ty of gray material wondering who they could be. Finally, one of the contestants made a w’onderful shot and from the shouts