Blog B; First State Board of Education

In search of a resolution to solve the problem that states had not established teaching qualifications, legislator James G. Carter created the first Board of Education (BOE) in 1937 in Massachusetts. This Board of Education, also being the first in the nation, was appointed Horace Mann as it’s secretary. Horace Mann was a Massachusetts lawyer and legislator. While he was Secretary of the BOE, he was able to change public opinion towards school problems and to gain support for increasing teaching wages as well as improving their training through normal or regular teacher-training schools. This new Board of Education, with the help of secretary Horace Mann, was able to reach states across the nation and help to create a better school system with more certified teachers.


In the early 1830’s, people really began to notice a lot of faults in district schools. Decentralization left schools to be extremely varied from one district to the next. There was no uniformity in the way children were being taught or what they were being taught in different districts across a state, let alone between states. The quality of teachers was very low because there was no law or rule stating or setting any amount of qualifications that someone had to obtain before becoming a teacher. The first Board of Education involved a combination of local school boards to a state board of education. The main purpose of the BOE was to appoint only a few people to make all the decisions around how school would be taught and what students would learn. This way, students will be learning a universal curriculum that may only vary slightly.


A failing district school system was also caused by a lack of state funds and the simple fact that something as important as schooling should not be left in the hands of people who’s morals and values are as different as day and night. The object of a BOE is to find a “common” way of teaching. With these common schools, students will be taught by teachers who have all had relatively the same amount of schooling. Also, the main themes and subject taught in school will be based on a common political creed and a common nonsectarian religion, and funding for these schools and teachers would come from state tax support. The need for this “common” way of schooling was expressed by Carter. He concluded,
… If the State continue to relieve themselves of trouble of providing for the instruction of the whole people, and to shift the responsibility upon the towns, and the towns upon the districts, and the districts upon individuals, each will take care of himself and his own family as he is able, and as he appreciates the blessing of a good education. The rich will, as a class, have much better instruction than they now have, while the poor will have much worse or none at all. The academies and private schools will be carried to much greater perfection than they have been, while the public free schools will become stationary or retrograde.
As you can see, through Carters observations, the need for a state funded common curriculum was very important for the improving of education. That is exactly what the development of a state board of education helped to accomplish.


WORKS CITED

Newman, Joseph W. America's Teachers, Fifth Edition. Pearson Education
Inc., Boston. 2006.

www.educationanddemocracy.org/emery/emery_chapter1.pfd

www.faculty.weber.edu/tlday/1500/horacemann.htm

www.md.edu/~rbarger/www7/normal.html