Beineke, John A

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Volume 66 | Number 3 Article 4
5-1-1985
The Mark of Horace Mann on Iowa Education
John A. Beineke
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Beineke, John A. "The Mark of Horace Mann on Iowa Education." The Palimpsest 66 (1985), 101-105.
Available at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/palimpsest/vol66/iss3/4
The Mark of Horace Mann on Iowa Education
by John A. Beineke
The quality of the public and private educa­tional institutions in the state of Iowa 
enjoys a highly regarded national reputation. 
The roots of this tradition can he traced to two 
prominent Easterners. One was a man whose 
influence was so notable that he has been given 
the designation “Father of American Educa­
tion — Horace Mann of Massachusetts. The 
other figure to give direction to early Iowa 
schools was a New Yorker, Amos Dean, who 
also served as the first president of the State
Universitv of Iowa.¥
In 1856 these two men were appointed by 
the Iowa General Assembly to serve as com­
missioners with the assignment of rendering 
suggestions for the revision of the state school 
laws. A third man, Judge F.E. Bissell of Dubu­
que, Iowa, was unable to serve. Therefore the 
nine-page report, submitted by Mann and
Dean, lacked what thev termed the “local*
knowledge so essential to all just and wise legis­
lation. Although they wrote their report from 
a perspective outside the Iowa experience, the
authors were certainly not strangers to educa­
tion.
Horace Mann (1796-1859) was the brilliant 
attorney and legislator who had relinquished a 
promising career in politics to become the first 
secretary to the state board of education in 
Massachusetts. The position had all the ear­
marks of a step into obscurity. But for twelve 
years, beginning in 1837, Mann led a bold 
crusade on behalf of the state s public schools.
Taking to horseback, Mann sought to con­
vince the parents, citizens, and taxpayers of his
® l°wa State Historical Department/Office of the State Histor­
ical Society 1985 0031 — 0360/85/0506 — 0101 $1.00
state that the older and informal modes of 
learning were no longer adequate. His 
reforms, documented in his Annual Reports 
between 1838 and 1849, called for numerous 
changes. They included proposals for teacher 
seminaries, improved school buildings, more 
taxation to support education, and better text­
books for the classroom.
At the time he coauthored the Iowa report, 
Mann was serving as the first president of Anti­
och College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. While in 
Ohio, he traveled to both Illinois and Indiana 
and vacationed on occasion in Michigan. It is 
doubtful, however, that he ever ventured as far 
west as Iowa.
Mann’s colaborer, Amos Dean (1803-1868), 
had visited Iowa twice in connection with his 
position as chancellor (president) of the State 
University of Iowa. As a youth, Dean had been 
a village schoolmaster in Vermont before going 
on to college and a career as an attorney. His 
educational experiences included both the 
teaching of law and the writing of several vol­
umes of history. Dean spent the summer of 
1858 in Iowa during which time he and the 
board of trustees decided that the university 
should close for a year due to financial prob­
lems. In 1860 he resigned. This was due, in 
part, to the concern of some Iowans over a part- 
time president for their university.
Iowa schools in the 1850s, which Mann and Dean sought to improve, were indeed in an 
underdeveloped stage. The first Iowa ter­
ritorial school law in 1839 authorized countv
J
school districts. But four years later John 
Chambers, governor of Iowa Territory, unhap-
102 The Palimpsest
pily reported how “little interest the important 
subject of education excites among us/
From statehood in 1846 to the constitution of 
1857 the legislature took some note of educa­
tion, but did little to advance it. Only a few 
schools during the pioneer era in Iowa were 
graded. At best, schools met intermittently 
throughout the year. The minimum legal 
school year was twenty-four weeks. Local offi­
cials were allowed to extend that period if 
finances permitted.
A combination of home instruction and the 
one-room schoolhouse was the norm for much 
of Iowa. A cadre of teachers was formed from 
local preachers and young men and women 
from New England who journeyed west to 
teach on the frontier. A few private academies, 
usually associated with religious or ethnic 
groups, also made positive contributions to
Iowa educational needs. Bv the mid- 1850s the
*
towns of Tipton and Muscatine claimed schools 
offering instruction beyond the eighth grade. A 
few private colleges had begun to appear by 
that time also.
But an increase in Iowa’s population, from 
192,214 in 1850 to 674,913 by the end of the 
decade, made alterations in the state’s educa­
tional system necessary. An examination of the 
state’s schools was an obvious first step in such 
a process. It was Iowa’s good fortune to secure 
for this task the knowledge and counsel of the 
nation’s foremost educational reformer — 
Horace Mann.
In the 1856 report of their findings, officially titled the Report of the Commissioners of 
Revision of the School Laws, Mann and Dean 
judiciously refrained from enumerating spe­
cific criticisms of Iowa’s schools. In one sen­
tence, though, they made the obvious 
comment that the state’s school laws were frag­
mentary in character, lacking in general aims, 
and “entirely wanting in unity or com­
pleteness.’ They then commenced the Report 
on a positive note concerning Iowa’s potential:
Here, for the first time, a great State, 
situated in the centre o f a mighty Union, 
possessing exhaustless resources of agri­
cultural and mineral wealth, binding 
together its various parts by a net-work of 
iron, demands a system of public instruc­
tion adequate to the full development of 
its great physical resources, and of the 
intellect and moral power oj its people.
With this preface, Mann and Dean pre­
sented four underlying principles that had 
served as standards and had guided them in 
their work:
I. Every Iowa youth was entitled to an 
education. The state would be the ulti­
mate beneficiary o f such training.
T h e  Pa l im p s e s t  103
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Amos Dean.
2. For education to be successful, it had 
to be considered a “distinct and sepa­
rate pursuit and business. Therefore 
school laws and educational agencies 
should be established.
3. That adequate funding had to be pro­
vided for education since property and 
material wealth “owes its existence to 
the mind.
4. Three elements were necessary to per­
fect a system of education: the organiz­
ing, the financial, and the educational.
Although coauthored, there were portions of 
the Report that could easily he traced to either 
Mann or Dean. Amos Dean, for example, sug­
gested that financial support for Iowa schools 
he patterned on the property tax system of his
native New York. Teacher training institutes, 
one of Mann’s successful innovations in Mas­
sachusetts, received special note and attention 
from him. In fact, both states were pointed to 
as stellar examples:
Your commissioners could not deem the 
educational system of any state complete 
without a liberal provision for Teachers, 
Institutes. This feature gives to the sys­
tems of Massachusetts and New York a 
decided superiority over those o f other 
States, and from its highly beneficial 
effects as there displayed, every new State 
should be admonished of the propriety, 
nay, necessity of its adoption.
Another idea from the East Coast stressed in 
the Report was the establishment of high 
schools. These schools were referred to as 
“high, Academic, or Polytechnic. ” It was sug­
gested that a high school be established in an 
Iowa county as soon as its population reached 
20,000.
One of the largest segments of the Report 
was devoted to patterns of school organization. 
The authors’ basic intention was to shift from a 
local or district school unit to something larger 
based on the township. They reasoned that 
such reorganization would require fewer 
school boards, create equalization of commu­
nity support for facilities, and lead to larger 
schools. Instructional motives for enlarging 
district boundaries included the potential for 
more graded levels and also the possibility of 
attracting better teachers.
To oversee the townships the commissioners 
suggested that the position of county superin­
tendent be created. Endowed with numerous 
duties, these powerful officers were deemed 
important components in the whole new 
scheme of school organization. It was even sug­
gested that the larger the county, the greater 
the financial remuneration for the superinten­
dent. A state superintendent of public instruc-
104 T h e  Pa l im p s e s t
tion was to be at the apex of the organizational 
pyramid with the understanding, however, 
that the actual authority for school supervision 
would reside with the county superintendents.
Mann and Dean made their strongest appeal 
on behalf of higher teacher salaries. They 
believed excellence in teaching was directly 
related to the level of compensation provided 
by the community. In no uncertain terms they 
stated their case:
No common school system can ever suc­
ceed, where the compensation is so mea­
gre as to encourage only those o f the most 
ordinary talents and attainm ents to 
embark in it. Although the teacher should 
have higher aims and objects than mere 
pecuniary recompense, yet it must be 
obvious that the grade o f compensation is 
not only important as furnishing a means 
of living, but also as indicating the high or 
low estimate which a community places 
upon the character o f the service.
An active and participatory role in the 
schools by those in control of the schools was 
also deemed essential. The “visitorial power 
was strongly endorsed not only as a way to 
expose and detect problems, but to provide an 
“approving smile when outstanding educa­
tional achievements were evident. Annual 
meetings involving several school districts at 
which directors might compare experiences 
were also encouraged.
Mann and Dean concluded the Report with 
an emotional flourish:
They desire to send into every family of 
Iowa, now, and through all future time, a 
spirit-stirring impulse, an animating 
principle, which shall penetrate the 
depths of every young heart, and arouse 
the latent energies of every young spirit, 
and thus carry forward the common 
school system into the fullest and com-
pletest realization of its glorious mission. 
They submit that the young State oj Iowa 
owes it to herself, after having rejected 
the clog o f human servitude, and ban­
ished the evils of intemperance, to adopt 
such an educational system as will devel- 
ope in harmonious proportions, and push 
to their extremest limits, both the intellect 
and the moral power o f each coming gen­
eration.
And as if to convey their own commitment to 
the task that Iowans would undertake, they 
closed by saying,
Your Commissioners now feel that their 
task is ended. In the spirit of their recom­
mendation to enlist in this great cause the 
unpaid services o f others, they beg to pre­
sent this result of their labors free of all 
charge, except for necessary expenses. It 
only remains for them to await, with no 
small solicitude, that legislative action 
upon which, in their judgment, hang such 
important consequences for the future.
While not all issues of educational impor­
tance were included in the Report, it is of 
interest to note which topics were left unmen­
tioned. Although Mann and Dean commented 
on moral, ethical, and social issues such as 
slavery, temperance, and the perfectability of 
man, they did not take up such questions as the 
role of private schools or the place of religion in 
the educational system. The phrase “education 
of young men appeared, but no similar refer­
ence to females was ever made. Agriculture, an 
essential aspect of Iowa society, received only 
scant attention.
Nor did the authors of the Report refer to the 
subject of phrenology. Phrenology' was a nine­
teenth century psycho-phvsiological phe­
nomenon that attempted to explain human 
behavior and mental development by measur­
ing various parts of the cranium. Horace Mann
T h e  Pa l im p s e s t  105
and Amos Dean were both devoted adherents 
of phrenology, but neither the study of the 
humps and knobs on the head of mankind, nor 
the use of such a science in education — or any 
other specific educational method — found its 
way into the Report.
The impact of the Report on subsequent school legislation is difficult to assess. 
Mann’s proposal for teacher training was given 
serious consideration by the Iowa General 
Assembly, but no positive action was taken. 
Preparation for a career in teaching continued 
to be undertaken in the state’s private colleges 
and academies. Within a decade after the Civil 
War, however, the General Assembly made a 
commitment to a state teacher training institu­
tion. Located near Cedar Falls and opened in 
1876, it was first known as the Iowa State Nor­
mal School and later as the Iowa State Teachers 
College. Today it is the University of Northern 
Iowa.
Other suggestions in the Report were 
adopted in due time. The constitution of 1857 
did create a state board of education which 
functioned well, although briefly, until it was 
abolished in 1864. The'commissioners'concept 
of a county superintendent found its way into 
law and remained a part of the Iowa education 
system well into the twentieth centurv.
But the consolidation of school districts, as 
envisioned by Mann and Dean, was to be a 
slow and protracted process. For years the one- 
r°om schoolhouse remained the norm except
in larger cities and towns. Yet, in 1870, Iowa 
had the lowest rate of illiteracv in the nation.y
At such a distance in time it is difficult to 
identify the direct impact of the 1856 docu­
ment. Certain changes, as noted, did take 
place. But the most significant feature of the 
report may have been the simple fact that Iowa 
sought out the nation’s foremost educator for 
advice, counsel, and direction when it became 
apparent that the state’s educational patterns 
had to be altered. The choice of Horace Mann 
demonstrated clearly the high priority Iowans 
placed on their schools.
Horace Mann died in 1859, three vears after 
the completion of the Report. A month before 
his death he gave his final commencement 
address at Antioch College. In that speech he 
issued his famous challenge to the students, 
“Be ashamed to die until you have won some 
victory for humanity. ” This was his charge to all 
Americans. His zeal touched Iowa education 
almost at the outset and its citizens have con­
tinued to cherish that legacy. □
Note on Sources
The most important source for the preparation of this 
article was the 1856 Report o f the Commissioners of 
Revision of the School Laws. Two issues of the Palimpsest 
dating from the early 1930s provided information about 
pre-Civil War Iowa schools. The biographical information 
on Horace Mann was drawn from a chapter in the author’s 
manuscript about famous educators, currently in prog­
ress. Material about Amos Dean was drawn, in part, from 
an Iowa Historical Record article published in 1895. Sev­
eral general Iowa histories were used to sketch out the 
educational setting in Iowa’s pioneer school era.


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