This is what most school houses looked like in the early 1800's. Courtesy of Old No. 1 School House
School in the early 1800's was nothing like it is today. However, in 1647, Massachusetts did have a working school system but it was very flawed. One situation that was bad about the schools was that they were taught in poor buildings. Most school houses were held in old run down warehouses, rarely held in a nice building. Most buildings were poorly kept and never cleaned. They were messy and had no organization regarding where things were placed. However, there were some school houses for the rich that were really big and nice.
Teachers often spanked
the children for bad behavior. Courtesy to Schools of the 1800's.
A huge reason children couldn't attend school mainly in the South was that most of them had to work. The owners of the large plantations used the young African Americans to work on their plantations. A large proportion of the children in the South were African Americans and were forced to work on the farms with their parents. It was a rule for most plantations that the slaves were not allowed to be taught how to read of write. Without any education, most of the slaves were illiterate and unable to comprehend certain situations. Since slaves were not allowed to be educated, there was no chance they would be allowed to attend school. A large percentage of children that were not attending school in the 1800s came from the southern states.
problems
Courtesy of Bleeding Edge
A further circumstance that was controversial about the schools was that they were never open and only available to certain people. Almost all school houses were segregated in the sense that there were two different school houses for the different types of people. Most cities had one school house for the African Americans and a separate for the white families. Even some poor white families could not attend the rich white family’s schools. Also, for the students who enjoyed going to school, it was only open for two to three months. The schools couldn't stay open because they didn't have enough money to stay open and pay all the teachers.
Courtesy of History Pictures
The last problem the schools had was that the teachers were not properly educated themselves. Most of the teachers, when the schools were actually open, couldn't teach the correct curriculum. If the children are not learning the correct information, they would have had to learn it at home. Without a good education, the people of that time were not as smart and could not hold important jobs. Because school was not mandatory and was only optional, only 55% of kids received this flawed education. Experts are not sure what the main cause of the low number was since there were so many problems with the schooling, but they are almost positive that about half of the children did not go to school.
Horace Mann's early schooling
When Horace Mann was a child, he enjoyed going to school and could not wait when it started up again. However, in early 1800's when Horace Mann was in elementary school, most schools could not stay open for long and that made him very mad. Since he enjoyed school so much, he took matters into his own hands when school was not in session by reading often. While reading books, he learned plenty of new information which kept him educated. On the other hand, other children did not have access to the plethora of books Horace Mann did and could not keep up on education.