Horace Mann was an American educator, born at Franklin, Massachusetts, and educated at Brown University and the Litchfield (Connecticut) Law School. In 1823 he was admitted to the bar and practiced law at Dedham, Massachusetts. From 1827 to 1833 he was a representative in the Massachusetts state legislature and from 1833 to 1837 a state senator. During this period Mann was instrumental in the enactment of laws prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages and lottery tickets, establishing state hospitals for the insane, and creating a state board of education, the first in the United States.

In 1837 Mann was appointed secretary to the board of education. Through his post on the board he influenced the educational system not only of Massachusetts but of the entire United States. Although the board's powers were limited, it was able to affect public opinion regarding school problems and to create public support for increasing the pay of teachers and improving their training through the founding of state normal, or teacher-training, schools. In 1843 Mann visited Europe, where he studied educational conditions and methods. On his return he incurred the opposition of conservative American educators by championing such features of European education as the abolition of corporal punishment. He was also opposed by church officials for advocating nonsectarian education. These attacks, however, only served to arouse public sentiment for reform of the public school system.

Mann's twelve annual reports written as secretary of the board of education in Massachusetts are now considered models concerning the evolution of modern education.

Publications

 Twelfth Annual Report, 1848