Education and social inequality are often attributed together to show clear correlation When the rich have access to majority of the resources towards education, it is inevitable for them to be strongly capable of earning more powerful positions on top of the social pyramid. One the other hand, the poor would most naturally be depleted of these educational resources and would be inclined to naturally follow a continuous cycle of poverty. In “From Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education,” Horace Mann discusses the importance of education and the role it plays on social class. Through his inconspicuous exigency, classification of class shown by wealth, and historical exemplification through comparisons, Mann suggests that a large diffusion of education throughout the whole of society would ultimately eradicate of vast social inequalities. Overall, Mann’s analysis of the modern problematic society offers strong insight to the significance of accessible education in equal terms and motivates the audience to radically change misconceptions of education being a privilege rather than a right.
Mann initially observes the problem within modern society and clearly shares it with his audience. “The distance between the two extremes of society is lengthening, instead of being abridged”. Since “Avarice…sees in all the victims of misery around it… and only crude materials to be worked up into money”, the people who own the majority of the fortune would naturally participate in rigorous capitalist competition by educating their future generations to become more powerful. On the other hand, those in the bottom of the pyramid would “have no alternative but submission or starvation”. The cause of this is explained by human nature in Mann’s view. Due to a constant undervalue of virtues and the emphasis on capitalist ideologies, rich humans continuously try to protect their resources by creating legal systems that are only beneficial to a certain minority. Mann illustrates no hesitation in portraying his urgency in the topic and utilizes highly direct diction to show the audience how the unfortunate majority is marginalized from society. After a thorough analysis of why this phenomenon occurs, Mann questions, “surely nothing but universal education can counter work this tendency to the domination of capital and servility of labor”. In order to promote the benefits of universal education, Mann divides these into two social classes and classifies the necessities in the two extremes of society.
The first classification of Mann are “the lower class…who are bound to the form of brute force”. He concedes that the people who have suffered under hostility a would be inclined to take revenge after the oppression they have experienced from the marginalization. However, Mann mentions that Agrarianism is a more effective way of rejecting hostility rather than “the burning of hay riches and corn riches and the demolition of the property of others”. Thus, education would help “enlarging the cultivated class or caste” and ultimately prevent both the revenge and the madness”. In another perspective, the benefits of equal education would affect the rich public by further invigorating the development of national wealth. Mann criticizes the common misconception of a fixed “amount of property in the community, which, by fraud or force, or arbitrary law” while addressing that a common system of education would “create or develop new treasures,–treasures not before possessed or dreamed of by any one”. In particular, a thorough system of education across society would create new legal systems that would support the growth across a wider area to create more lucrative businesses.
Finally, Mann makes a comparison between the relationship of British manufacturers with British laborers and that of lords with their serfs in the Middle Ages. Specifically, Mann addresses the capitalist characteristics of modern society and observes how ‘…vast and overshadowing private fortunes…create a feudalism of a new kind, but one more oppressive and unrelenting than that of the middle ages.’ Furthermore, he goes as far as to say that the newer version is more oppressive. The capitalists force their employees to work under excruciating conditions for ridiculously low wages. The serfs of the middle ages could build their own shelter and grow their own crops despite paying most of it to their lord. The laborers are dependent upon their jobs to provide them with the necessities of life. Therefore, employers take advantage of this and lower wages regularly as well as treat the workers harshly. Lords maintained a somewhat friendly relationship with their dominions, but ruthless manufacturers don’t take care of theirs if they are sick, injured, or troubled in any way. Mann is strongly asserting his opinion that the ‘slaves’ of the industrial society have an extremely rough life, and their only way to rise above it is through education.
