This Weekend’s Message From The Master

(Editor’s note: Charles Pierce writes daily at The Esquire Politics Blog at Esquire.com. He is an award-winning writer and author, most recently Idiot America. Every weekend, he sends out a weekly newsletter to subscribers, of which, I am one. From now through the election, I will post his weekend musings on here)

March 9, 2024

On May 4, 1796, in the town of Franklin, Massachusetts, which is not far from this keyboard, the very intelligent son of a local farmer dedicated himself to educating himself. He spent hours at the Franklin town library. He was a gifted student, accomplished enough to gain admission to Brown University, where his work in the integration of politics, education, and social reform was considered groundbreaking in its optimistic view of human and societal advancement. His name was Horace Mann.

Upon graduation, Mann chose a career in law, which led him inevitably into the reform movements of the mid 19th Century, including abolitionism, and then inevitably into politics when he got elected to the Massachusetts legislature. There, he became a vigorous advocate for public education reform. Massachusetts had had public education since the mid-1600s, but the state’s public schools had fallen victim to parsimonious local governments. A reform movement took hold in the legislature which, in 1837, established a state Board of Education. Mann was chosen to lead it.

He stayed in the job for 11 years, during which time Mann pursued an activist agenda aimed at…