- Horace Mann became the first secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837.


- In his 12 long years of service, he established teacher-training programs and instituted curriculum reforms.


- He doubled the budget of the schools in the state.

Horace Mann

"If we do not prepare children to become good citizens, . . . if we do not enrich their minds with knowledge, then our republic must go down to destruction, as others have gone before it."