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(3) It should be provided equally for all children.
(4) It must be nonsectarian.
(5) It must emphasize the tenets of a free society.
(6) It must be provided by well-educated, professional teachers.
Mann's main educational goal was to foster universal equality. Education helps lift people out of poverty. Knowledge is power, he believed. An educated person no longer is a "slave" to the status quo.
Knowledge also is essential to a true democracy. It differs vastly from rote learning. The latter, he said, "was neither effective nor desirable."
"Children must be led to discover principles and relationship." Learning is a means to an end. Its value is self-improvement. It separates humans from beasts. If "all mankind were well fed, well clothed, and well housed (alone), they still might be half civilized."In his capacity as Massachusetts State Board of Education Secretary, he said:
"Surely nothing but universal education can counterwork this tendency to the domination of capital and servility of labor."
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