Horace Mann was an American educator, an advocate for public education, who considered that in a democratic society, education should be free and universal. He grew up in an environment ruled by poverty, hardship and self-denial.
He manifested great interest in problems related to politics, economics and social reform. He was a model of humanitarian optimism, offering a way in which education, philantropy and republicalism could combine to allay the wants and shortcomings that beset mankind.
