Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Horace Mann prophecy watch

Horace Mann, generally regarded as the father of America's current public school system, once prophesied: "Let the Common School ... be worked with the efficiency of which it is susceptible, and nine tenths of the crimes in the penal code would become obsolete; the long catalogue of human ills would be abridged." Mann would probably be surprised to learn that crimes are now occurring with such frequency in the schools themselves that two federal agencies see fit to issue an annual report on the matter. What's more, as Channel 8 in Tulsa reports, some assaults that take place at school are now ... posted on YouTube!

One Oklahoma superintendent, never at a loss for a silver lining, helpfully observed: "Certainly from an evidentiary point of view, it was very helpful."

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