ABSTRACT
As I discussed in Chapter 1, the early goals of public schooling included moral instruction as a means of reducing crime. Horace Mann believed crime could be reduced by moral instruction in schools. He asserted that there was one experiment society had not tried in its attempt to control crime: “It is an experiment which, even before its inception, offers the highest authority for its ultimate success. Its formula is intelligible to all; and it is as legible as though written in starry letters on an azure sky.” This formula, and the key to the good society, he stated, was “best expressed in these few and simple words: ‘Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.’” Later, this approach to controlling crime was referred to as putting a police person in every child’s heart. Mann even suggested that America might see the day when schooling would significantly reduce the number of police required by society.
