ABSTRACT
In rural areas as well as in urbanizing America, both the market revolution and the growing racial and religious diversity immigration provided left many Anglo Protestants from the lower ranks of society, the so-called “little man” or “common man,” feeling disoriented. Common schooling was more the ideological slogan of a reform crusade than it was a description of a particular type of formal educational institution. In defining the common school as an institution, one can begin by noting its early association with New England states such as Massachusetts and Connecticut. The notable early advocates of common schooling, men who liked to refer to themselves as “friends of education,” were professionals: usually attorneys, clergymen, teachers, or editors. Horace Mann of Massachusetts was the most famous advocate of the common school. In the early nineteenth century, Massachusetts was undergoing a substantial amount of social and economic change as a result of heavy migration from rural to urban areas.
