There are three references in this talk - click here for Part Two or Part Three.
Elder Harold B. Lee's talk, "Today's Young People" brings us to a story about Horace Mann.
Horace who?
The Quote
Horace Mann, that great educator somewhere back in the time of Abraham Lincoln,
told how he was the speaker at the dedication of a great boys’ school,
and in his talk he said,
“This school has cost hundreds of thousands of dollars;
but if this school is able to save one boy,
it is worth all that it cost.”
One of his friends came up to him at the close of the meeting and said,
“You let your enthusiasm get away with you, didn’t you?
You don’t mean what you said that if this school,
costing hundreds of thousands of dollars,
were to save just one boy, it was worth all that it cost?
You surely don’t mean that.”
Horace Mann looked at him and said,
“Yes, my friend. It would be worth it
if that one boy were my son;
it would be worth it.”
The Principle of the One and Horace Mann
If you've been to public school in your life, loved it or hated it, it started with people like Horace Mann. A lifelong champion of education, and apparently, my fourth cousin six times removed. Horace Mann's quote emphasizes the importance of attending to each person as an individual, and not seeing them as simply part of an amorphous group.
Those we love are people. Each person has individual needs, and needs to be seen and acknowledged as such if our efforts will be effective.
He was a library hound like me, using the public library to accelerate his schooling as a child. He gave a lecture entitled, "A Few Thoughts for a Young Man", but his lecture on the powers and duties of women?
I have to check it out!
The Life and Works of Horace Mann has some other lectures he's given. The Thoughts Selected from the Writings of Horace Mann looks a little more digestible. Both are at Archive.org. He's got about a hundred schools still named after him across the country. Not too shabby, really.
