Had I the power, I would scatter libraries over the whole land as the sower sows his wheatfield.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the desire to spread knowledge widely and accessibly, similar to how seeds are scattered for growth.
Horace Mann emphasizes the importance of education and knowledge by comparing the distribution of libraries to the act of sowing seeds in a field. Just as a sower spreads seeds to ensure a bountiful harvest, Mann wishes to see libraries, symbols of knowledge and learning, scattered across the land so that everyone has access to education and the opportunity for growth.
In practice
In a speech advocating for community funding for libraries, this quote can emphasize the importance of education access.
Under the Providence of God, our means of education are the grand machinery by which the 'raw material' of human nature can be worked up into inventors and discoverers, into skilled artisans and scientific farmers, into scholars and jurists, into the founders of benevolent institutions, and the great expounders of ethical and theological science.
Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.
There may be frugality which is not economy. A community, that withholds the means of education from its children, withholds the bread of life and starves their souls.
Let us labor for that larger comprehension of truth, and that more thorough repudiation of error, which shall make the history of mankind a series of ascending developments.
Great knowledge is requisite to instruct those who have been well instructed, but still greater knowledge is requisite to instruct those who have been neglected.
Virtue is an angel, but she is a blind one, and must ask Knowledge to show her the pathway that leads to her goal.
How can our kids really understand the moral complexities of being alive if they are not allowed to engage in those complexities outdoors?
Can watching video lessons or using interactive software make people smart? No. But I would argue that it can do something even better: create a context in which people can give free rein to their curiosity and natural love of learning so that they realize they're already smart.
There exists one book, which, to my taste, furnishes the happiest treatise of natural education. What then is this marvelous book? Is it Aristotle? Is it Pliny, is it Buffon? No-it is Robinson Crusoe.
Reading or written language is a cultural invention that necessitated totally new connections among structures in the human brain underlying language, perception, cognition, and, over time, our emotions.
There's no question that a great teacher can make a huge difference in a student's achievement, and we need to recruit, train and reward more such teachers. But here's what some new studies are also showing: We need better parents. Parents more focused on their children's education can also make a huge difference in a student's achievement.
The student is to read history actively and not passively.
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