An understanding of the beginning of common schooling in the United States requires attention to such social changes as urbanization, early industrialization, and patterns of immigration, all in the Northeast. Ideologically, the common school era was rooted in classical liberalism, which had practical consequences in urban New England different from those in rural Jeffersonian Virginia. These variations were due to differences in regional political economy as well as shifts in religious thought. While Jefferson had encountered difficulty gaining consensus for a state-funded but locally-controlled school system, Horace Mann sought a state-funded and state-controlled school system. In part because of the contrasts in political economy between Massachusetts and Virginia, and in part because of differences between the paternalistic Whig liberalism of urban Massachusetts and the more laissez-faire liberalism of agrarian Virginia, Mann succeeded in creating a school system in Massachusetts.

        The interaction of political economy and ideology was sharply illustrated by U.S. citizens' responses to Irish immigration. The moral and cultural judgments made by New Englanders about the Irish Catholics, and the way schooling was used as a solution to the "Irish problem," illustrates one way of responding to cultural diversity. The efforts of Mann and others to use the schools to shape the character of Massachusetts youth for moral uprightness as well as greater social stability are detailed in this chapter. Mann's efforts to create a system of education through common schools as well as normal schools leads to a discussion of Mann's conception of the occupation of teaching and how teachers should be educated.