Samuel Hall的演讲

 Before proceeding to the subject more particularly before us, it will be necessary for me to call your attention to some circumstances, in the exsisting state of our schols, which have an important bearing on their character and success.
There is generally no want of conviction, that education is important. Very few are found, even among the ignorant, who are slow to acknowledge, that learning is necessary both to enjoyment and usefulness. Among the well educated, no remark is more frequently heard, than that a good education is ncessary for every citizen, in a land of civil and religious freedom. But it is equally obvious to me, that while the importance of education is generally acknolwdged, the immense value of common schools is not realized. When it is recollected, that from these minor fountains of knowledge, and from these only, the great mass of community receive all their instruction, the marked indifference to their character and usefullness which so often appears, is truly astonishing. ‘Most of our legislators, our judges and governors have commenced their preparation for the high stations they have filled in society, by drinking at these simple springs of knowledge. We see the magic influence of our schools in the habits, industry, sobriety and order which prevail in the community; in the cheerful obedience yielded to the laws, and in the acts of charity and benevlence, which are every day multiplied around us. Rarely have we seen a native of our state, paying his life to her violated laws,’ if his early years were spent in her schools. These are facts known and generally acknowledged. But sill, with many, there is a criminal indifference to the character and usefulness of common schools.
This is not a indifference which the stranger would so readily discern; for much is said in the public bodies of their importance, and much interest is felt by learned men in the cause of popular education. But still, there is a degree of indifference not hard to detect, exhibited in various ways—one of which is, inattention to school meetings, at which arrangements are made for the schools of the year. When such a meeting is notified, but every few attend. From one tenth to one half of the voters may be present. Almost any articule of business is sufficient to prevent a voter from attending.
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A part of this indifference is owing to habit. The parent who never visits the school which his children attend, will perhaps hardly give as a reason, that he never saw his father within the walls of a school room., though it is very possible that this may be a chief cause. If interrogated on the subject, he will probably say he wants time, or does not feel competent to jusdge of the character of the school. The fact, however, may be, that he has, from his very youth formed a habit of considering the school a subject of far less consequence thatn it is. He has imperceptibly imbibed the sentiments of his own parents, and as they appeared but little interested in the character of the school which the maintained, so the habit has come down to him. It may also have been induced from others. We are strongly inclined to go with the multitude whether right or wrong. When the greater part f parents are indifferent to the character of the school, this feeling is very naturally extended to those who at first might have felt some solicitude on the subject. Thus habits of indifference have extended from family to family, from neighborhood to neighborhood and from district to district. The effect becomes permanent, and year after year increases or continues it.
 Hall, Samuel R., Lectures fo School Masters 4th Ed, 1833. pp.14-17.
在十九世纪美国公共学校（Common School ）运动的早期，Sanuel Hall是和Horace Mann齐名的先驱者。他利用了当时印刷术的普及，出版了很多这样的所谓“自学手册”，教各地的教师和校长们如何上课教学。这本书在当时的纽约州卖出了1w份拷贝，算是相当有影响力的。有意思的是这本书里面关于具体教学方法的内容并不多，而且有点古板，但是他花了相当的篇幅来向他的同行们讲述教育工作者是处在怎样一个不利的环境里面。作为我这样一个现代的外国读者看来，很多他讲到的观点和我们在中国报纸上看到的关于社会风气对学校的不良影响是何其相似。在Hall的时代，美国的民众还没有一种集体意识，体认到教育的社会/个人作用究竟为何。所以社会上充斥着对学校、教师的冷漠——这个他反复提到的特点。家长、社会精英对于公共教育没有热情，是因为他们无法发现教育的价值，不管是实用价值还是交换价值（但是他们会把自己的孩子送到教会、请家教、甚至送到欧洲去）。关键是对于别人的孩子，社会大众普遍地没有感性。暂时地，他们把学校作为一个寄养孩子的临时地点（因为逐渐普及的资本主义生产方式让传统的家庭育儿方式得到改变），但是对于教学和学生品格（又是一个我们今天常常见到的词汇）却毫不关心。Mann在他担任麻省教育部长的任内每年都有会像全国各地的精英们写信“汇报”——其实更像是宣讲——他所了解到的教育现实，并且恳请他们资助学校，引领风气。可谓是这封信的另一面。
像Hall和Mann这样的先驱在他们的时代尽管敏锐地发现了这样的问题，但是直到半个世纪后当公共学校在大部分州扎根下来，同时美国人意识到了教育的价值之后才逐渐有所改善。这个历史叙事对于教师教育的影响在于，教师这个职业从其进入美国的公共领域的第一天起，就面临这样一个社会地位很低的问题。因为社会大众对于教育没有认识，所以连带地他们对于聘任教师，或者培训教师根本没有任何的热情。教师的工作在早期所招募的人大都是无事可做（甚至相当部分识字的残疾人）的本地人）。这样一种公共形象直到一个多世纪后的今天依然是美国教师的一个梦魇。