Research-Based Options for Education Policymaking – The Purpose of Education: Truing the Balance Wheel

Policy Brief - Jun 02, 2016

Author(s) - William J. Mathis, University of Colorado Boulder

In The Purpose of Education: Truing the Balance Wheel, William J. Mathis, University of Colorado Boulder, discusses what it would take for Horace Mann’s ideal of education as the “great equalizer of the conditions of men” to become a reality. Mann proclaimed that education was the bedrock of democracy and that it had the potential to serve as a “balance wheel of social machinery.” Mathis recommends that in order to true the balance wheel (as Mann desired), both in-school and out-of-school factors need to be addressed.