The Flint Hills of Kansas

By Jeff M

Picture 5 shows the Lower Fox Creek School, built in the early 1880s. The following passage was taken from The National Park Service: "The Lower Fox Creek School was an example of the common school. The model of the common school proposed by Horace Mann was embraced by Kansans when it was time to organize schools in the new territory (and later the state) of Kansas. The model had become so widely accepted in the eastern states that as settlers from New England and the Ohio River valley moved into Kansas, they simply brought the model for school with them just as they brought their religion, their family customs, or their household goods. It was a model with which they were familiar. It made sense to them based on their experiences with it."