<P> So many of these new religious and spiritual groups began or concentrated within miles of each other in upstate New York that this area was nicknamed "the burned - over district" because there were so few people left who had not experienced a conversion . </P> <P> Education in the United States had long been a local affair with schools governed by locally elected school boards . As with much of the culture of the United States, education varied widely in the North and the South . In the New England states public education was common, although it was often class - based with the working class receiving little benefits . Instruction and curriculum were all locally determined and teachers were expected to meet rigorous demands of strict moral behaviour . Schools taught religious values and applied Calvinist philosophies of discipline which included corporal punishment and public humiliation . In the South, there was very little organization of a public education system . Public schools were very rare and most education took place in the home with the family acting as instructors . The wealthier planter families were able to bring in tutors for instruction in the classics but many yeoman farming families had little access to education outside of the family unit . </P> <P> The reform movement in education began in Massachusetts when Horace Mann started the common school movement . Mann advocated a statewide curriculum and instituted financing of school through local property taxes . Mann also fought protracted battles against the Calvinist influence in discipline, preferring positive reinforcement to physical punishment . Most children learned to read and write and spell from Noah Webster's Blue Backed Speller and later the McGuffey Readers . The readings inculcated moral values as well as literacy . Most states tried to emulate Massachusetts, and New England retained its leadership position for another century . German immigrants brought in kindergartens and the Gymnasium (school), while Yankee orators sponsored the Lyceum movement that provided popular education for hundreds of towns and small cities . </P> <P> The social conscience that was raised in the early 19th century helped to elevate the awareness of mental illness and its treatment . A leading advocate of reform for mental illness was Dorothea Dix, a Massachusetts woman who made an intensive study of the conditions that the mentally ill were kept in . Dix's report to the Massachusetts state legislature along with the development of the Kirkbride Plan helped to alleviate the miserable conditions for many of the mentally ill . Although these facilities often fell short of their intended purpose, reformers continued to follow Dix's advocacy and call for increased study and treatment of mental illness . </P>

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