Posted on 04/29/2026 6:39:54 AM PDT by Eleutheria5
“The real reason America created public schools… had nothing to do with education.” It’s a bold claim—but the truth is more complex, and far more interesting than the headline suggests. 🧠
Public education in the United States began taking shape in the 19th century, especially during the Common School Movement led by Horace Mann. His goal wasn’t to avoid education—it was to expand it. At the time, schooling was inconsistent, often private, and inaccessible to many families. Public schools were created to provide free, basic education to all children, regardless of social class. 🏫
But education wasn’t the only purpose. These schools also aimed to create a more stable and unified society. In a rapidly growing nation with waves of immigration and industrial change, leaders saw schools as a way to teach shared values, civic responsibility, and basic skills needed for work and participation in society. 🌍
Critics often point out that early public schools emphasized discipline, routine, and conformity—preparing students for factory life during the Industrial Revolution. There’s some truth to that. Schools did reflect the needs of the time, including workforce preparation and social order. But that doesn’t mean education wasn’t the goal—it means it served multiple purposes at once. ⚙️
So was it about control, or about opportunity? The answer is: both factors played a role. Public schools were designed to educate, but also to shape citizens, reduce inequality, and respond to economic demands. Over time, the system evolved into what we recognize today. 📈
In this video, we break down the real history behind public education in America, separating facts from viral claims and exploring why schools were created in the first place.
Watch until the end—because the truth is more layered than the theory.
Transcript linked below description
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
Clarence Thomas got it correct in a recent speech. Progressives adore bureaucracies and the Administrative State and he named Woodrow Wilson in The Progressive Era.
Specifics are important otherwise we might as well just say some people did something. Yeah. Some people did something, now that's super useful.
"A predisposition to some promising novelty, whatever that may be?"
Not really, and the original Progressives were really clear about this. Theodore Roosevelt hated socialists as did Wilson. Woodrow Wilson even deported them out of the country during the Red Scare.
To this day the progressives don't accept socialists in their ranks, we saw it with Bernie and we also saw it with Mamdani.
Sure, fine. But the categories overlap. Harold Laski also adored bureaucracies and the administrative state. What communist didn’t?
Techies and societists are progressive in completely different ways. Their ideas have tap roots in different soils.
And techies didn’t take over the schools and the courts. yes, statists did, but they could be marxist, fascist, socialist, theocratic democrats—what have you. But who are the ideologues who marched through education and the courts to destroy the family? The managerial state?
Just sayin’
You use an example of a poor kid, whose parents don't care, losing out. This is still so, even with the hundreds of billions spent on "education". It has always been that the child whose parents care and are acutely involved in their education will do better. One doesn't need public school for that, the public schools are bursting at the seams with the very example you're using for the necessity of public education. The natural conclusion is that system has failed at it's supposed purpose.
Your other example appears to be a complaint that pre-public education fostered competition and a striving for individual and institutional excellence...and? Our nation was founded on such principals. The rights of the individual to pursue happiness and be secure in their liberty. Not a guarantee of outcome. That...is up to you.
It's scary to actually have true freedom. To be responsible for your own future. It used to be taught at a very young age and should be again. Everything else you speak about, helping the poor and those in unfortunate circumstances have better opportunities, that is up to the willful charity of individuals. Individuals who are a moral and religious people.
The government has no business in it beyond securing their God-given rights.
If you think communists = industrialists/capitalists, you are a commie. Only commies equate that.
Well done. Thank you.
I think that the industralist/capitalists started the whole thing, and years later the communists took it over. Equating communism and capitalism was started by Hitler, with Jews thrown in to explain the relationship. “The industrialist Kahn vs. the labor organizer Cohn,” in one of his tavern speeches.
But here's an idea. If progressives have such success, let's be progressive ourselves and like St. Paul turn our hearts to God: "I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." — Philippians 3:13-14 Care to come along?
Great idea...plus daycare and elder day care, too. Got to do something with malls.
Well, there’s a limit, I suppose. I know that for high achievers, homeschooling is a bit backwards, a stopgap for not having a school. A parent cannot excel in all areas. OK for K-6, maybe K-8, but after that, it’s a bit crazy if you have 3 or 4 kids. But for general ed, homeschooling is fine.
“His goal wasn’t to avoid education—it was to expand it.”
this was totally written by AI>
Sure, the categories do overlap in regards to all of the tyrannies and that does also include Monarchism.
But we all know Monarchism aint communism either. Still the overlaps are unmistakable but its important to recognize the separate categories. There is a funny line in the Declaration of Independence which says:
“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.”
See, the king was a progressive communist. (/sarcasm)
The details do matter.
... by fostering an ethic of subordination, seeking permission, and reporting deviations.
People learn things. It’s in the nature of the human race. Sometimes people teach each other, sometimes people learn things in solitude. The very notion we have to have a systematic compulsory “education system” for the sake of society is nonsense.
That’s one of the things I model my life after. Knowledge has to be acquired any damned way that isn’t either illegal, immoral, or liable to get one killed. Stolen, if need be. The hell with “stay in school” and “get a job.” Jobs are only one way to earn a living, and if all you get from school is a job, you’ll end up hating your life and shutting yourslef off from the true joy of learning.
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