No need to condescend. You are not the only person on this forum who knows who John Dewey was. And I do know a little about 19th century American history, having taught it at the university level. Public education worked fairly well until the 60s, when the Leftists took over and the federal government became involved, giving our country the advantage of near universal literacy that other countries didn’t match until much later. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the alternative to the mind-numbing fascist scheme you described was universal illiteracy, literacy being reserved for the wealthy. Your views are curiously close to those expressed by the early Bolsheviks. All that said, I tend to agree with you that the public school system we have today is beyond redemption.
Is this what you taught you impressionable and gullible students? Geeze!
Well,...Illiteracy was certainly not universal among Catholics with their tuition-free schools.