It began at the Columbia Teachers College with John Dewey. Believe it or not, Dewey devised the approach in order to prevent children from learning to read. He reasoned that preventing children from learning to read would prevent children from learning independently.
The purpose of education, according to Dewey, was to prepare children to live collectively. Independent thinking could not be tolerated. Children were to be conditioned to accept their assigned role in society.
Every teacher should realize he is a social servant set apart for the maintenance of the proper social order and the securing of the right social growth. In this way the teacher is always the prophet of the true God and the usherer in of the true kingdom of heaven.
The idea of compulsory schooling as a means for ushering in the "socialist kingdom" goes all the way back to Fichte in Germany and is outlined in Gatto's book (above).