I was wondering if anyone could reccomend some good books about the history of education and how American public schools emerged. Was it really true that most people couldn’t afford schooling and so the governments “had to” create the public school system, etc?
As far as I know, it was not true that people could not afford schools. I have heard Walter Block talk about this, but I can’t remember where.
Education: Free and Compulsory
But you don’t need schooling anyways.
Unschooling (Sudbury Valley ‘School’)
As I’ve understand it, from having studied Americas’ history a little, you can find signs of early genesis of the public school system as early as in 1700th century, in the Old Deluder Satan Act in Massauchusetts. The main force behind the law in Massachusetts was conservatism in ideological terms, and I think that conservatism has been the main force in the emergence of the extensive public school system today; the idea basically was that government should be responsible of creating i common moral in society, to preserve the virtous norms in society.
However, I can’t come up with any suggested reading for the moment, I haven’t read that much myself. You can always try search on this site (if you haven’t done it), I think there has been written a book or two about public education published by Mises Institute.
Johannes-
I think you’re partially right. The progressives certainly played their part.
Sheldon Richman throws out a few author names in this interview:
Also, Lew Rockwell interviews John Taylor Gatto here. Gatto’s books are listed at the bottom.
i’ve read Rothbard’s mongraph a few years ago but i don’t recall it covering much about the history of how public education came to be.
I looked at it before linking it and your memory is wrong.
Free The Schools and Education for All by Harry Browne.
This book should help.
Coulson sets out to compare the school systems of civilizations both ancient and modern, seeking to determine which systems achieved the aims of parents and the public at large and which did not. His historical study ranges from classical Athens and ancient Rome, through the Islamic world of the Middle Ages, to nineteenth-century England and contemporary America.
Thx for the links. i added some of these books to my Amazon wishlist!
thx to everyone who responded, i knew i came to the right place.
But wheren’t the government pretty deeply involved in education already before the liberal forces started to take root?
Seems to me, if you listen to Gatto, that public education didn’t really take off in the U.S. until the late 19th century. There may have been some aspects of it earlier, but not nearly as much until later.
Don’t miss Nock’s work on the issue: http://mises.org/books/education-nock.pdf
This isn’t exactly about public education, but interesting nonetheless (recommended to me by Henry Hazlitt): http://mises.org/books/education_spencer.pdf
http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?a=209
This reminded me of something Rothbard wrote about public education in America. It had a lot to do with the perceived dangers of Catholicism and the Irish.
EDIT: here’s that article
I believe Rothbard and Block both mention in various lectures and writings that public education came about as a religious attack against Catholics. The protestants did not like the Catholic immigrants teaching their children in their own private schools, and to simply ban catholic schools would have been a bridge too far, so in making everybody pay for public school, you would at least force the Catholics to have to pay twice if they wanted to send their children to Catholic school.
I can’t believe nobody mentioned The Underground History of American Education in this thread.
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm
The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto