School attendance (both time at school and numbers enrolled) grew roughly simultaneously across countries that were developing wage labor in the 19th century. So Americanization may not have been the root cause, even if it definitely factored in. The trigger for mass schooling experiments (mainly the monitorial system, a global phenomenon) seems to have been the access to subversive, critical, political economy literature by the 1820s. The fear of mass instruction receded, in its place came the emphasis on content. But it took until the 1890s for primary education to be fully implemented in industrializing powers (statistics from the 1930s can be misleading, because the Depression questioned the relevance of career-oriented schooling). Building this class and functional compromise relied on the need to absorb distributionally conflictual productivity gains by removing the young from the workforce. Early on, some factories had schooling facilities for the kids they also employed, but this was soon abandoned. The state proved the ideal teacher, because it imparted standardized skills that seemingly equalized the labor market, putting economic responsibility on each individual's shoulders. Compulsion laws came either too early to be effectual, or once full attendance got nearly achieved. Bringing the most recalcitrant kids into the fold, however, changed the dynamics of the classroom. Now adhesion to work could issue from the rejection of school values.
Federalized education is destructive to a level the public can’t even comprehend at this point. So many laws need to be repealed, and education should be returned to the states. Local, organic schools will produce far better rates and quality of literacy. The intrusion of technology has made it so a class of people- kids- are doing unpaid labor for the billionaire class, Ed tech companies, and AI machine learning- not unlike enslavement, which is the OPPOSITE of what education should be. Kids who are “undocumented” have equal rights to our public school, which creates a lot of problems.
The following passages (the second is about its education system) are from "The School History of Worcester" (1899) by Caroline Van Deusen Chenoweth,
page 134: "The mayor and aldermen, together with the common council, constitute the legislative power. Worcester is divided into eight wards. The more important of the city departments include the board of assessors, collector of taxes, treasurer, auditor, city. clerk, city solicitor, city marshal, school board, fire department, engineers' department, police department, health department, water commissioner, water registrar, super-intendent of sewers, commissioner of high-ways, park commissioners, superintendent of public buildings, trustees of the city hospital, and overseers of the poor, and this by no means completes the list."
And from page 138: "The story of Worcester as a city, is the story of to-day, and has but little place upon these pages. Material prosperity is everywhere apparent, and abundant educational advantages are freely offered. Clark University, the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the State Normal School, the College of the Holy Cross, Highland Military Academy, Worcester Academy, several excellent private schools for girls and boys, and a splendid array of buildings actively devoted to public school purposes, are worthily ministered to by the Worcester Public Library; the priceless library of the American Antiquarian Society, and the library of the Society of Antiquity; as well as by that later educational influence, the Worcester Art Museum."
School attendance (both time at school and numbers enrolled) grew roughly simultaneously across countries that were developing wage labor in the 19th century. So Americanization may not have been the root cause, even if it definitely factored in. The trigger for mass schooling experiments (mainly the monitorial system, a global phenomenon) seems to have been the access to subversive, critical, political economy literature by the 1820s. The fear of mass instruction receded, in its place came the emphasis on content. But it took until the 1890s for primary education to be fully implemented in industrializing powers (statistics from the 1930s can be misleading, because the Depression questioned the relevance of career-oriented schooling). Building this class and functional compromise relied on the need to absorb distributionally conflictual productivity gains by removing the young from the workforce. Early on, some factories had schooling facilities for the kids they also employed, but this was soon abandoned. The state proved the ideal teacher, because it imparted standardized skills that seemingly equalized the labor market, putting economic responsibility on each individual's shoulders. Compulsion laws came either too early to be effectual, or once full attendance got nearly achieved. Bringing the most recalcitrant kids into the fold, however, changed the dynamics of the classroom. Now adhesion to work could issue from the rejection of school values.
Federalized education is destructive to a level the public can’t even comprehend at this point. So many laws need to be repealed, and education should be returned to the states. Local, organic schools will produce far better rates and quality of literacy. The intrusion of technology has made it so a class of people- kids- are doing unpaid labor for the billionaire class, Ed tech companies, and AI machine learning- not unlike enslavement, which is the OPPOSITE of what education should be. Kids who are “undocumented” have equal rights to our public school, which creates a lot of problems.
The following passages (the second is about its education system) are from "The School History of Worcester" (1899) by Caroline Van Deusen Chenoweth,
page 134: "The mayor and aldermen, together with the common council, constitute the legislative power. Worcester is divided into eight wards. The more important of the city departments include the board of assessors, collector of taxes, treasurer, auditor, city. clerk, city solicitor, city marshal, school board, fire department, engineers' department, police department, health department, water commissioner, water registrar, super-intendent of sewers, commissioner of high-ways, park commissioners, superintendent of public buildings, trustees of the city hospital, and overseers of the poor, and this by no means completes the list."
And from page 138: "The story of Worcester as a city, is the story of to-day, and has but little place upon these pages. Material prosperity is everywhere apparent, and abundant educational advantages are freely offered. Clark University, the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, the State Normal School, the College of the Holy Cross, Highland Military Academy, Worcester Academy, several excellent private schools for girls and boys, and a splendid array of buildings actively devoted to public school purposes, are worthily ministered to by the Worcester Public Library; the priceless library of the American Antiquarian Society, and the library of the Society of Antiquity; as well as by that later educational influence, the Worcester Art Museum."