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["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

I think what folks need to look at is the history of public school as we 
know it.

For starters, there was no compulsory attendance until 1852.  We have that 
compliments of Mass where they went so far as to send out the militia to 
force children into the schools.  Following Mass's example, by 1918 all 
states had compulsory attendance laws.  In fact, quite a few states went so 
far as to require *only* state runs schools as an option.  This was ended in 
1925 when the Society of Sisters (Catholic) took it to the Supreme Court.

As soon as the compulsory attendance laws were passed, more and more laws 
were passed to take control away from the local level and parents and put it 
more and more into the hands of the educrats.  A whole new group of folks 
feeding at the taxpayer funded trough were put into place.

After awhile, the feds discovered a way to add to their own bureucratic web 
and jumped in with both feet and a big stick.  The Smith-Huges Act of 1917, 
the GI Bill of 1944, the National Defense Education Act of 1958, the 
Vocational Act of 1963, the Elementary & Secondary Education Act of 1965 and 
the International, yup INTERNATIONAL, Education Act of 1966.

Now, as James has mentioned, lots of folks headed to Germany and came back 
totally enthralled by the Prussian model.  However, what sometimes gets left 
out of the equation is the very pivotal point around which the Prussian 
model works, the Hegelian statism -- the idea that the state is God, that it 
is the state's duty to mold its children into obedient servants of the 
state.

Franz de Hovre -- "The prime fundamental of German education is that it is 
based on a national principle.  A fundamental feature of German education: 
education to the State, education for the State, education by the State."

The backbone of the German/Prussian system was 1)  conditioning children "to 
obedience, subordination, and collective life;"  2)  chop up the day "so 
that self-motivation to learn would be muted by ceaseless interruptions;" 
and 3)  place the state in the position as the "true parent" of the child.

This is clearly stated by the very folks who are considered the founders of 
the public education system in the U.S.

So, here are the thoughts of those who began this great adventure in 
creating sheople:

Edward Thorndike -- "Standardized testing will separate those fit to breed 
and those fit to work and those unfit."

Benjamin Rush -- "Let our pupil be taught that he does not belong to 
himself, but that he is public property.  Let him be taught to love his 
family, but let him be taught at the same time that he must forsake and even 
forget them whent he welfare of his country requires it."

Perhaps a real standard to measure just how dismally the public schools have 
failed is to remember one of the reasons Horace Mann, referred to as the 
father of public schools, had for requiring compulsory attendance "Let the 
common school be expanded to its capabilities, let it be worked with the 
efficiency of which it is susceptible, and nine-tenths of the crimes in the 
penal code would become obsolete; the long catalogue of  human ills would be 
abridged; men would walk more safetly by day . . ."

Lynda