What was the original purpose of the public school system?

[Sixgunsound]

So far as I can tell, it was created as a re-education camp to force the children of self sufficient homesteaders into the factories of urban robber barons and to legally extract resources from their parents for the privilege of training their children to abandon their family's way of life. Yay, government collusion with large businesses!

[RealMarek]

You are correct. It was also designed to impose “civic religion” on the masses, as envisioned by John Dewey and his intellectual successors.

[Juxtapose]

There's really nothing stopping you from homeschooling your kids you know. In Germany you can't even do that.

[Sixgunsound]

The stronger a government has to mandate something the more strongly It is proven that it's not in the best interests of the mandate victims.

[NamerOfStars]

You're mistaken- it was created to ensure that literacy, mathematics, and basic political knowledge weren't the exclusive province of the rich. I suppose that demonstrating to children that "you CAN be more than desperately impoverished illiterate serfs to your feudal overlords" could be construed as "abandoning their family's way of life", though.

[NathanDavis]

education had the great purpose of enlightenment...

but the public schooling systems, not... those had a different goal, to turn people into manufacturing assets

which is what they're still doing, to this day

[TheSpaceGnome]

Education on that level was a privilage originially reserved for the wealthy.
After that, graduating schools was a privilage reserved for the intelligent.
Now we give out diplomas to people who didn't even earn them, and give jobs to people who have no idea what they are doing.

[najekim]

Back then it was called the three R's, Reading 'Riting, & 'Rithmatic.

So simple people could understand deeds and contracts, write letters and send telegrams, and make sure they knew what money they had and the number of animals they had.

[Astarlessnightsky]

To educate children of all economic classes, as before public schools existed, reading, writing and math was a privilige of the nobilty and royalty.

[Sixgunsound]

Clearly public school has not been of much benefit to you.

[Astarlessnightsky]

en.m.wikipedia.org/.../History_of_education_in_the_United_States

[Sixgunsound]

You do know Wikipedia is not a qualified source, right? Thank you for proving my point.

[Msputiton]

y'all be so weird.