Thread by @TheRobertBshow

Did you know American public schools were designed by modeling Prussia's system? A system to create mindless masses.

This is the wild story of how we abandoned the classical education that produced our Founding Fathers for a system designed by an authoritarian monarchy.
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Before 1840s America, education was local, often church-based, and rooted in classical liberal arts: grammar, logic, rhetoric. Students read the Bible, Greek/Roman classics, and learned to think independently.
This system produced Jefferson, Adams, Madison, and Hamilton.

Enter Horace Mann, 1837. He becomes MA Secretary of Education and has a problem: How to create uniform citizens for an industrializing nation?
His solution? In 1843, he travels to Prussia to study their schools. He's amazed by their efficiency and order.

What Mann found in Prussia: A system designed after military defeats to create compliant citizens. Age-graded classrooms. Standardized curriculum. Professional teachers. Bells to move between subjects.

Sound familiar? That's your local public school.

The Prussian system had three tiers:
Volksschule (people's school) - for 92% to be obedient workers
Realschule - for middle managers
Gymnasium/University - for 1% to be leaders
It wasn't about education.
It was about sorting and control.

By 1852, Massachusetts passes America's first compulsory attendance law - copied directly from Prussia.

For the first time in American history, the state claims children MUST attend approved schools. Family and church authority over education begins to erode.

Then comes John Dewey. He studies under German-trained psychologists and in 1896 opens his Laboratory School. His vision? Education as social engineering.
Children aren't souls to be nurtured but resources to be shaped for "democracy" (meaning: the collective good).

Here's the stunning part: By 1900, over 10,000 Americans had studied in German universities. The German PhD became our gold standard. Johns Hopkins, University of Chicago - all built on the German model.
We imported our entire higher education system from Prussia/Germany.

Then WWI hits. Suddenly, anything German is toxic. States ban German language instruction. "Prussian autocracy" becomes an insult.

Do progressive educators abandon German methods? NO. They simply rebrand them as "democratic" while keeping the same structure.

The 1918 "Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education" completes the transformation. Education's purpose shifts from wisdom & virtue to seven utilitarian goals: health, vocation, citizenship, etc.

The classical tradition that values truth, goodness, and beauty? Gone.

The irony is breathtaking: A nation founded on individual liberty and self-governance adopted an educational system designed by a monarchy to create obedient subjects.
We traded the education of free citizens for the training of compliant workers.

This explains SO MUCH:
Why school feels like a factory
Why creativity gets crushed
Why kids are sorted by age not ability
Why standardization trumps individuality
Why schools produce credentials, not wisdom
It was never designed to create free thinkers.

The good news?
Parents are waking up. Classical schools are exploding. Homeschooling is mainstream. Private schools offer alternatives.
We're rediscovering what American education used to be: Rooted in great books, biblical wisdom, and the cultivation of virtue.

The Prussian model asked: "How can we create useful citizens for the state?"
Classical education asks: "How can we cultivate wise and virtuous human beings?"
These are fundamentally different questions that lead to a fundamentally different education.

So next time someone says "we need education reform," remember: The system isn't broken. It's working exactly as designed.

The question is: Do we want schools that create obedient workers for the state, or institutions that cultivate free minds and virtuous souls?