Parents the world over are dealing with massive adjustments in their children’s education that they could not have anticipated just three months ago. To one degree or another, pandemic-induced school closures are creating the “mass homeschooling” that FEE’s senior education fellow Kerry McDonald predicted two months ago. Who knows, with millions of youngsters absent from government school classrooms, maybe education will become as good as it was before the government ever got involved.
The Myth That Americans Were Poorly Educated Before Mass Government Schooling
Early America had widespread literacy and a vibrant culture of learning
On a fraction of what government schools spend today, Americans were a surprisingly learned people in our first hundred years.
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"Girl Reading" by Edmund C. Tarbell, 1909. Public domain
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Lawrence W. Reed
Author
Lawrence Reed is president emeritus of the Foundation for Economic Education in Atlanta and the author of “Real Heroes: Inspiring True Stories of Courage, Character, and Conviction“ and the best-seller “Was Jesus a Socialist?”
