America was a leader in providing free public schooling to all children. Many rulers feared the educated. America feared the ignorant. The Founding Fathers were resolute that democracy could only work with an educated electorate that could select qualified leaders. The “Three Rs” were important, but most important was critical thinking. People had to be able to independently assess what information made sense. In the 19th century, the importance of education in America skyrocketed. Seventeen million immigrants, mostly Irish Catholics, Italian Catholics, and German and Russian Jews from southern and central Europe, joined a nation overwhelmingly descended from white northern European protestants, in addition to 4 million free blacks. Racial, ethnic, and religious conflict was everywhere. Something had to be done.
Schools became essential to developing unity. Instead of Irish Catholics, Italian Catholics, British Anglicans, German Lutherans, Russian Jews, and blacks of various faiths, the job of the schools was to unify students as Americans by teaching American values. Being an American carried no racial, ethnic, or religious component. Americans spoke English, valued academic excellence, and knew how success was tied to working hard, family values, self-reliance, and obeying the law. America’s public school system became the lynchpin to the United States becoming the world’s largest economy and then a global superpower. America defied the odds and proved the naysayers wrong. Leaders all over the world saw American diversity as a wellspring of conflict that would one day implode.
