[speeder]

Those are extreme examples of normal stuff, and that have been normal since schools (not educational institutions) were invented.

The idea for schools (with that name) came from Prussia (ie: Germany when they had a king), they noticed that their soldiers were not keen in defending their government, not patriotic, and fled from the battlefield upon hearing gunfire.

Someone then invented the "Prussian Model" of education, that was named "Volksschol" (pronounced volks school), that had as objective to make children believe more into the government and turn into adults more willing to go to war for it and even impose its beliefs on other countries.

The EUA (and several other countries) quickly copied the system, all of them (including Prussia original) making it mandatory, and to the people made the justification that it was for the good of the children (and who would refuse? school in greek means "leisure", and how would you dare refuse your children to have fun with other children, learn and get some social skills?), but internal government communication always made clear the intention was prepare kids to war, the report made to the US used some phrases (I do not remember the exact quote) like: "It might be harmful to children, but we can teach them to defend republic always."

And of course, none of this is lost to the UN (that state that is a human right to mandatory schools exist, and that those schools should teach about UN as institution to foster peace and about UN interests).

EDIT: fixed word that commenter pointed (I knew the greek meaning in portuguese and translated that to english... pardon me for the lost in translation meaning)

[venomsnake]

I have alternative theory - it is a bit wacky but bear with me - by giving basic literacy, proper grammar, math, history and reasoning skills we create a class of people that can enter the economy easily, can create a lot of value added and develop their full potential. By giving roughly the same start we could also do a lot to diminish the class separation.

Calling Prussia - Germany while they had a king is just wrong.

And the think with UN- it is helpless organization, kept that way, and forever will be. It is even more pathetic than League of Nations.

[nemo]

It's true that the U.S. did model some of its public education on the Prussian model:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_education_system

But there's a lot of conspiratorial libertarian agenda in your comment.

American schools existed before that (and were called "schools", it's a very old word), they were just influenced by the Prussian model. The part that Americans liked was the view that all were entitled to an education in a public school system with a universal educational curriculum, thus democratizing education. As it was adopted they modified it to suit American ideals and needs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_education_in_the_Uni...

Also, school (technically σχολή/"scholé") in Ancient Greek means "leisure." Since learning and study were leisure activities, the term evolved in Greek and Latin into the word for learning in the ancient world, while the English term "school" has meant a place of learning and study since the Middle Ages. Arguments from etymologies are virtually always the flashing red light of terrible history.

[mwcampbell]

Citation needed.

[tokenadult]

Citation needed.

I'm glad you asked.

Schooling and Society: The Politics of Education in Prussia and Bavaria 1750-1900 Karl Schleunes (Oxford: Berg, 1989). (ISBN 0-85496-267-0).

There are more good citations on the foundations of the current state-controlled school system where that citation came from.

http://learninfreedom.org/school_state.html

[speeder]

Thanks for providing it while I was not available :)