I think it’s interesting that the educational system was developed to teach the new immigrants about the new American government. I feel like, at least in my experience, the government and its functions aren’t really explained and elaborated on. I also thing it’s interesting that the goal was to educate (or brainwash?) these immigrants into thinking that their new country of residence is great and to convince them to join its military and die for it.
The concept of the Lancasterian system is a much more accurate representation of the modern school system. I think that any schooling before the age of 5 or 6 caters more to the socialization of the child rather than any intellectual benefit. Once literacy is attained, the child really begins to learn and make decisions based on what s/he is taught. Socialization, however, is still a process that is very important in becoming a functioning and moral human being so in a sense, it is like learning, too.
According to this reading, education was first used as a tool to brainwash immigrants; is it still used the same way? Education was also used to try to amalgamate the multiple cultures into one, unified one but by doing so, isn’t it just creating subsets of the already existing cultures?
