Education should aim at destroying free will so that after pupils are thus schooled they will be incapable throughout the rest of their lives of thinking.
- Johann Gottlieb Fichte, the German philosopher who designed the foundations of our modern education system
The Prussians were defeated by everyone’s favourite morally ambiguous warlord, Napoleon Bonaparte.
Prussia’s military strategists weren’t particularly happy and believed their defeat was because soldiers were thinking for themselves - instead of following orders. A fatal error in the heat of battle.
And so the Prussian education system was born. To stop children thinking.
For ~8 years, for ~8 hours a day, young boys would be educated. Disciplined to memorise, recite, obey.
You weren’t there to learn facts. You were there to learn not to question them.
Every government that has been in charge of education for more than one generation will be able to control its subjects securely without the need of armies or policemen.
- Johann Gottlieb Fichte, again
Seeing the efficacy of the Prussian model in educating children to the will of the state, Horace Mann - often cited as the “Father of American Public Education” - exported the model to the USA.