toward social democracy. As Daniel Lazare points out, "The most important thing to understand is the eighteenth century's role as the great transitional period . . . dominated by fierce controversy over the nature of political power." Jefferson, in fact, pointed out the critical role of education in a democracy. In a letter to George Wythe, he wrote:
Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance and improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils, and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance.
Opponents argued that school taxes should be levelled only against those who would directly benefit from state-run educational programs. Paine, in The Rights of Man, argued "to make the remission of taxes to every poor family out of the surplus taxes . . . enjoining the parents of such children to send them to school." He pointed out that the cost of such programs should be shared by society as a whole, for the common good. Proponents of universal education argued that society as a whole benefits from an educated populace and should, therefore, bear the costs. Leon Botstein frames the question that Jefferson, Paine, and others asked: "If the benefits of social and political power - particularly the right to be educated - reside only in the hands of a few, then can a society hope to produce the continuous advancements and innovations that sustain the arts and sciences?"
The earliest schools in America were patterned after the English educational system. Most schooling included a strong religious component; lessons were often given through the church. Poor boys and girls of all classes were taught rudimentary skills in informal settings, and their lessons focused on raising obedient chi...