A short angry history of modern schooling and really what it is is the 900

page book I've just finished condensed to one hour. So I would have given you a five minute break

before starting, but somebody's a harsh taskmaster here.

The information's rather dense and rather than rely on my own

failing memory I'll work from notes. I'll apologize in advance, but this is very, very, very strong stuff.

Mass schooling of the young by force is a creation of the four great coal powers of the 19th century,

Germany, England, France, and the United States.

Its final conception, structure, and later development

arises from the logic that fossil fuel used in conjunction with machinery

imposes on society. This reality is masked by an earlier anticipation of mass schooling in certain utopian and religious writings about social order and human nature, but make no mistake in the Western world

there was never any such animal as mass schooling until coal came along paired with machinery.

You shouldn't be fooled any more than Charles Francis Adams was when he observed in 1880 that what was being fashioned for children

unfortunate enough to be caught in the proposed school net, which hadn't happened up to then combined the characteristics

of the cotton mill said Adams and the railroad with those of a state prison.

That's the Adams those of a state prison.

That's the Adams who had two presidents in his family.

After the Civil War, certain utopian speculations about isolating children and compounds and subjecting

them to deliberate molding routines began to be discussed seriously by the policymaking managers of business,

government, and university life.

These discussions were inspired by the potential for centralized mass production made possible by coal-driven machinery.

Railroad development that was also dependent on coal and startling new inventions like the Telegraph.

The principal motivation for this revolution in family and community life wasn't only greed for money,

...