Dr. Art Robinson has a great homeschooling program and I hope he wins in his bid for Congress. However, his understanding of the history of public education is not correct. By the 1950’s public schools were already seriously compromised along the road to statism by Dewey’s theories. Every school teacher was trained in his methodology and curriculum was planned accordingly. The elites had already decided in the late 19th century to socialize the education system and began their program in teacher training. The fact that not every school district was yet reorganized is not a true reflection of how socialized the education had already become.
In the 50’s the elites had already institutionalized kindergarten with its goal of removing phonetic reading instruction and delaying reading instruction until lst grade. History was being changed to social studies. Memorization of math facts, indeed any facts, was being challenged and limited. Grading of students had already been accomplished so that children were grouped according to age and not ability, as had been done in the one room schoolhouse. High school was also now mandatory in the 50’s whereas in 1900 most students had finished high school level material by the “8th level.” If you doubt that, just skim one of the original McGuffey readers designed for the last class of elementary school. It’s reading on what is now in the 21st century reserved for the advanced classes of high school.
A great book to read on this subject is: JOHN DEWEY AND THE DECLINE OF AMERICAN EDUCATION: HOW THE PATRON SAINT OF SCHOOLS HAS CORRUPTED TEACHING AND LEARNING by Henry T. Edmondson III.
He gets it completely. I presume you’re familiar with this book?: http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/