NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education

NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education by Samuel L. Blumenfeld, The Paradigm Company, 1984. 

Government Schools

This book describes the rise of government schools in the United States. When the country was founded, there were no government schools. Schools were private and run by the church. The first government-run primary schools were created in 1818, in Boston, by the Unitarians. They were inspired by Robert Owen, a Scottish socialist. 

National Educational Association

The National Educational Association was founded in 1857. The NEA promoted government schools over private schools, since taxpayer supported schools removed the dependency of teachers’ salaries on the parents of the students. 

Unfair Competition

Parents who sent their children to private schools had to pay twice, once in property taxes to support public schools, and then again in tuition for their children at private schools. Parents who sent their children to public (government) schools only had to pay once (i.e., property taxes). Private schools had trouble competing with free public schools, so control of education passed from the church to the government.  

Horace Mann

Horace Mann was the first Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. Horace Mann advocated the Prussian system of government schools. 

Learning to Read

Traditionally, children learned to read using phonics, but the educational establishment was persuaded to switch to the Look-Say (Whole-Word) method due to the advocacy of several individuals, including: Francis W. Parker, Edmund Burke Huey, William Scott Gray and Arthur I. Gates.

Kurt Lewin

Kurt Lewin was a German psychologist who studied how to use group pressure to manipulate individuals to accept changes in their beliefs.