The Prussian Model of Education

“Maybe the Prussian leaders read Sun Tzu after all. In 1763, by decree of Frederick the Great, all Prussian boys and girls aged 5 to 13 or 14 (presumably aside from the nobles whose children were mentored privately through classical training) were forced into tax-funded compulsory educational systems. The Prussian educational model is often described as being aimed at the economy-building needs inherent in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. But this is more a matter of the victors writing history than a complete description. Sure, the Humboldtian model of holistic study and research sounds like a platform for creative excellence, and surely it was to some who managed to maintain their agency, but the platform from which those students ascended was refined to ensure obedience and compliance to the state.”¹⁾

Video on the origins of the American Public Education System²⁾