The History of American Schooling

In the book I trace the history of American education and compulsory schooling dating back to the 17th century. Massachusetts my home state leading the way again in compulsion with passing the country's first compulsory schooling statute 1852 now requiring all parents to send their children to an assigned district school under a legal threat of force. A lot of these Catholic families rebelled and they started creating their own parallel system of parochial schools throughout the latter part of the 19th century so we're not sending our kids to these purportedly secular but obviously Protestant common schools. That all came to a peak in the 1920s when Oregon tried to ban attendance at any private schools they wanted children to only attend public schools.