William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 2

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Chapter 33: illiteracy in America.

In Europe we hear so much about the public schools of America, that people are apt to fall into three distinct mistakes about American education. In the first place, they are apt to think there is an American school system, as there is an English school system; in the second place, they are apt to assume that American boys and girls are all at school, like Swiss boys and girls; in the third place, they are apt to conclude that American boys and girls are well taught as German boys and girls are well taught.

All these conclusions are erroneous, There is no American school system, as in England. Children are nowhere forced to be at school, as in Switzerland. Education is not universal and efficient, as in Germany.

With two exceptions, the republic, as a republic, pays no attention to the training of her