"That erroneous assumption is to the effect that
the aim of public education is to fill the young of the species with knowledge
and awaken their intelligence, and so make them fit to discharge the duties
of citizenship in an enlightened and independent manner. Nothing could
be further from the truth.
"The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment
at all, it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same
safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent
and originality. That is its aim in the United States, whatever the pretensions
of politicians, pedagogues and other such mountebanks, and that is its
aim everywhere else."