“Do I have to go to school?”

So many children have put this question to their parents or guardians. To we 21st century Americans, the question seems amusing. “Of course you must go.”

But compulsory schooling in the United States is a somewhat recent practice. From the days of the European settlement of North America through the early 20th century, all kids were not expected to attend school. Some localities and states enacted compulsor schooling laws, and hired truancy officers to nab urchins from the streets and haul them to class.

The question of whether government could rightly do that was fiercely debated. Ultimately, is the child the property of the parent? And how can a people be free if their children are forced into institutions to be “educated” in their duties as citizens? And doesn;t it trample upon religious freedom to require parents to submit thier children to schooling that conflcts with tenets of their faiths?

Ultimately, these local issues became a federal one via the federal courts.

For an introduction to this subject, see Stephen Provasnik‘s article, “Judicial Activism and the Origins of Parental Choice: The Court’s Role in the Institutionalization of Compulsory Education in the United States, 1891-1925,” History of Education Quarterly, fall 2006, https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ768604.