...early New Englanders did not educate their children because of philanthropy, unless you consider a church mandate with the force of government, including all its punishing aspects, to be philanthropy.

During the course of doing an analytic critique of The New England Primer, I came across the "Old Deluder Satan" law of Massachusetts Bay Colony, which mandated the establishment of common schools in any community with a population larger than fifty, and the employment of a professional teacher for any community larger than (I think) 150, to save the children's souls from "Old Deluder Satan", who preys on the ignorant and the idle. The punishments for non-adherence were strict and enforced. The colonial government, and later the state, considered it a failure of the family worthy of punishment by law to neglect the education of children. With an intent such as they had, rest assured that ABCs and arithmetic were not their chief object: religious indoctrination was.

I could post the paper later, but I thought I'd have mercy on you all. ;)

Regards--
Mary Anne