Were the Frontier Folk Poorly Educated? - Literacy Far Better in 1800s

America became the strongest nation on earth, economically and politically, on the backs of one-room-school houses and homeschools. Then, the experts showed up. They centralized controls, incorporated compulsory attendance, and then ruined it. Fourteen year old girls would speak at a 16-grade level and put the present president of the United States to shame for their literary abilities. Big government-funded education and the elimination of the fear of God from public schools pretty much ruined education in the US.