> And one more thing, since when did it become the responsibility of the
> state to produce good citizens.
It always has been. If you look at the writings from the early republic
you will find that it was presumed that the state had a duty to produce
good citizes -- people endowed with "republican virtues." This was one of
the primary reasons that the Northwest Ordinance (1785) provided land to
the proposed new states to foster public education.
Indeed, if you do much reading in the political discourse of this period,
you will soon discover that the individualistic, laissez faire picture
that is often presented is ideology rather than history -- but then,
perhaps, that is one reason not to expect students to learn history: they
might be able to distinguish ideology from fact?
Dale Goble