Así se inventó la ESCUELA OBLIGATORIA: el secreto mejor guardado de la educación. #documental

0:31Wittenberg, 1524. An Augustinian monk writes a letter that will

0:40mark a turning point in the history of education. “Dear rulers of the German lands… I maintain that

0:51civil authorities are under obligation to compel the people to send their children to

0:56school. (…) If the government can compel such citizens as are fit for military service to

1:02bear spear and rifle, to mount ramparts, and perform other martial duties in time of war,

1:10how much more has it a right to compel the people to send their children to school, since

1:16in this case we are warring with the devil…” — Martin Luther, Letter to the Councilmen

1:21of All Cities in Germany (1524) Words signed by Martin Luther—words

1:24that spoke not of literacy or freedom,

1:28but of a real war for the ideological control of the people from their earliest childhood.

1:37Luther did not propose to educate. He proposed to FORCE schooling. To compel every parent

1:46to send their children to school under the threat of fines, punishment, or even prison.

1:54If we can force them to bear arms… we can also force them to bear an idea.

2:03This was how the first system of compulsory public schooling began to take shape.

2:09An extension of military service—designed to mold subjects who were loyal, docile, and obedient.

2:37The history of the school system is, in reality, the story of how the State managed to take away

2:42from parents and families the control over their own children’s education.

2:50The first signs of compulsory education go back to Ancient Greece. There were two very different

2:55models: on the one hand, Athens, where public schooling did exist, but access was voluntary

3:01and always depended on the decision of each family—an idea in line with Athens’ democratic

3:07spirit. But truly democratic, not like today! On the other hand, there was Sparta, which took

3:15the idea of control to the extreme. There, children were considered outright property of

3:20the State. At the age of seven, families handed them over to the system, which raised them in

3:26what were basically barracks, through a rigid and uniform program. Unlike Athens, in Sparta every

3:32child was treated exactly the same, given the same opportunities, regardless of their background.

3:41The thirst for control always lurks where freedom exists.

3:47And in Athens, it did not take long for voices to rise,

3:51praising the virtues of the Spartan model: a public, equal, compulsory,

3:58and uniform education. One of its most fervent defenders was none other than the brightest

4:05and most ambitious architect of utopias in Athens: Aristocles, better known as Plato.

4:21So captivated was he by order and control that he could not help but envy Sparta’s iron discipline.

4:33But in a society like Athens—where critical thought upheld the very foundations of its

4:38democracy—they soon understood that freedom cannot survive within a system built on coercion.

5:04In his works The Republic, and also The Laws, Plato imagines his “perfect State.” What he

5:10actually describes is basically Sparta… only a bit more refined: a system of compulsory

5:15instruction where people belong to the State, private property doesn’t exist, and personal

5:21ties are suppressed—especially the family, which he saw as a threat to political unity. He wanted

5:31to dissolve the family, to eliminate loyalties and affections that could compete with the State.

5:36Everything—absolutely everything—had to serve a single goal: shaping citizens trained in the civic

5:44values the State itself defined as desirable. And here’s the thing: for Plato, anything the

5:50State did was justified. Even lying. Yes, yes… lying as an educational method seemed entirely

5:59legitimate to him. According to Plato, to educate was to create convincing narratives

6:04that justified the State’s impositions—even if they weren’t true. He called them “noble

6:08lies” (γενναῖον ψεῦδος, gennaion pseudos). For him, the important thing was not truth,

6:12but maintaining control and order.

6:21The Spartan model—rigid, equal, and compulsory—could

6:25not withstand the passage of time. The human soul, born for freedom,

6:34cannot long endure the chains of imposed duty. It was the Athenian model—free, voluntary,

6:42and unequal—that survived, crossing centuries of empires, wars, and doctrines. And despite

6:51the many attempts to subjugate it, education remained free for more than two thousand years.

7:05It was conceived as a profoundly human act… the purest expression of freedom:

7:12to decide which learnings had shaped your life, to pass them on to your children,

7:18and to trust others to transmit those things you yourself might have wished to receive.

7:28During the Middle Ages, schools were mainly in the hands of the Church or of private teachers

7:28who offered their services in exchange for money, of course. Anyone with knowledge could

7:28teach children in a neighborhood or a village to read and write—as long as their parents wanted it,

7:28of course. No state permission or diploma was needed. Kings and

7:28governments didn’t interfere in education. Wealthier families would hire a teacher for

7:28their own children, while poorer families would organize in groups of neighbors,

7:28or a single teacher might teach all the children in a village. But there were also works of charity

7:28that offered free instruction in parishes and convents. In fact, it was very common

7:28for poor or orphaned children in the cities to receive basic education without paying,

7:28as part of Christian charity. That’s why teachers were often priests, monks, or nuns, who saw this

7:29work as part of their religious vocation. Most often, families contributed to their

7:29children’s education as much as they could. But never by imposition—always by choice.

7:29It’s true that education wasn’t compulsory, but it wasn’t guaranteed either. It was up

7:29to parents or students themselves to work, to look for alternatives, ask for favors,

7:29and take on commitments in return. Lives became intertwined through voluntary

7:29commitments and reciprocal favors. Human networks forged in trust, in the shared value of knowledge,

7:29and in the genuine desire to learn. There were no universal rights or

7:29obligations—only free agreements, sealed by a word, between those who offered their knowledge…

7:29and those willing to strive to receive it. There were as many possibilities as there

7:29were voluntary agreements to be made. During the Middle Ages, schools were mainly run

7:32by the Church, or by private teachers who offered their services for money — obviously. Anyone with

7:39knowledge could teach children in a neighborhood or a village how to read and write, as long as

7:43their parents agreed, of course. But there was no need for a royal permit, or a government license.

7:50Kings and rulers didn’t interfere in education. Wealthier families would hire a teacher for

7:56their children, while poorer families would pool resources with neighbors,

8:00or bring in a teacher for all the children in the village. There were also charitable

8:06works that offered free instruction in parishes and convents. In fact, it was very common for

8:12poor or orphaned children — especially in the cities — to receive basic education for free,

8:18as part of Christian charity. That’s why so many teachers were priests, monks, or nuns, who saw

8:24this task as part of their religious vocation. Most often, families contributed to their

8:32children’s education as best they could. But never by imposition — it was always voluntary!

8:39It’s true that education wasn’t compulsory… but it also wasn’t guaranteed. Parents and

8:45students had to find solutions, ask for help, make deals, and commit to exchange favors in return.

9:56In the poorest areas, many parents didn’t want to send their children to school. Kids were a

10:01source of labor — sometimes essential for the family’s survival. It was common for children

10:07to attend classes only on certain days, or in certain seasons, when there was no work

10:12in the fields or the workshop. Many learned the family trade from an early age, especially among

10:18artisans or merchants. That way, they inherited the tools, the shop, the clientele, and the

10:24family’s reputation — which was no small thing. And if a child showed talent for something else,

10:30or wanted to learn a different craft, there was the path of the apprentice. They lived and

10:35worked with a master craftsman in exchange for food, lodging, and training — and, of course,

10:41guaranteed hands-on practice. For many young people, it was the way out of the countryside:

10:52you could apprentice as a seamstress, a midwife, a clockmaker, a carpenter…

10:56you could even apprentice to a notary. In the end, everyone carved out a path

11:01as best they could, according to their skills, their abilities, and the opportunities they could

11:05grasp. But there were also many children who never escaped absolute poverty — orphans in rural areas,

11:13or kids from families with no land. For them, the only way out was for parents to give their

11:19children to the Church, into a monastery or convent, where they would be trained

11:24and educated… in exchange for a lifetime of service. They gave away the only thing

11:31they had — their time, their life. But it’s important to understand:

11:36for people in the Middle Ages, “lack of education” was not really the problem. That’s something we

11:42only see as a problem today. For them, the real problem — with capital letters — was

11:48the lack of food and resources. It would take centuries, until human ingenuity made

11:54food more abundant… and literacy stopped being a privilege, to become a useful tool for everyone.

12:11In the Middle Ages, family, survival, and defense were the pillars of life. Time was

12:19a precious good, and every hour had to be spent working… just to stay alive.

12:28Knowledge was not measured in titles or diplomas, but in something far simpler:

12:34useful or useless. And only each person could know what was truly useful in their own circumstances.

12:43Learning to read or write was not valuable in itself; it was so only for a few. For most,

12:53it was far more urgent to learn how to build a house, to sew, to fish, or to cultivate the land.

13:04Reading and writing were useful skills on three fronts: in religious life,

13:09as a strategic resource in war, and for practicing certain trades—notaries,

13:14officials, merchants… In all these cases, men had the advantage.

13:19In the Church, men could rise higher in the hierarchy. In the army, a soldier who

13:24could read and write was far more valuable, which increased his chances of survival. Rulers knew it:

13:31they could trust him with orders, reports, or maps… and that could decide the outcome of a war.

13:38Women, who neither went to war nor worked in the hard trades of the time—many of which depended

13:44on sheer physical strength—found more use in other kinds of learning: managing the household economy,

13:50raising children, and running an efficient home. Back then, domestic tasks were not seen

13:56as minor at all. Not to mention bearing children, which was their main work. And

14:03that’s exactly how society understood it. Keep in mind that child mortality in those days was around

14:0950% in the first five years. The survival of the family—and education too—depended on women.

14:20In medieval Europe, wherever records exist, male literacy doubled—and even tripled—that of women.

14:28A difference marked not by intelligence, but by necessity and by the usefulness of

14:35a resource that was exceedingly scarce. But among the elites, the story was very

14:43different. The gap between men and women narrowed dramatically. Wealth and economic prosperity were

14:52the keys that opened the doors of knowledge. Many noble women—such as Hildegard of Bingen,

14:59Christine de Pizan, Matilda of Canossa, Héloïse of Argenteuil, or Eleanor of Aquitaine,

15:06among many others—received an extraordinary education for their time. They became physicians,

15:13politicians, composers, writers, theologians… advisors to popes, kings, and emperors.

15:22In their world, the true limit was not sex… it was scarcity.

15:33Basic education meant teaching children to read, write, and do simple arithmetic. But

15:39as knowledge became more specialized—like Latin, logic, philosophy, or law—the cost rose sharply,

15:46because very few people could teach it, and books, ink, parchment… all of that was expensive.

15:54By the late Middle Ages, in the 15th century, the average literacy rate in Europe was around 15%

16:00for men in urban areas, and barely 5% for women. In very prosperous cities like Florence, Venice,

16:07or Bruges, the numbers were higher: nearly 30% of men and around 10% of women could read and write.

16:14But in rural areas, literacy barely reached 2%. Where there was more economic activity,

16:21there was more wealth—and it was that wealth that made education possible.

16:25And look here: in this chart you can clearly see how, starting in the 16th century,

16:30literacy rates in Europe began to rise… until they reached the 99% we have today.

16:46Sometimes, great changes do not begin with plans or strategy, but with a small gesture

16:52that no one deems significant… until it completely transforms a society.

17:02On All Hallows’ Eve of 1517, in the silence of Wittenberg, an Augustinian monk approached

17:10the church door with a parchment in one hand and a hammer in the other.

17:18Martin Luther nailed there his 95 Theses: they were not mere complaints… they were a direct

17:25challenge to the greatest authority of his time—the Catholic Church.

17:32In them he not only denounced the sale of indulgences and the corruption of

17:36high offices… he dared to defy the Pope of Rome himself, questioning his authority and

17:46denying his right to grant God’s forgiveness. Even before the Protestant Reformation broke out,

17:55Europe was already steeped in a strong climate of criticism toward the Church. Corruption was

18:00obvious: ecclesiastical offices were bought and sold, and everybody knew it. On top of that,

18:06the clergy lived in great ostentation while demanding tithes and charity from believers.

18:12But the trigger that would finally provoke the rupture was the sale of indulgences:

18:16granting forgiveness of sins… in exchange for money. At that point, indulgences had turned into

18:22a multimillion-dollar business for the Church. According to historians like Köhler or Cameron,

18:29at the start of the 16th century indulgences made up around 10% of the Church’s total income. In

18:36some campaigns they even surpassed the annual revenues of the tithe.

18:40But the most scandalous case took place in the two years before Luther published

18:46his 95 Theses. Between 1515 and 1517, Pope Leo X authorized a massive indulgence campaign in the

18:54Holy Roman Empire to finance the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica… and, incidentally, to

19:00settle some of his personal debts. That campaign ended up representing between 40 and 50% of the

19:08Church’s income during those two years, collecting tens of thousands of florins across the Empire.

19:14And as in every big business, there were bankers behind it. Families like the Fuggers, the Welsers,

19:21and the Medicis managed the flow of money—and of course, took their share. Because indulgences

19:26had very little left of a spiritual act; they were, in fact, a first-rate financial operation.

19:35In a world where money could not be conjured out of nothing, selling God’s forgiveness was an

19:41immensely lucrative business—for those who held the monopoly on truth and the keys to heaven.

19:48But at the University of Wittenberg, a young professor and Augustinian monk, concerned for

19:54the salvation of his soul, chose not to take part in the business—and to protest instead.

20:05After earning a doctorate in theology and years of studying the Holy Scriptures,

20:10he reached a conviction that clashed head-on with Rome: salvation and God’s forgiveness could not be

20:17bought with gold or with a handful of florins… they could only be attained through faith.

20:24Martin Luther dared to do the unthinkable: to think for himself, to question dogmas, and to

20:32defy the most powerful authority of his age. By nailing his 95 Theses to the door of the

20:40Wittenberg church, he opened a debate that would set Europe ablaze… and he did so by

20:47using precisely what, years later, he himself would try to prevent others from using again:

20:57the ability to question the established order. No one understood better than

21:04he the reach and the immense power of free thought—nor the magnitude of the earthquake

21:11that disobedience could unleash in the foundations of any structure of power.

21:17In 1524, he wrote a letter to the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire to persuade them

21:23to impose public schools with compulsory attendance. There, every child would learn

21:30to read and write… but above all, they would be indoctrinated to fight the “ideas of the

21:36devil,” to think as good Christians, and to serve as loyal subjects of the Empire.

21:48Thus began a new chapter in the history of humanity: education as a tool of state

21:55control—a story of imposition, uniformity, and the repression of that which the powerful fear

22:05above all else: independent thought. Despite what people might think,

22:16the roots of all modern state school systems are not in Sparta or in classical Greece.

22:22The current model was born in the 16th century, with Luther and, especially, with his right hand,

22:29Philip Melanchthon. They were the ones who designed the first modern state education plan.

22:35And we have no evidence whatsoever to suggest that either of them might have

22:38taken the Spartan model as a reference or inspiration—though the similarities are striking.

22:44The historical continuity of the Prussian model of education, from Luther’s time until today,

22:50is perfectly documented. In both Europe and America, the traceability of the model

22:55can be followed without interruption or gaps—and we can also track it into Asia.

23:01Japan imported the model in the late 19th century during the Meiji Restoration, fascinated by the

23:08discipline, obedience, and military efficiency it produced. Soon after, following the fall of

23:14the Qing dynasty, China imported it as well. And many other Asian countries adopted it

23:20through European colonization—by the British, French, or Dutch—or simply by copying Japan.

23:27In every case we find the same system, with slight adjustments but no substantial changes. Even the

23:35so-called “modern methodologies” or “active pedagogies” sold to us today as educational

23:42innovation are nothing new… they’ve been on the table for over two centuries.

23:47In fact, their origin goes back to the 18th century, when Rousseau and Pestalozzi fiercely

23:53criticized the state model and defended an education focused on the integral development of

23:59the individual—placing the child at the center of learning, fostering active participation,

24:05and encouraging autonomy. And I’m not putting this in modern words… those were their very words.

24:22From the days of Athens to the dawn of the sixteenth century, education was a

24:27responsibility shared by families, communities, and teachers. A pact of trust… not of coercion.

24:39Luther realized something very important: that if he had the coercive power of the

24:39State on his side, he could confront—and even defeat—the Pope of Rome himself. Keep in mind,

24:39we’re talking about the early 16th century, when the Church held the monopoly on good and evil.

24:39And of course, this was deeply troubling for rulers, who wanted to govern in their own way.

24:39But if Rome withheld its blessing, they had a huge problem—because the Pope could declare them

24:39traitors, tyrants, or, even worse, heretics. And that was practically a death sentence.

24:39The Church acted as a counterweight, as a brake on the power of rulers. And

24:39Luther saw the chance to tip that balance. Luther offered princes and kings something

24:42irresistible: the fall of the Pope of Rome… and with it, absolute control

24:50over the legitimacy of their actions. The power to control truth, good, and evil.

24:58Absolutism was beginning to take shape. He promised to forge loyal, obedient,

25:04and disciplined subjects—men and women who would not only pay more taxes… but do so willingly,

25:14convinced it was their duty as good citizens. He offered rulers the most efficient armies ever

25:21seen, able to communicate in writing—a formidable tactical advantage at that

25:28time—and a meticulously ordered society, where everyone shared a single story:

25:37a convincing narrative proclaiming the State as the only source of legitimacy.

25:44Luther saw in compulsory schooling the tool of social and ideological control he needed

25:50to domesticate thought, to standardize belief, and to command the human will.

26:06The princes accepted the deal. They gave Luther resources, inspectors, soldiers… and, of course,

26:13a share of the new taxes they would collect thanks to the “brand-new” schools. Because

26:18with the Church out of the way, if the State was now offering Public Education, taxes had

26:24to go up. Whether people were forced into it or had never asked for it—that was beside the point…

26:30At first, they sold it as just a simple change of hands: what was no longer paid

26:35to Rome would now be paid to the State—plus “a little extra” to cover education.

26:40But in practice, taxes went up dramatically. We don’t have exact figures, since there weren’t

26:45yet officials recording everything, but there’s more than enough historical evidence to say that

26:51setting up this whole system brought an enormous extra cost to the State—and that meant constant

26:58tax hikes and more than one peasant revolt. And while Luther would rather have burned at

27:04the stake the parents who refused to send their children to school, the princes—being

27:09more “practical”—chose to keep them alive and fine them with ever-higher penalties. They were

27:15only killed if they failed to pay their taxes. Basically, people were told they were being freed

27:20from the chains of Rome so they could save their souls and reach heaven. They were forced to send

27:26their children to school to save them from the devil. And their taxes were raised. They were

27:31freed from Rome and bound to the State—but that last part was not in the official narrative.

27:37And then, year after year, taxes kept going up, to pay for more inspectors and more administrators,

27:44who could issue more fines and coordinate the whole system. And everyone was happy,

27:47because that was what it meant to be a “good” citizen—and nobody wants to be a “bad” one.

27:54In 1524, the very year Luther wrote his letter, the first Lutheran public schools were founded

28:02in Gotha. In the autumn of 1528, Luther and his disciple Philip Melanchthon published the

28:13Saxon School Plan: the first fully systematic program of education, planned and designed to

28:20educate the entire population equally. From then on, it would be the State that

28:29determined what must be learned, who could teach it, how, when, where, for what purpose,

28:38and with what arguments it should be justified. The gears of the first state education system were

28:46already in motion. All that remained was to impose it by force on the whole population.

28:55And they did not have to wait long. In 1529, at the castle of Stuttgart, the Duke of Württemberg

29:04enacted the first education law requiring all boys to attend school. From then on, schools began to

29:14keep attendance records, educational inspectors were appointed to oversee the enforcement of

29:21content, and parents who failed to comply with their duty were fined or even imprisoned.

29:34School became a civic duty, a political obligation that came before military service. In the years

29:45that followed, public schools were created in every town and village of the Holy Roman Empire.

29:52The public and compulsory school system designed by Luther and Melanchthon began

29:58to spread and take root throughout the empire… like a web woven from power.

30:14Melanchthon was the first to talk about curriculum design and to build an entire pedagogy that was

30:22completely systematized—very, very similar to what we have today in any school system,

30:27even the Finnish one that gets so much praise. In reality, they’re all extremely similar,

30:32because they’re systems for “educating”… which, I think, should already sound

30:37pretty disturbing, to be honest! But anyway… What Melanchthon did to design his education

30:42system was to structure all the content into subject-based curricula, exactly as we do now.

30:50Each subject was organized and sequenced into different courses based on the students’ age,

30:55and on the learning objectives that had been previously defined for each age.

31:03Melanchthon was the first to imagine something that until then would have seemed unthinkable:

31:11a fully systematic program of education, carefully planned and designed to educate

31:17the entire population equally. Everyone, without exception. An education system

31:25capable of uniting all under the same values and, of course, the same faith: the Lutheran one.

31:34Both Melanchthon and Luther didn’t see people—they saw a collective, a mass. They weren’t thinking

31:40about the well-being of children as individuals; they saw them as cogs in a system, as if they

31:46were screws. So he thought that if he applied the same education plan to all children, even though

31:53they were different, he would manage to implant a single system of moral and civic values that,

31:58for the first time, would be under control. Under the control of the State, to be precise.

32:09CONTROL was the real problem. A problem Luther understood to perfection. He himself had managed

32:19to dethrone the Supreme Pontiff, fracture Europe, and forever alter the rules of the

32:24political game… armed only with critical thought and the audacity to question established power.

32:33That is why what had given him victory… was also what he feared the most.

32:40How could one dominate a system of social values that, by nature,

32:44is diverse, unpredictable, and decentralized? The only way was to chain it: to turn it into

32:53a single, uniform model, subjected to an official morality that guaranteed blind

32:59obedience to the laws dictated by power. Thus, all dissent—political, religious,

33:06or personal—could be stifled before it was even born.

33:12The State and the Lutheran Church were then welded together into a

33:16single structure of power… two faces of the same coin, inseparable and indivisible.

33:25“The lasting value of Luther’s appeal of 1524 was not so much its direct effect,

33:31as the sacred associations which it established in Germany between national religion and the

33:36educational duty of the individual and the state. Thus, without doubt,

33:41there was created that sound public opinion which made the principle of compulsory school

33:45attendance easy of acceptance in Prussia.” — A.E. Twentyman, “Education; Germany”,

33:50Encyclopaedia Britannica, 14th ed., vol. 7, pp. 999–1000.

33:52That was the very goal pursued by the world’s first systems of state schooling:

33:57the school as a lever of social control, a tool of the State to shape consciences and guarantee the

34:04religious and political unity of the nation. The underlying message was simple: be quiet,

34:11obey… and send your children to school so they can learn to be quiet and obey even better.

34:17Anyone who has kids knows this: children are the strictest guardians of the rules they’ve

34:22been taught. If you tell them “you don’t cross on red,” and one day you do it in front of them,

34:27you don’t need the police to stop you—the child will scold you. For him, that rule is absolute,

34:33because that’s how you passed it on: without nuance, without context.

34:38Adults, on the other hand, know that some rules depend on circumstances: if the street is empty,

34:43crossing on red might not be dangerous. But the child’s prefrontal cortex—the part of the

34:49brain responsible for analyzing, evaluating, and making decisions—is not yet fully developed. So

34:56they interpret the world in a rigid, literal way. Learning up to the age of eight is based mainly

35:02on the internalization of rules, learned through imitation, repetition, and emotional association.

35:08The child learns: “red = don’t cross.” To educate would be to teach them why the

35:14traffic light exists, and to help them assess when the rule is useful and when it isn’t. To

35:20indoctrinate is simply to say: “don’t cross because it’s red,” and leave it at that.

35:25And that’s what happens: when you teach only to obey rules, and not to understand them,

35:31dogmas are built generation after generation—dogmas that, over time,

35:36become unquestionable. Each generation ends up a little more submissive than the

35:40last. There comes a point when obedience turns into an automatic act, and questioning becomes

35:45uncomfortable—because we’ve been taught to avoid debate, instead of seeing it as

35:49the most natural way to learn. In fact, that’s what it means to think critically:

35:55to put your own ideas to the test, to see if they really hold up against external criticism.

36:06Melanchthon’s idea was masterful: he designed a system in which citizens had to be convinced

36:13that education is the highest priority… and that, above all, they must trust the system,

36:22trust the institutions of the State, and follow the rules.

36:30“Only obedience to the laws ordained by the state will

36:34protect you from chaos and savagery.” — Martin Luther, Temporal Authority:

36:40To What Extent It Should Be Obeyed (1523), trans. W. I. Brandt, Fortress Press, 1962.

36:40Once the system was set in motion, it no longer needed to be enforced by force:

36:47the machinery would move on its own. The school would produce docile citizens and

36:54faithful Lutheran subjects, convinced that they were freely choosing what was right.

37:00Thus, the system perpetuated itself, generation after generation… with citizens

37:07ever more obedient, more compliant, and—paradoxically—far more educated.

37:18“Luther stamped upon his party that character of political dependence

37:23and that habit of passive obedience to the State which it has ever since retained.”

37:31— John, Lord Acton, The Protestant Theory of Persecution, in Essays on Freedom and Power

37:31(Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, 1948), p. 94. The consequences of Luther’s system were

37:33enormous. It took off like a rocket. In rural areas of the Holy Roman Empire,

37:38where barely 2% of the population could read and write at the start of the 16th century,

37:44literacy rose to nearly 35% by the mid-17th. And in the cities, which started around 25%,

37:51it wasn’t unusual to see rates above 60% by the early 18th century. And they

37:57kept climbing to levels never seen before. And that had an immediate effect on the army.

38:03Suddenly, soldiers could read orders, interpret maps, and coordinate far more efficiently. They

38:08no longer depended so much on a captain shouting what they had to do—they could receive detailed

38:13instructions in writing, even from a distance. The result was that the armies of the Holy Roman

38:19Empire, and later of Prussia, became far more precise and lethal machines. An educated soldier

38:26doesn’t just shoot better—he obeys better. And for those in power… that was pure gold.

38:42The establishment of the school system also worked its magic on the economy:

38:47revenues grew enormously, wealth multiplied, and the productivity of each worker reached

38:54new heights. But none of this escaped the watchful eye of the State… which,

39:00like a jealous guardian, kept every fruit of that progress under its control.

39:08Keep in mind that, almost overnight, peasants could read and write. They had access to

39:13technical manuals, could measure land, calculate proportions… Apprentices in workshops could now

39:19follow written instructions and replicate designs directly from a sheet of paper.

39:24This new ability to communicate in writing, and to do so asynchronously,

39:28not only improved agriculture and multiplied the productivity of craft workshops, it also

39:33laid the foundation for a transition toward far more complex industries.

39:37In the Holy Roman Empire, large textile industries began to flourish, iron

39:41foundries started producing standardized parts, printing presses expanded, and shipyards

39:46multiplied. Over time, this entire productive fabric gave rise to machinery industries,

39:51to engineering — and, in later centuries, to the manufacture of vehicles and advanced weaponry.

40:00As the spoken word was replaced by the written word, the power of the State grew. Now everything

40:08was recorded and signed. Taxes were collected with precision, fraud and evasion reached historic

40:16lows. And it became ever harder to escape the gaze—and the collecting hand—of the State.

40:28Tax revenues kept climbing nonstop through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries… and

40:33the nineteenth and twentieth were worse. Meanwhile, the State kept growing. As it

40:39expanded and took on more roles, it had to hire more officials.

40:43Soon there was an army of bureaucrats who, of course, needed

40:46their diplomas certified by the State itself. And to keep them all on the payroll… more taxes.

40:53And that’s how this loop began — the one we’re still in today.

41:02In 1763, Frederick the Great extended compulsory primary education to girls as well. He conceived

41:10education and the army as the two great pillars upon which Prussian identity had to be built.

41:20Prussia achieved something unprecedented: a national, centralized, and perfectly articulated

41:28system, where school, bureaucracy, and army were interwoven like the gears of a single machine

41:35of discipline. A model carefully designed and coordinated to maintain control over the moral

41:45values that govern society, to align wills, to standardize thought, and to turn each citizen

41:54into a functional piece of the state apparatus. Education thus became the factory of citizens

42:05in the service of the State. “An instructed and literate

42:11people can be governed with greater ease.” — Frederick II of Prussia (Frederick the Great),

42:21Political Testament (c. 1752–1768) But this domination had to be presented

42:23as an act of benevolence. The State did not only demand obedience… it needed you to believe that

42:31you obeyed for your own good, that you should even end up thanking them for it. After all,

42:40they were the wise ones—the ones who had taught you how to think, the ones who had shaped every

42:47idea that inhabits your mind. If everything you knew had been taught to you by them,

42:52if everything you are today you owed to them… how could you ever think they might be wrong?

43:00How could you even doubt that they had the right—and the duty—to decide for you?

43:06The perfect trick: to convince you that your

43:11freedom was safer in their hands than in your own.

43:17"The prince is to the nation he governs what the head is to man; his duty is to see,

43:24think, and act for the whole community." — Frederick the Great, Political Testament (1752)

43:33After Prussia’s defeat at the hands of Napoleon in 1806, Frederick William III

43:38interpreted the disaster as a warning. If the State wished to be strong again,

43:45it had to start at the root: education. That same year, his minister vom Stein

43:54pushed through a radical reform. He abolished all remaining private schools

44:01and placed all education under the direct control of the Ministry of the Interior.

44:09In 1810 it was decreed that all teachers had to pass an official State exam,

44:18and in 1812 a compulsory graduation test was established for children to leave the school

44:24system—if they failed, they could not exit the system. The body of school inspectors was also

44:36expanded, charged with ensuring that everything conformed exactly to what the State dictated.

44:45In 1814, after Napoleon was defeated, Prussia introduced, for the very first time, compulsory

44:52service for all young men. But since they could not go beyond the official cap of forty-two

44:57thousand soldiers set by the Congress of Vienna, they created a system known as the Krümpersystem.

45:05Every year they trained forty-two thousand recruits, kept them in service for twelve months

45:09— just enough to prepare them fully — then sent them home as reservists, bringing in a new batch.

45:16In just a few years they had hundreds of thousands of men well trained and ready for mobilization

45:22at any moment. The Prussian model of schooling acted as the antechamber of the army. From the

45:30classroom they instilled discipline, obedience, loyalty to the nation, history, mathematics,

45:36and practical skills useful for artillery, logistics, or engineering. The schoolroom was,

45:43in truth, the first barracks. By 1834, no one in Prussia

45:53could access a skilled job without the corresponding diploma issued by the State.

46:03It was even forbidden for a company or a family to hire a professional without State approval. From

46:11that moment on, they would not only control the future soldier, but also the future judge, notary,

46:18teacher, doctor, lawyer, civil servant… The future of every citizen lay in their hands. And

46:28submission to the State was no longer a virtue—it became the only condition for social existence.

46:41People’s lives got much better, at least when it came to money—no question about that.

46:46But the cost was high: every day they were under tighter control, with less

46:51room to decide and less freedom to live. The ones who reaped the real rewards were

46:55the rulers—more wealth, more power, more than ever before.

47:01The results looked so impressive that others rushed to copy them.

47:05The first was Calvin, who in 1536—just ten years after Luther launched his

47:11Saxon Education Plan—built in Geneva a system almost the same, only tougher and stricter.

47:23Calvin’s influence spread even further than Luther’s, weaving a network that reached

47:29every corner of Europe. Geneva became the beating heart of Calvinism, a beacon that drew students,

47:39scholars, and the curious from across the continent. With every traveler who

47:45returned home, his educational model spread. In Scotland, John Knox founded the Presbyterian

48:05Church and sought to build a network of schools in every village; in France, the Huguenots demanded

48:15universal education; and in Navarre, Queen Jeanne d’Albret imposed it by decree. Calvinist

48:26Holland followed the same path in 1609. But Calvin’s mark did not stop in Europe.

48:39It crossed the ocean with the Puritans to New England, where the first public and

48:44compulsory education system of America took root… a model that, from there,

48:50would expand until it embraced the entire world. Today, the State claims full control of education,

49:02even calling it a “lever of social change,” with all the risks that such power brings. A lever,

49:10after all, exists to multiply the force behind it. The danger is clear:

49:18if only the State holds that lever, then it holds the moral ground itself, and we must remember, the

49:27will of the State is nothing more than the will of those few who seize and steer its machinery.

49:35We have let the debate on education shrink into arguing which system to impose on everyone,

49:42instead of realizing that such an imposition is not only needless, but deeply dangerous.

49:49This is no small matter, for once we surrender the right to teach our own children,

49:57what remains to be done when the State, quite simply, fails to teach?