How did the right to education take root in the public consciousness of working Americans as something that they deserved and should force their representatives to grant it?
Actually, this change in consciousness was both due to insightful and persuasive leadership organizing among the workers and a convergence of circumstance. In the late 1840’s many rural Americans were flocking to the new industries in the cities. The industries in the cities came to realize that they would benefit much more from workers who they could train more easily and who could organize their affairs more efficiently in the city environment. And this meant, at least, basic reading and arithmetic abilities for the common worker. At the same time Horace Mann (notably him, but obviously many insightful leaders in various states like W.Penn and H. Barnard) were arguing that a democracy needed educated citizens, who were capable of learning about issues and electing their own representatives effectively. Mann was one of the first to argue for mandatory education for all children, which was the only way that working children from working families could be shepherded into classrooms.
