According to an "history of the economy" book I had to study some time ago, in the industrial age, the first country who had succesfully educated the vast majority of population, was Norway.

Edit:

This is from wiki: "In 1736 training in reading was made compulsory for all children, but was not effective until some years later. In 1827, Norway introduced the folkeskole, a primary school which became mandatory for 7 years[...]"

i think german school system with education for almost every child is from the 18th century, before that there was education but only for people in cities or rich or whatever.

no clue how it was in other countries but i would say in germany, we have a decent school system since 17xx which obviously got some changes since then.

1763 started the compulsory education here.

'Fraid you guys are wrong. The US system is modeled on the Prussian education system, which introduced compulsory schooling before the US did, had final exams before the US did and required state qualifications (dip ed) for teachers before the US did.

Actually, if you look at the research.  In the US....

the knowledge gap between students... increases during the Summer.

In most places the biggest problem with the American School System isn't the Amercian School System.

It's American parents not being active in their kids lives, forcing them to join clubs, do reading lists and go to muesuems.

It's crazy how much a little attention can bring  a child.

As an extreme personal example... before I entered Kintergarden (pre first grade).   I could read,  use addition, Subtraction AND multiplication.

This was because my parents would read to me, I used to play videogames before I ever stepped foot in a school, and my parents went through math with me further then that.

The points in videogames going up nd down being important back then, so i'd see addition and points, and sometimes subtraction and even multiplaction trhough bonuses... so of course i'd ask about it and be taught it.

I could never quite grasp division until later on though.

Well I went to school in Germany from Kindergarden to 8th grade and summer vaction only lasted six weeks there.

In backing with your point C, during my recent trip to Florida, I noticed that a significant number of Floridians were able to speak both English and Spanish, and not just those of Hispanic decent. Hell, I was in a bloody Burger King, and the cashiers there could speak both languages (they were African American).

Yeah, that's pretty common in certain parts of the US.

My boss is Iraqi and he speaks Arabic, English, Spanish etc.  

It's actually kinda hard to get certain jobs out in certain states if you DON'T speak spanish... Nursing being the biggest one.

In general child development shows that if you have kids, the best thing you can do is teach them a second language at a REALLY young age, because you are more receptive to language then.  So motivation of the parent and schools to teach your kids a second language is really quite an big step to get that far.

Which in lies English speaking countries main weakness to being bilinugal.  Nevermind countries like Belgium or provinces where Quebec where it's usefull just to talk to half the people in your country. 

Every other country knows that if their kid makes it into the top 10% or so of their society, speaking English is a HUGE advantage.

While in the US, nobody really knows.

Spanish is the most popularly taught because of all the illegal aliens.

French is taught the second most I think?  I know it was usually the second option i'd seen.  It's mostly just taught due to culutural implications about France, French being a pretty garbage lanagauge utility wise.

Big pushes for Chinese and Arabic lately.... but depends on your field in which woud be more important.   

Then outside that, it's just immigrants kids learning their homelands langauge from their relatives because they speak it all the time... or people trying to learn their place of origins language, people learning Japanese...

it's really just spread out to hell.

Don't know about other countries but it seems to me that discipline is somewhat lax in American schools. We spend all this money on computers and fancy campuses but the kids don't learn as much as they should because they're always talking in class. Is this just me or did it really bother you in school when other kids talked while the teacher was talking or you were supposed to be working?

Education should be voluntary. Countries enforcing compulsory school attendance of children aged between 5 to 17 is against personal freedom and choice. Children are more likely to learn more if they want to learn instead of being forced to learn.

It was one of Thomas Jefferson's ideas that if were are going to let people vote - they need an education. It's one of the responsibilities of a free society.

It's easier to keep people down if they don't know any better.