From Prussia with Love: A History of the Factory Model of U.S. Education Public education in the United States is modeled after the 18th-century Prussian factory-style education system that hinders creativity and the highest level of academic success. To understand the roots of modern mass education, one must start in Prussia. In 1806, the nation-state suffered a major military blow and Napoleon's army conquered much of its territory. The Prussian government decided that the way to overcome the loss and create a stronger, unified state was through education, and whether or not this idea followed, Napoleon's army was eradicated in the War of Liberation of 1813-1815 ( Cubberly 456). . The beginnings of the Prussian tradition of systematic education, however, go back much further. Prussian King Frederick William I, father of Frederick the Great, created the first system of compulsory public education in 1717 with the enactment of a law on compulsory attendance from ages five to twelve (Alexander 9). In 1763, Frederick the Great issued the first school regulatory code, called the General Regulations for Elementary Schools and Teachers in Prussia. The code established major rules for how schools across the nation-state were to be operated, many of which resembled the rules of today's American school codes. Some of the points addressed in the regulations included compulsory attendance, graduation requirements, school timetable, census and school records, teacher requirements and licensing, uniform textbooks, and annual inspection (Cubberly 458-466). The highly standardized Prussian schools were meant to standardize the population to conform to the government. In his doctoral thesis, Thomas Alexander describes the Prussian method as a... working center... of educational practice, theory and organization. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1920. Print.Kenny, Charles. “The Real Reason Why American Schools Stink.” Bloomberg Business Week. Bloomberg, August 19, 2012. Web. April 17, 2014. McPherson, Guy R. Letters to a Young Academic. Np: Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2006. Print. “National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) – 120 Years of Literacy.” National Center for Education Statistics. Ed. Tom Snyder. U.S. Department of Education, n.d. Web. April 17, 2014. The Ulysses Group. "Chapter 7- The Prussian Connection." The Land of Frankenstein - John Taylor Gatto. The Odysseus Group, 2003. Web. April 19, 2014. PBS. "School Pioneers: Horace Mann." PBS. PBS and Web. April 19, 2014. Rose, Joel. “How to Break Free from Our 19th Century Factory Model Education System.” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, May 9, 2012. Web. April 19. 2014.