ABSTRACT
After the Second World War, the majority of Americans were optimistic and had great faith in education and their own know-how. In contrast to their Western and Soviet allies and their wartime opponents they had been neither invaded nor bombed. The optimism and the faith in popular education which goes back to 1642, when the 'Old Deluder tan Act' laid down the principle of compulsory education in Massachusetts, explain the role US leaders played in the creation of UNESCO and the United Nations. Thus, in the construction of primary and junior high school curricula several influential theories compete. Some 'progressive' educationists support a child-centred process model. Against the somewhat dismal picture of a mass system of high school education recorded the enormous achievements of the American system which has over the last 100 years responded to the demand for education from a rapidly growing, highly mobile and culturally diverse population.
