ABSTRACT
In totalitarian ideology and practice, the state has a monopoly on the education of children. This is necessary if the party or leader in control of the machinery of state is to continue in power and if ideological Gleichschaltung is to be assured. Pupils in American schools originally were taught in English or in some foreign language congenial to the parents. Some states required that English be taught as one of the subjects. Some states required that some foreign language, specified in the statute, be taught. The law provided that children between eight and sixteen years of age shall attend a public school until they have completed the eighth grade; failure of a parent to send his child to a public school was a misdemeanor. Hawaii at various times attempted to regulate the study of foreign languages because of the Japanese, Chinese, and Korean elements in its population.
