Moreover, whatever interests were ultimately served by the reform of the schools (and I will return to this problem), it is clear that the driving energy behind the reform did not always originate in the same kinds of social groups. It is safe to say that the reform impulse did not come from "the people"—that much is clear. But precisely which sectors of the ruling classes—entrepreneurial, landowning, professional or bureaucratic—were the most active proponents and sponsors of school reform seems to have varied a great deal.

Likewise, both landowners and industrial entrepreneurs were counted among the original supporters of obscurantism—sobered by the social and political upheaval of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, although eventually converted by the advocates of popular schooling.

— Schooling in Western Europe by Mary Jo Maynes (Page 60)