But if the evidence is mixed concerning the spread of a myth of meritocracy, it does seem true nonetheless that parents across a broad social spectrum were accepting the idea that schooling endowed their children with a certain moral superiority—and even power—that distinguished them from the uneducated. This new place of learning and literacy in popular settings marks a departure from the relative nonchalance about formal education that apparently marked popular cultures throughout most of Europe in earlier periods. Furthermore, the school movement played a role in the dissemination of a culture which endowed the act of reading with moral as well as practical significance.

— Schooling in Western Europe by Mary Jo Maynes (Page 145)