“Without minimizing their strong biblical base, Sunday schools in America expanded their educational emphasis to fill the educational vacuum before the establishment of public education. By 1859, the Sunday school movement had provided three-fifths of the libraries in America.”
Michael J. Anthony, Warren S. Benson, Daryl Eldridge and Julie Gorman, Evangelical Dictionary of Christian Education, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2001), 673.