There's a lot of chatter about programming becoming the third literacy. While there's a large movement to make coding much more popular, there's also a reactionary movement that contends that the average person is not capable of that kind of reasoning and ultimately the effort is futile.

Were reading and math education seen with similar pessimism in the 19th century in this United States? If so, was it common, and how did this attitude change?

EDIT: Someone noticed that I did not mention which country I am referring to.