>Going back to the founders of this country, they were multi-lingual,
>where only one foreign language is the norm today.

Keep in mind that the founding fathers were among the elite of this
country. The average person in those days did not have access to the kind
of education the founding fathers took for granted. In our world today all
kinds of education, whether 'good' or 'bad', is available to every single
citizen of *most* developed countries.