Why did early America have Bible reading and prayer in the clroom?

And they still do this in some private Christian schools, although not exclusively... What is your point? Most everyone believed in God and the Bible back then... Besides most were Protestant.. If I remember/understand correctly, back in that day the Catholics supressed people from learning to read to read the Bible for the themselves... so naturally the Protestants would want people to learn how to read... it was the most common book at that time, I am sure...