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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!!
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To: Edwarda who wrote (41338)6/21/1999 2:08:00 PM
From: The Philosopher  Read Replies (2) of 108807
 
the more widely the
populace is educated, the larger the number of civilized persons in a society.

Hmmm. Does this include inner city public education in the 1990s? There are a LOT of people today getting a lot more education than most people did in the 19th century, but I wouldn't call them more civilized. When there was less formal education, many people got what education they did at church with the Bible being read to them several times a week. That was pretty civilized language, and promoted some pretty civilized behavior. Then they went back home and learned their letters from the Bible and, later, McGuffy (?) readers. I got a set of those readers a while back (20 years ago?) and was astonished at the level of reading that beginning readers were expected to master -- by the time they were 8 or 9 they were reading stuff that a lot of high schoolers today can't or won't read.

And college -- sure, a lot more kids go to college these days. But do they contribute to a more civilized society than prevailed when the elite went to Oxford and Cambridge and learned Latin and Greek and French as a matter of routine, and also learned that they had a responsibility to society?

For entertainment, the masses got to stand in the pit at a Shakespearian play rather than sit at home on a couch watching Laverne and Shirley. Who is more civilized?

The original argument was to argue against supporting private education by equating the level of free public education with the level of civilization.

I have my SERIOUS doubts.
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