I just can't help but look at this from a societal view. Study after study show that as a country's literacy rate increases, so does its economic health and democratic values. Democracy itself demands an educated population because people have to know what they are doing when they pull the lever.
The reason we have free primary education has nothing at all to do with the morality of whether Jane or Bill can read. People just realized that if you teach children to read and compute maths, society as a whole benefits. During the industrial revolution this sufficed. Employees had to be able to read an instruction sheet and count out the widgets or what have you. It helped that when at home a person could read a newspaper and balance the household budget. It helped that people now could begin to understand things like history and art because these things help keep society peaceful.
This has all changed. They work too cheap in China plain and simple. Widget punching is gone – at least the old way of punching widgets. Now it is true that every member of society isn't a widget maker, but the fact remains that in the last 40 years jobs, good jobs, which only require a basic understanding of English and maths have moved to the east.
A mitigating factor in this occurrence is that a higher proportion of youth have gone on to complete university degrees. Women in particular have seen the value of higher education and have across the boards fared much better than males.
We need a sharp workforce now more than ever. We need to bolster critical thinking and analysis, the kinds of things you learn in university. As a whole we need to raise education levels, knowing that while some kids may choose not to go to university, and do just fine, that society will prosper if we keep getting a higher proportion of people educated to a higher level. It pays off, and will ward off the kinds of tough consequences we face if the economy of the world keeps changing as is predicted.
But moreso I hold the opinion that one can never stop learning, and I believe that liberal studies are the most important subjects to a nation's well being. They teach a kid to ask 'why?' instead of just 'how?' and they help one understand the truths of history and of how we came to be where we are and where we are going. Above all they instill an understanding of, and the value of beauty and the great things of which mankind is capable.
There is no way back to some half-remembered golden age, because that age never existed. Ignorance is a dark and fetid fog of intolerance and poverty and violence. Our past is that of war and discrimination and a divided society of servant and master. We can go that route, or we can choose the higher path, that of clean energy and healthy cities, of bright kids learning how to fix the stuff hanging around from that past.
Right now the western world should be in a contest, a contest to see just how smart we can be, pushing every limit of excellence to the limit.
