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actually, I think the Greek and Latin text memorization WAS there to weed out the riff raff. If you are going to hire someone young and energetic to do a job th
by memracom 10y ago
actually, I think the Greek and Latin text memorization WAS there to weed out the riff raff. If you are going to hire someone young and energetic to do a job that is not exactly taught in school, would you rather have someone who can work hard, even struggle to learn, but ultimately succeed? Or someone whose character is unknown even if they can say all the right things in an interview?
And since this is about historical reality, we know that the British public school system of rote memorization of Greek and Latin texts, along with translation into and out of Greek, did produce capable people who built up an empire and maintained it for many generations.
- riskable 10y agoYou're making a pretty silly claim. We could just as easily claim that the British empire grew to what it was because British schools had uniforms or it happened because the British eat more biscuits or Marmite. Rote memorization of Greek and Latin texts probably had very little to do with the expansion and maintenance of the British empire. TL;DR: Seriously?
- dagw 10y agoRote memorization of Greek and Latin texts probably had very little to do with the expansion and maintenance of the British empire. No, but the sorts of schools that required rote memorization of Greek and Latin texts tended to be 'good' schools that also taught other things that where considered useful (including things like how to behave in a 'proper' British manner) . Testing for Latin knowledge was a proxy for testing for a good general education from a good school.