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You'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 happene

You'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 ago
Rote 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.