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Why does such a change in our values worry you? I don't follow what 'conservative' means here. Unless there's something tangibly better about learning this stuf
by ajkjk 12y ago
Why does such a change in our values worry you? I don't follow what 'conservative' means here. Unless there's something tangibly better about learning this stuff than what we're learning today, I don't see why it should be in our curriculum.
It's not like we don't teach people about ancient history, right? If anything it seems more healthy that we do not wastefully teach relatively useless languages to all our students. It feels to me like Latin was emphasized in the 1800s by historical accident, and that it is progress that it has faded out of the curriculum.
More generally you use phrases like "as for centuries before" as if that's a positive quality, which doesn't seem like a substantial argument to me.
- JasonFruit 12y agoConservative, in this case, means what it means in every case where it has a meaning: preferring not to change without a good reason. A practice having survived for centuries is not necessarily a good thing, but it at least indicates that many generations of people found it valuable, and suggests to the conservative that it might be better preserved than abandoned. I think an understanding of this difference in our outlook would probably answer the rest of your questions.