Part II:
Education of Citizens
Document 4
| From a fictitious work called Utopia, published in 1516: "Priests are also responsible for the education of children and adolescents, in which quite as much stress is laid on moral as on academic training. They do their utmost to ensure that, while children are still at an impressionable age, they're given the right ideas about things-the sort of ideas best calculated to preserve the structure of their society. If thoroughly absorbed in childhood, these ideas will persist throughout adult life, and so contribute greatly to the safety of the state, which is never seriously threatened except by moral defects arising from wrong ideas" (More 123-4). |
Document 5
| The educated man should not confine his study to logic, but have a theoretical acquaintance with all the topics of philosophy . . . It is also desirable that he should not be ignorant of natural philosophy . . . nor, while he is acquainted with the divine order of nature, would I have him ignorant of human affairs. He should understand the civil law . . . he should also be acquainted with the history of events of past ages . . . to be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of the past? (Cicero, "Treatise on Oratory" qtd in Hale 294) |
Questions to discuss:
- To what extent does the success of a country depend upon its people?
- Is it possible for "moral defects arising from wrong ideas" to threaten a country? How?
- Give an example of "moral defects arising from wrong ideas" that could threaten the well-being of America, or explain why there is no threat.
- Would it be good for America if children received instruction in morality?
- What is meant by "natural philosophy"?
- Is it important for a good citizen to be educated? Why or why not?
- In which areas of knowledge should a good citizen be proficient?
Please re-evaluate your questions and answers about the good citizen. Add your new thoughts and cross off any ideas that no longer seem correct.
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