Recently WT had a thread where he was claiming that education did not lead to enhanced morality, or something along those lines, entitled The New Neo-Nazi's.
Anyway, it got me thinking, I believe that statement to be wrong. I would propose that the nations which are the most educated enjoy the most peace, stability, and highest quality of life than those that are uneducated. I would also propose that most atrocious acts perpetrated by nations, and peoples, can in someway, all be linked to a lack of education. For those who are uneducated, are easily controlled.
A good education encourages a critical mind, one that thinks for itself and does not follow blindly.
In keeping with the previous threads focus on the WWII Axis powers, let me illustrate two of the nations with the highest qualities of life in the world right now:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ja.html
Note that Japan is marked by an incredibly high literacy rate (99%), world famous competitive students, technological prowess, and economic force.
Japan also has one of the highest standards of living in the world. Incredibly low crime, a large middle class, and an overall wealthy populace. It is a rather overworked nation, but none the less peaceful and stable.
Now, post WWII Japan was a different story all together. Japan was a nation driven by nationalism and xenophobia. Its people were bound to age old ancestral beliefs in the divinity of a hereditary emperor. They were feared in Asia for committing some of the bloodiest atrocities the world had ever known.
The educational system in these times was no better. Essentially it was employed as a nationalistic tool used for indoctrinating youngsters. The classes were rigorous, filled with wrote memorization, and little student teacher interaction.
The Military saw the schools as little more than factories for producing the imperial army's laborers.
I tried to look up some literacy statistics, but all I could come up with was a %40 literacy rate at the turn of the century.
The second country I would like to note is Germany. Once a powerful fascist war-machine, it is today a well grounded, peaceful nation with a happy well educated populace.
Pre WWII Germany was in a sorry state.
Germany - Wikipedia
Germany was the remnants of a crumbling empire with a crumbling economy, and a suffering populace. The demoralized Germans readily embraced the Nazi party who promised to fix the German economy, and re-invigorate the pride of its people.
One of the first things the Nazis did was ruin the school system:
The Jewish Question in Education
The correlation between education and morality, I think, is evidenced here.
While education does not guarantee morality, or a lower level of violence in a population, it certainly does nothing to aid it. It would seem that an education that seeks to strengthen the mind and exercise its rationality, rather than indoctrinate it with dogmatic ideologies, would lead to a more compassionate, humane, nation.
This message has been edited by AdminSylas, 05-06-2004 02:25 AM
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