Thread by @adamsmithworks

Ah, #AdamSmith on education. Something to aggravate every. single. reader. Let’s go! (V.i.f) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Providing educational institutions is part of the duty of the sovereign, but those institutions can be made to produce some of the money needed to maintain them. We naturally do that already, because we pay teachers and endow colleges. (V.i.f.1–2)#WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

BUT Smith isn’t a fan of endowing schools.
Or at least, he has a lot of questions about how much the endowments have improved the education students get. (V.i.f.3)#WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

No matter the profession, we only work as hard as we have to.
An endowment means teachers don’t work as hard to be great teachers, because they are secure teachers. (V.i.f.4–5)#WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

This is why it would be better for teachers to be paid directly by individual students rather than to get salaries. Otherwise, like the professors at Oxford, they “give up altogether the pretense of teaching.” (V.i.f.6–8)#WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

If the faculty isn’t running the university, you *might* be able to get past this. But skeptical Smith is skeptical. And outside officers are liable to be insolent and indifferent. Like the French. (V.i.f.9) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

(Are you keeping score yet? Nine paragraphs in and Smith has already thrown hands at the university system, teachers in general, Oxford professors in particular, university trustees, AND the French. #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets)

Oh, and he doesn’t like residence requirements, scholarships, etc. either. Anything other than the merit and reputation of the teachers that draws students to a college diminishes the necessity of maintaining that merit and reputation. (V.i.f.10–12) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Smith, who began his career giving lectures on rhetoric, has FEELINGS about bad and lazy lecturers. And about the way colleges are arranged for the convenience of faculty, not the benefit of students. (V.i.f.14–15) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

The parts of education which are still managed by private institutions are done better. You might not learn to dance, fence, or ride *well* from a specialist school, but you will learn to do it. Same with basic math and literacy. (V.i.f.16) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

[Reminder, American Smithketeers: When Smith talks about “public schools” he doesn’t mean “funded by the public” as we do in the US. He means what we call private schools—”open to the public who can pay.”]

So, if you’ve read a lot of Smith—especially the History of Astronomy—the next section is a really interesting run down on why universities teach what they do, and what different kinds of learning are for. (V.i.f.19–34) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

The content isn’t the problem. The lack of diligence among the teachers means that students are not prepared “in good earnest to the real business of the world.” The colleges don’t “improve the understanding or mend the heart.” (V.i.f.32–35) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Smith doesn’t like the Grand Tour (18thC Gap Year), either. Of course you come home better, because you’ve gotten older while you were gone. But let’s not pretend you really learned languages or anything but dissipation and sloth. (V.i.f.36) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

And now...a brief history of education in Greece and Rome:

It was better. (V.i.f.38–46) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

The problem that Smith is getting at is one that’s familiar to anyone who’s been with #WealthOfTweets from the beginning. The universities have a monopoly, and it’s bad for all the same reasons every other monopoly is bad. (V.i.f.45) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

If such a monopoly didn’t exist, gentlemen would not enter the world completely ignorant, but it does and they do. (V.i.f.46) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

So far, so good. But now...Dammit. Smith’s going to extend that argument to say that because women’s education is private, it’s awesome.
😑And we...look, one of us wrote a whole thing about how wrong this is. Here. (V.i.f.47) adamsmithworks.org/documents/noth…
#WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Just because a thing isn’t bad in the way you’re worried about, doesn’t mean it can’t be bad in a completely different yet equally awful way! (V.i.f.47) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Given how bad the 18thC system for education is, would they be better off just not doing anything?
If they should do something, what should it look like? (V.i.f.48) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

We do need some kind of general education, and we need it because of the division of labor. That limits our activities and can make us hyperfocused, lazy, and stupid. Education helps make us fuller humans! (V.i.f.50) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

If we’re going to enjoy the enormous increase in wealth we get from the division of labor, we have a responsibility to mitigate its downsides—and education is one way we can do that. (V.i.f.50) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

In less developed societies where division of labor isn’t so extensive, this isn’t such a problem because people need to know how to do so many things.

In our society, though, you can literally make a living tweeting about #AdamSmith. (V.i.f.51) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Smith is obviously unabashedly classist in his outlines for what education should look like and for whom. 👎
That said, he thinks it’s much more important to pay attention to the education of the common people than to the wealthy.👍 (V.i.f.52) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

The wealthy always can and always have found ways to get the education they need. This is much less true for the poor who have less spare time to self-educate, no money to spend on education, and generally fairly constant labor. (V.i.f.53) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

But it would not be difficult/expensive to teach the poor to read, write, &calculate, which can be done before they’re old enough to work.
Parish charity schools are the answer, with changes in curriculum. (Smith likes #STEMeducation ). (V.i.f.55) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

You could enforce the education requirement by making people pass an exam before they could join a trade. And you could incentivize it by giving prizes and badges of distinction. (V.i.f.56-57) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

This is how the Greeks and Romans maintained the martial fitness of their people—requiring and incentivizing physical training. That martial spirit is a key part of national defense. (Oh hey! We’re back at the beginning of the chapter!) (V.i.f.58–59) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Smith really does not like cowards.
They are mutilated and deformed in their minds.
So even if sophisticated modern warfare means we have professional soldiers, it’s still good for people to have a martial spirit instead of cowardice. (V.i.f.60) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Educating people against cowardice is like protecting a nation against a loathsome and offensive disease. The uneducated are as mutilated and deformed as the cowardly. (V.i.f.61) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

And a well educated people is more rational, less disposed to violence, and more disposed to decency and order. And that’s good for everyone. (V.i.f.61) #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets

Next time on #WealthOfTweets, you’re going to think #AdamSmith is talking about continuing education, but he’s talking about churches. See you tomorrow! #WealthOfTweets #SmithTweets