The first of what will be a series of posts containing a passage from a book that I own that I think has significance to society as it is today:
Winston was clearly ready for intellectual stimulation, and one might expect that he would have found it in the home of a lord who was also a member of Parliament and a charismatic MP at that. Instead, the boy’s mind was fired by, of all people, Mrs. Everets’s brother-in-law, John Balaam, a senior warden at Parkhust Prison. British workman in the 19th century, undiverted by mass media, often read deeply and thoughtfully.(emphasis mine)
The Last Lion Winston Spencer Churchill 1876 – 1932 Visions of Glory (1983) Page 130
I have often wondered why and how schoolboys of the 19th century were able to master Latin and Greek while today people go to college unable to read or do basic sums. The lack of mass media and a generation of people who grew up on TV, didn’t read, and didn’t encourage their kids to read is the answer.
Thus is the wisdom & lessons of centuries of experience forgotten.
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