Literacy and Self Discipline

When I think about my childhood and especially children today, I like to compare with what I imagine it would have been like to be 15 years old in 1850. What is immediately apparent is the reliance the family unit would have had on the youngster. Most families were in a subsistence situation where they produced or went to work for wages to survive. The family would have relied on a 15-year-old boy to an extent we would not recognize today. Instead of playing organized sports or video games he would have been doing manual labor for the family or for wages.

A teenage boy in the North would have had some chance to attend school but for only three months a year. In the South, his education would have been more dependent on family. Yet, at 15 you were only slightly less likely to be literate if you were from the South. Of course, this excludes slaves. According to Journal of Economic Perspectives, 96.9% of whites aged 10 and older in the North were literate and in the South it was 91.5%. This was one of the highest literacy rates in the world at the time.

Today, school is ubiquitous but too often unserious and imposes very little in the way of meaningful discipline. In the school system where I substitute, some teachers dress in sweats or jeans and t-shirts and other attire that students are not allowed to wear. Students are allowed to eat junk food in class. Many teachers give out candy as treats. In one class the norm is for everyone to pass around a large jar of animal crackers which the teacher provides.

The practical literacy rate is about the same today as it was in 1850. Yet too many students know precious little about things that matter like self-discipline. Have you noticed how many over-weight kids there are today?