Literacy in a Bygone Age

This is from the introduction to the Collier's Junior classics - from 1918.  These were stories for young people at the time.  When you look at how not only this introduction, but the stories themselves were written, you realize that we have been dumbed down to a point of near oblivion.

I'm under the impression that people are finally starting to realize this, but it sure has taken a long time.  Notice as well, that Charles Eliot is the progenitor of the Harvard Five Foot Shelf, itself proof of a more literate age.  Exhibits #349,988 and 634,976 of the Real America that was, and the Fake America that exists now.

----------

"The purpose of The Junior Classics is to provide, in ten volumes containing about five thousand pages, a classified collection of tales, stories, and poems, both ancient and modern, suitable for boys and girls of from six to sixteen years of age. The boy or girl who becomes familiar with the charming tales and poems in this collection will have gained a knowledge of literature and history that will be of high value in other school and home work. Here are the real elements of imaginative narration, poetry, and ethics, which should enter into the education of every child.

This collection, carefully used by parents and teachers with due reference to individual tastes and needs, will help many children enjoy good literature. It will inspire them with a love of good reading, which is the best possible result of any elementary education. The child himself should be encouraged to make his own selections from this large and varied collection, the child's enjoyment being the object in view. A real and lasting interest in literature or in scholarship is only to be developed through the individual's enjoyment of his mental occupations."

CHARLES ELIOT
PRESIDENT EMERITUS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY
1918