Dexterity in an art is not Education

Writing against public education in the mid 1800′s, R.L. Dabney insisted that dexterity in an art is not education. To him, even learning how to read and write and learning arithmetic were not simply mechanical exercises, but were sacred and served a moral purpose. Writing of skill in a subject versus true education he notes:

“The latter nurtures the soul, the other only drills a sense organ or muscle. The one has a mechanical end, the other a moral purpose.”