Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022 | 2 a.m.
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One way to evaluate the value of teaching in our society is to compare it against the situation of teachers in another great democracy, like Rome.
Emperor Vespasian promulgated the First Edict of Cyrene, which boosted the teaching profession not only in the homeland but across the many provinces around the Mediterranean.
He declared, “The profession of elementary and higher-level school teachers who raise the minds of the young to civility and public virtue being sacred to Hermes and the Muses ... I therefore order that these persons aforesaid shall not be liable to taxation of any kind.”
Our teachers today are cast aside as members of just another laboring group who have to organize to get sufficient remuneration to do their jobs.
Vespasian’s decree also speaks to a curriculum issue at the heart of the failure of the American education system. Studies show that schoolchildren score at an abominably low level of proficiency in civics and history.
Our ancestors in the colony of Massachusetts went one step better than Vespasian and made parents ultimately accountable for civics knowledge. Parents were fined 20 shillings for each child found not to have a “knowledge of the capital laws.”
Perhaps we should exempt our teachers from taxation, update our school curriculum and fine parents whose kids do poorly at school.
