When Harvard opened its doors, it was a Bible college trying to give the colonies the preachers it needed. Then, it was decided that they would take on classic liberal arts because they needed good judges. So, they developed a top notch educational program in which the capstone was the teaching of moral philosophy. All the students who graduated learned how to think and how to debate ethical issues in Latin. Fifty percent of our Founding Fathers graduated from a colonial college where they had to debate their professors in Latin before they could graduate.
Today, the three marks of being an educated person are not even taught anymore, except in small private schools and home schools. Those three marks are good penmanship, Latin and learning how to think.
If you do not know how to think or the only penmanship you can do is signing your name, then you can thank the NEA and government education.