A guy I listen to has a saying about studying history -
we don’t study history in order to avoid making the same mistakes as were made in the past,
we study history so that we recognize when today’s assclowns are making the same mistakes as yesterday’s assclowns, understand the consequences, and prepare accordingly.
Exactly. That was what the Founders studied—Classics-—what was wrong with the Athenian Democracy? Why did Machiavelli stress the need for Virtue in militaries? What made Western Civilization, so successful compared with the East? Why did Cicero embrace Natural Law Theory and the idea of Natural Rights and connect it to Justice-—Just Law— as Socrates, Aristotle and Plato detailed—and embrace Republics as the best type of government which would yield the most individual freedom.
Children are not taught to use the intellect-—that would take classical knowledge and much study and effort—they are taught to “feel” what is Right and Wrong so they will be useful idiots for government elites.