# Instruction and Education explained — The Crowd > Chapter companion for The Crowd by Gustave Le Bon. ## What happens Le Bon argues that the prevalent democratic dogma that instruction improves morality and equality is false, citing statistics that education correlates with increased criminality and discontent. He criticizes the Latin system of education for creating passive, book-learned individuals who are unfit for practical life, leading to a class of disaffected proletarians and a frivolous bourgeoisie. He contrasts this with Anglo-Saxon professional education, which fosters judgment, initiative, and character, and warns that the current system is preparing the ground for revolution and decadence among Latin peoples. ## Themes in this chapter ### Irrationality and Credulity Le Bon argues that the democratic dogma of instruction's power to improve humanity is accepted uncritically, despite evidence to the contrary, showing the credulity of crowds. ### Social Change and Revolution The chapter warns that the current education system creates a mass of discontented individuals ready for revolution, paving the way for social upheaval. ### Role of the Press Though not directly about the press, the chapter discusses how ideas (like the dogma of instruction) are propagated and become dominant through repetition, akin to the influence of media. ## Character check-ins ### Herbert Spencer Cited as a philosopher who argued that instruction neither makes a man more moral nor happier. ### M. Adolphe Guillot A magistrate whose statistical observations on the increase of educated criminals are referenced. ### Fustel de Coulanges Mentioned among eminent minds who criticized the Latin system of education. ### Taine Quoted extensively on the superiority of professional instruction over classical education and on the formation of ideas through practical experience. ### M. Jules Simon Former Minister of Public Instruction, quoted criticizing rote learning as a ludicrous form of education. ## Key lines > Foremost among the dominant ideas of the present epoch is to be found the notion that instruction is capable of considerably changing men, and has for its unfailing consequence to improve them and even to make them equal. A leading belief of our time is that education can fundamentally transform people, inevitably making them better and more equal. _Le Bon introduces the central dogma he will critique._ > The primary danger of this system of education—very properly qualified as Latin—consists in the fact that it is based on the fundamental psychological error that the intelligence is developed by the learning by heart of textbooks. The main flaw of the Latin educational system is its mistaken assumption that memorizing textbooks develops intelligence. _Le Bon identifies the core psychological error of the system._ > The acquisition of knowledge for which no use can be found is a sure method of driving a man to revolt. Learning useless knowledge is a reliable way to make a person rebellious. _Le Bon links useless education to revolutionary discontent._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_crowd_se/chapters/5-instruction-and-education - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_crowd_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_crowd_se/chapters