Do you think Francis Bacon was ("is") right?

Question

I read a quote by Francis Bacon and it went like this:
"Young people are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for counsel; and more fit for new projects than for settled business."

If I've analised this correctly, he is basically saying that, when at school, young people are not doing what they need to be doing.

Answer 1

This idea is very open to interpretation and there are several concerns to address concerning the validity of the statement. First of all, Francis Bacon lived in a very different time period than that of ours. The Elizabethan society did not stress education as strongly as many governments of today, ideas that are valued today (sex equality, etc.) did not carry much impact, and the Draconian society (as compared to America) was much more severe.

For the past ("was"), Francis Bacon was probably right. Only the most privileged recieved education, and most of the educated were old men. For the most part, their education allowed them to make better decisions than the younger men. Although the rich were biased by their position and the type of education they recieved (religious studies, studies oriented towards history and literature, studies that often overlooked many of the poor), they were much more knowledgeable than the the young (there were more young people among the famers than among the nobles since everyone in the agarian section of society had to work).

For the time period of today, this topic is still somewhat hard to solve. What age qualifies as "young?" For the most part, younger people are slightly more fit to invent than they are to judge (to judge most likely refers to the position in the judicial branch of society, one that requires extensive studies and research [of which more of the old possess]).

For the second criteria, I believe that both the young and old are fit for education. The young perform the most acts of crimes and often prove to be the most derimental to society (at least on the surface level). The old (again, a term which is not fully defined) often live off the welfare of others people, wasting the prime of the "young" as it is (the middle age is not clearly defined into young or old).

The last part of the quote is more balanced towards the truth. Younger people tend to fare better than the old in creating new businesses. An example of this is the "Dot Com Trend", where many people made companies when they were young and sold off their companies in their later years for millions (a resident of San Diego recently sold his company for around ten million dollars).

Again, the terms of "young" and old need to be better defined. Also, the quote might not fully relate to school. I hope that this answer helps to answer some of your questions while not bringing up to many others in the process.

Answer 2

The quote is from Essays Civil and Moral and is in reference to government not education. The "young people" of the quote were the younger members of council usually appointed because of titles or favoritism. For example, Bacon's patron at the Elizabethan court, the 2nd Earl of Essex, was 22 (!) when he was appointed master of the Horse and made a member of council. The purpose of the quote is to highlight the POLITICAL abilities of 'young' heads versus old heads. So the younger members of council are good at planning and leading a campaign, but weak at being able to decide whether now is the right time of the campaign. So old wise heads govern and young heads execute. http://www.iep.utm.edu/b/bacon.htm

Answer 3

A great quote from a great man and I agree. Youth is the time of our life when we are often very adventurous and restless. Youth is when
man wants to experiment with everything he puts his hands on. This is the time when man wants to satisfy all his curiosities.

Oh, by the way, when we say youth, we do not refer only to those below 18 years of age. Do some reading and find out why.

Answer 4

I totally disagree with your analysis of what is said here, and I think you are applying a weird filter to even get that color out of the language.

I M O he is saying that young people are dynamic and creative and active, yet may lack experience, judgement and knowledge.

Is he right?
In a generalizing way, but I thought it was not PC to generalize "_

Answer 5

Frankly I agree with Oscar Wilde: "Youth is wasted on the young".

Answer 6

Great quote. I don't think it's about education directly, but it certainly points to the truth about american public schools - they are not suited to their supposed clients.