Education and Virtue

The approach of education that Lizardi has is really interesting.

“They know and we know that most of us students don’t go to the University to learn anything . . . The classes are more important than learning itself, because you’ll have to get that grade . . . Even if you don’t get it, he tells us, “you’ll be a bachelor” (34).

Some comedians, such as Carlos Mencia, have based entire routines on how, in their opinion, American schools have lowered the standard just to have better test results and while the literacy level of the average student is falling. Nowadays, no child is left behind, but sometimes their education is. When Lizardi tells us that “enlightenment is being utterly neglected by those who should be educating them,” he mocks his education (7). After having learned to read and write in Tepotzotlžn, he was sent to Mexico City at the age of 6 to learn and to study……latin !!!! This another reason why he states: "I left with my head filled with rules, riddles, phrases, and false knowledge of Latin, but as regards intelligence in the purity and propriety of the language, not a word." For him the educational system is corrupted and has lost its proper function. Lizardi’s education came from what he read but not from the system he portrays in his book. I believe that just as his hero, Lizardi learned from the school of life.

In addition, the word “virtue” is repeated constantly thoroughout the book. The concept of virtue (arête) describes a type of excellence that can be attainable in the context of a proper education and training. That’s what Lizardi leans: a proper training geared toward virtue rather than the vice.