Talk:Poryatown Press/Lurian Weekly/Special 2

Enlightened Peasantry

All boys are conscripted into the army school at the age of 6 and are learn basic writing and reading, history, law, wrestling, running, and other useful knowledge and skills. Normally they can visit their homes once every 3 months for a few days but only the richest can afford these trips for their sons. At the age of 16 boys are considered a man and are aloud to return for their families. Only the most capable fighters and wisest potential scholars are aloud to stay, if they choose too.

– Grand Duke Leon Agenor

Are these guys serious? They're claiming to take all the male commoners away from their families at age six, keep them for 10 years, and teach them to read and write? That's completely contradictory to the way things work in a feudal society. Peasants aren't taught to read and write. They're sent out to the fields to toil for the benefit of the nobility. You're taking the male children away from the farms where they are expected to work for a living. Heck, by the time they got back home, their parents would probably be dead. (Or, at the age of ~34 they would be old geezers, and probably barely able to keep a farm running while waiting for their eldest son to get back home and take over.)

I thought we'd finally gotten away from all of this enlightened peasants garbage. Peasants are peasants. They exist to be exploited by the nobility, not taught how to read and write. --Indirik 16:54, 8 April 2008 (CEST)