The field of education has altered dramatically in the past few centuries, introducing new spheres and shifting the interests of society. The cultural changes had an impact on education, which can be seen through the comparison of the courses in the 18th century and their obsolete nature in the 21st century. To start with, the growth of manufacturing spurred the demand for educated individuals, which made education courses on such matters vital (Becker and Woessmann, 2019). Moreover, at this time, the courses on sewing for young girls were considered crucial (Becker and Woessmann, 2019). Such courses did not emphasize socialization and instead focused on the utility of young individuals.
As for the role of foreign languages in education, as ideological, business, and social preferences shifted in the 17th century, their popularity started rising. Italian and German were especially popular (McLelland, 2018). Yet, as Spanish gained popularity at the end of the 20th century, the system ultimately changed, and in 2001, Spanish surpassed German as the second foreign language (McLelland, 2018). Spanish has been promoted as a practical trade language since the early 20th century. In this sense, while the education system is constantly reshaping, it has cultural needs that it fulfills. Education teaches individuals about the values, belief systems, and norms of different people. Furthermore, it promotes communication between people from different cultures and encourages thinking differently.
Hence, the education system has experienced major alterations throughout the centuries. While several centuries ago, courses on manual labor were popular; now they are considered obsolete. However, foreign languages have always played a key role in education. Minor differences in modern and older education systems involve the popularity of German and Italian in the past and the winning position of Spanish in the modern education system. This proves that education fulfills cultural needs by teaching individuals about the values and norms of other cultures.
References
Becker, S. O., & Woessmann, L. (2019). Education and socioeconomic development during the industrialization. In Handbook of Cliometrics (pp. 253-273). Springer, Cham.
McLelland, N. (2018). The history of language learning and teaching in Britain. The Language Learning Journal, 46(1), 6-16.