# Critique of Education in Erewhon

> Theme guide for Erewhon by Samuel Butler.

The Colleges of Unreason teach 'hypothetics' and a dead hypothetical language, stifling originality and promoting conformity, which satirizes the useless and repressive aspects of traditional education.

## Where it surfaces

- [Birth Formulae](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/erewhon_se/chapters/xviii-birth-formulae): The system teaches children to compromise and accept falsehoods as part of their upbringing, corrupting their 'truth-sense'.
- [XX: What They Mean by It](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/erewhon_se/chapters/xx-what-they-mean-by-it): The narrator criticizes compulsory state-aided education as a fetish that burdens families and leads to infanticide, advocating early earning and practical training.
- [The Colleges of Unreason](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/erewhon_se/chapters/xxi-the-colleges-of-unreason): The Erewhonian system of 'hypothetics' and the study of unreason satirize the impractical and rigid educational practices of Victorian England, emphasizing the waste of human energy on barren exercises.
- [XXII: The Colleges of Unreason—Continued](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/erewhon_se/chapters/xxii-the-colleges-of-unreason-continued): The Erewhonian colleges suppress original thought, reward vagueness, and punish clarity, satirizing rigid educational systems.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/erewhon_se/themes/critique_of_education
- Themes index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/erewhon_se/themes