Just read that in 1800 the cost of Harvard was equal to 13 pairs of shoes.  The average skilled laborer, making $1.50 per day, could send his child to Harvard for 13 days of work.  Now, you have to be a millionaire to send your child for 13 days of work, if you can call it that. 

Think about this.  Has the knowledge one receives now a days, at Harvard, increased 13-fold.  Lincoln had one year of school, read 14 or so books over and over, and could quote huge passages of Shakespeare.  The debates that founded our country were easily more eloquent than most of what is said today.  It was said that in 1800 some children could read and speak latin by age four.   

Hmm.