Typically, parents apsire to raise their chidren to have some class or to be cultured. “Cultured” is the “improvement of the mind, tastes and manners through careful training.”-Webster’s. In a peaceful world values like pacifism and cooperation would always be highly beneficial. Some societies value peace so passionately that they neglect preparation for any other possible condition save peace befalling them. Frequently these such passionately peaceful people are culturally blessed. Such cultures, which could potentially show us better ways of doing all sorts of things are usually rendered extinct by the prejudical, aggressive tendencies of rival societies.
Possesing a distinctly different sub-culture the Puritans chose to leave Europe as an alternative to oppression. America’s first settlers encountered a culturally diverse indigenous population of over 550 nations and tribes inhabiting North America. They were estimated to have been between 5 to 30 million indigenous inhabitants. The Puritans fled bigotry and intolerance to make a new life in America. The Puritans strove for high ideals to be sure, but they were too hypocritical to treat others as they would like to have been treated.

Our knowledge of America’s original population is incomplete, because then like now, we didn’t sufficiently prioritize the value of education. Scientific experimentation, record keeping, analyzing results, etc. were the kinds of practices only sporadically used by some of our nation’s first settlers. The fact that any of the settlers were at all interested in knowledge for knowledge’s sake is a testament to the enduring utility of Greek ideals. Cataloging the indigenous languages, familial structures, customs, cultural values and the patterns of behavior of America’s first inhabitants was seen as unimportant by most of the early settlers. This leaves the story of our nation grossly incomplete.