I've just done a posting on my education blog that could equally well have been put here, about the decline of Britain's art schools, kicking off with quotes from a Spectator article on that subject. Just so you know.

Maybe one day my two specialist blogs will merge, into plain old Brian's Blog. Feel entirely free to comment favourably about that. In the short run such comments will make no difference. In the long run, they just might.

It has, in particular, been a surprise to me how much sense, now that I am thinking about it and reading about it, the idea of "cultural education" is starting to make, as an essential component of the good life. I even found myself confronting this idea head on when I visited some home schoolers. By this I do not mean that I am suddenly converted to the notion of compelling children to sit through classical music broadcasts or gawp at paintings which disgust them; I merely mean that those children who do acquire such artistic interests are more likely to lead not only more enjoyable, but also more more productive lives.

People who have "culture" are better at entertaining themselves – they enjoy their own company more – than those without "culture". That means that, in a pinch, they need less money and energy to keep themselves amused and diverted, and in general have more money and energy to devote to other things. They are freer. Freer people do better economically.

If you are the sort of eonomic thinker who believes that what matters is turnover, this may not impress you, but if the purpose of economic activity is to increase human happiness, then "culture" will, if what I say about it is true, impress you very much.

I am enriching the world with this blog. Trying to, anyway.