Most people who heard about the experiment thought it was foolish. They considered it impractical. The rule for the poor, as for most of the rest of America, was to be educated in practical things. Thus, the idea of teaching the humanities to the poor was condemned not only as impractical, but impossible. WHAT we should have done for the poor, according to the conventional wisdom, was teach them something they could use on the job.
Experience is the teacher of first resort in America.
We learn by doing, we train for our careers. That is what is known as the practical form of education, and if it is good enough for doctors, engineers, computer programmers, and business people, it is surely appropriate for the poor. And of a very specific kind. But training, even at its most elegant level, is as impractical as any building without a foundation, a danger to itself and those around it. To train the poor, without a practical education to support them, would have been like constructing a house of cards.