Full Idea
Teachers should hold that all human knowledge which is not useful for human and civil life is worthless.
Gist of Idea
Teachers should hold knowledge worthless if it does not enhance our lives
Source
Samuel Pufendorf (On the Duty of Man and Citizen [1673], II.18)
A Reaction
An idea which was despised in the twentieth century, but is approaching orthodoxy in the twenty-first. Personally I think the arts and philosophy hugely enhance human life, but that view is becoming an uphill struggle.
Book Reference
Pufendorf,Samuel: 'On the Duty of Man and Citizen' [CUP 1991], p.176