Education Quote by Will Rogers

Rogers turns a national compliment into a self-own, and that swivel is the whole trick. “America is becoming so educated” lands like a boosterish update from the early 20th century: expanding public schools, the rise of mass media, experts and institutions gaining prestige. Then he yanks the rug: if education becomes common, ignorance won’t disappear - it’ll become boutique. A novelty. Something you can wear like a hat.

The line “I will belong to the select few” is classic Rogers: the folksy comedian playing dumb to expose how status works. He’s parodying the way Americans love being exceptional, even when the trait is embarrassing. “Select few” usually signals elite accomplishment; here it’s applied to willful cluelessness, mocking a culture that can turn anything into a badge. The subtext isn’t anti-education so much as anti-pretension: he’s puncturing the idea that schooling automatically produces wisdom, civic sense, or humility.

As an actor and popular entertainer, Rogers also understood audiences: jokes survive because they let people laugh without choosing a side. Educated listeners can feel superior for catching the irony; less educated listeners can feel included because the speaker “is one of us.” That double address is why it still plays today, in an era where ignorance can be performed as authenticity and expertise is treated as just another tribe. Rogers is warning that progress doesn’t end the con; it just changes what people sell as identity.