DEUT269 … when Scripture states, "And you shall teach them [the Torah's mitzvoth] diligently to your children" [this verse] the command is in the singular, from the Almighty to every parent personally: Educate your children in the Torah! Our tradition and its Sages were the first to demand education for all among an entire people, in every generation. In his Republic, the Greek philosopher Plato drew up a blueprint of his own for an ideal society: It was essentially totalitarian, quite undemocratic. Education, he wrote, must be limited to soldiers and the children of patricians (nobles, aristocrats). Children of the poor could become no more than laborers or artisans. Thousands upon thousands of Jewish children, since time immemorial, have become laborers and artisans too--but with a rich, masterful knowledge of their heritage. Quite a few Sages are identified in Talmud and Midrash by occupational titles: so-and-so the sandal-maker, so-and-so the carpenter, etc. Poverty has never been a factor to deprive a Jewish child from his rightful education. In fact, the Sages warned, "Treat the children of the poor with care, since from them shall Torah come" (T.B. Nedarim 81a).