An old argument against universal literacy

Obviously this opinion is not held by the author (or myself) but I enjoy this ancient furze-cutter's reasoning: 'Ah, there's too much of that sending to school these days! It only does harm. Every gatepost and barn's door you come to is sure to have some bad word or other chalked upon it by the young rascals: a woman can hardly pass for shame sometimes. If they'd never been taught how to write they wouldn't have been able to scribble such villainy. Their fathers couldn't do it, and the country was all the better for it.' Extracted from Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native (from the first chapter of Book Second)