This entire thread is about one person's idea of what it takes to be considered "Educated". But honestly it is like hunting for a snowflake in the Sahara. Nobody will ever agree what constitutes "educated", and every human and every society will have a different view of this.
In addition, people learn what they are interested in. I have zero interest in knitting, so I don't learn it. If you forced me to learn it I would make a half-arsed attempt and then quit as soon as you walked away. Same with languages unless there is a compelling interest or reason, nobody cares. It isn't just English speakers, there are speakers of Polish, French, Germans, Chinese, Japanese, etc. none of whom give a whistle about learning another language. They might have been forced for a couple of years in school, just like people in other places. They did a half-arsed job of learning something they had no interest in and then dropped it as soon as they were able.
All the knitters in the world can sit around and say how much better the world would be if everyone were forced to learn 6 different types of knots and that all school children should be forced to learn knitting. But the mechanics of the world would argue that knitting is a waste of education and everyone should learn 6 different types of motors to repair.
On average, people spend 60 percent of conversations talking about themselves—and this figure jumps to 80 percent when communicating via social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook.
Self-interest is what most people would use to consider what it means to be "educated". Mathematicians believe you must know maths, engineers think you need to know electronics, programmers think you need to know how to code. In other words, what they know means they are educated, and therefore to be educated you have to know the things they know.
This thread was started based on the musings of a hyper-polyglot...Honestly, nobody
needs more than one language, unless they
need more than one language. Learning more than one language is because you have a need or an interest in learning. If you want or need to learn six then you will, because you need or want to. Otherwise, you'll just get on with your knitting, or motor repair or whatever does interest you.
I would argue that in todays modern information age, where people are bombarded with information constantly they would be better off focusing on their native language in school rather than a half-a-dozen others.
(Author) Jacqueline Wilson revealed that the fan letters she received from English boys and girls were invariably worse-written than letters from foreign students. Fans from abroad, she said, would apologise for their poor English. But their English was better than the English of the English.
I would argue that schools should focus on the basics, reading, writing, maths, science and allow people to develop their own interests and learn by themselves. For example, if each year students had to pick one topic which interested them as an individual, be it languages, programming, knitting, electronics, or whatever, but they have to teach themselves. The school helps them to find resources, or tutoring, or textbooks, but they have to learn themselves. What they would really be teaching is how to be self-taught and that is probably a more useful skill than 5 other languages.
So to quote one of the great minds of the last century.
“Those are my principles, and if you don't like them...well I have others.” ― Groucho Marx