September 21, 2004

A Familiar Complaint, But True Enough

Fred Reed whines about the ignorance of today's college students. A familiar complaint of the old and the traditional, but as Jay Leno proves with his street interviews, probably true. There were problems with the prescribed curriculum, but replacing it with -- nothing -- probably contributed to the degradation.

"It is hardly necessary to recite the endless polls showing that even the graduates of what once were universities cannot give the dates of the Civil War, do not know who fought in WWI, have never read Shakespeare, cannot name the first five books of the Old Testament, believe that Martin Luther had something to do with civil rights in Mississippi, and cannot write a coherent paragraph in their own language.

"They are pathetic without knowing it. Being innocent of history, they live in temporal isolation. Knowing nothing of painting, literature, or music, they are aesthetically crippled. Never having acquired a taste for reading, they are incorrigible. This is remarkable. The society has managed in a generation to overcome everything that civilization has strived for, replacing it with—nothing."

Having two very bright daughters who will be in college soon enough, I've been mulling over where to send them.

Any ideas?

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