“And that was the final irony: that an intellectual establishment that had dedicated itself for thirty-five years to the Nonjudgmental gods of tolerance and open-mindedness should finish as an anti-intellectual cult of intolerance, propped up and held in place by a vast network of cultural prohibitions and quasi-legal injunctions, and distinguished chiefly for its poverty …
Dyslexics of the World, Untie!
“Just as a poor coach blames his team, so a failed education establishment has taken to blaming the students. It is worth remembering that these students were coerced into coming to these schools through compulsory attendance laws, made to sit in a desk for twelve years, and then graduated without being able to read their …
Gluggity Gluggity
“‘It is with narrow-souled people as with narrow-necked bottles,’ said Pope: ‘the less they have in them, the more noise they make in pouring it out’” [Bryan F. Griffin, Panic Among the Philistines (Chicago, Regnery Gateway, 1983), p. 183.]
Abandoning Education
“And the result of that is the destruction of education, which is what we in fact see all around us. Without discipline, there are no disciples, and without disciples or students, there can be no education . . . The excuses may be believed for a while, but time is a great revealer. The abandonment …
A Democratic Downgrade
“The phenomenon was in part merely an unpleasant by-product of mass education: a man who might have done no harm as a head footman a century or two ago can do tremendous harm as an assistant professor or a film critic.” [Bryan F. Griffin, Panic Among the Philistines (Chicago, Regnery Gateway, 1983), p. 183.]
Punishment and Discipline
“Punishment is interested simply in justice; discipline is interested in the twin aspects of preparation and correction. When students are made to work hard, this is preparation for life. When a student is corrected for fooling around and wasting time, this is correction that returns the student to his preparation for life. In both cases, …
Almost As Real As Movie Reviews
“The same might have been said not only of Time itself but of most of the American popular press. All over the land of the free, hip little film critics were celebrating the exhibition of Mr. Ripploh’s lower orifices with the words and phrases they’d memorized while studying for their Master’s degrees. ‘The latest film …
Looking Out the Window
“Whenever we run into this uncomfortable thing called work in our studies, we think that something has gone wrong. If it is borning, it must be bad. And whenever we think that something has gone wrong, we ipso pronto hustle out children off to a specialist, who discovers that they have LOWS (Looking Out the …
Envying the Dead
“Just so. Mr. Forster was not a Philistine, but he was a stunted man, spiritually, emotionally, and professionally. He was one of those said creatures of the twentieth century who define themselves in terms of their own insufficiencies, and it was his tragedy-and ours, some may think-that he let his unhappiness and his self-reproach lead …
You Protect What You Love
“Moreover, a refusal to discipline teaches students to treat the education being offered with contempt. The students will certainly despise any education that the educators themselves hold in contempt. And if parents and teachers refuse to discipline, they are holding in contempt the education they offer. A man who refuses to defend his wife does …