[Do not dub me shapka broham]

I know just what you mean!

It's hard to imagine that there are actually topflight Ivy League universities that don't require non-English majors to take courses in Shakespeare.

Unfortunately, academe-ever since the radicals seized power in the late 60s-has been subsumed by postmodern, faddish, socialist doctrine.

Therefore, there's little room left to teach the standard literary cannon of Western civilization.

[Stoat]

I know just what you mean!

It's hard to imagine that there are actually topflight Ivy League universities that don't require non-English majors to take courses in Shakespeare.

Agreed, and it's also hard to imagine people considering themselves to be fully educated without a grounding in classical literature.  Particularly these days when computers are omnipresent, I am frequently encountering people who consider themselves to be quite brilliant because they know how to build a website or code a program, as if this is the ultimate litmus test of worthwhile intelligence.  So many people are going through life thinking quite a bit of themselves when in reality their narrow expertise will be completely out of date in another thirty years, whereas the wisdom of Shakespeare, Plato and Socrates will live through eternity.

Unfortunately, academe-ever since the radicals seized power in the late 60s-has been subsumed by postmodern, faddish, socialist doctrine.

Therefore, there's little room left to teach the standard literary cannon of Western civilization.

Yes, and the insular world of academia prevents their outdated and endlessly-disproved ideas from ever receiving a proper airing in the arena of reality.  They feel quite comfortable with their tenure and their pensions, telling our children and young adults all about how Communism really is the enlightened path, and would have been successful, of course, if it hadn't been for the evil, capitalist United States interfering with the supreme purity of the Socialist ideal.

Thankfully, and in large measure due to the internet, many young people are questioning this indoctrination and fighting back.  It's very hard when your grade depends upon the instructor believing that he/she has successfully brainwashed you, but many students are heroically standing up for what's right, and that's great to see.

I know just what you mean!

It's hard to imagine that there are actually topflight Ivy League universities that don't require non-English majors to take courses in Shakespeare.

Agreed, and it's also hard to imagine people considering themselves to be fully educated without a grounding in classical literature.  Particularly these days when computers are omnipresent, I am frequently encountering people who consider themselves to be quite brilliant because they know how to build a website or code a program, as if this is the ultimate litmus test of worthwhile intelligence.  So many people are going through life thinking quite a bit of themselves when in reality their narrow expertise will be completely out of date in another thirty years, whereas the wisdom of Shakespeare, Plato and Socrates will live through eternity.

Unfortunately, academe-ever since the radicals seized power in the late 60s-has been subsumed by postmodern, faddish, socialist doctrine.

Therefore, there's little room left to teach the standard literary cannon of Western civilization.

Yes, and the insular world of academia prevents their outdated and endlessly-disproved ideas from ever receiving a proper airing in the arena of reality.  They feel quite comfortable with their tenure and their pensions, telling our children and young adults all about how Communism really is the enlightened path, and would have been successful, of course, if it hadn't been for the evil, capitalist United States interfering with the supreme purity of the Socialist ideal.

Thankfully, and in large measure due to the internet, many young people are questioning this indoctrination and fighting back.  It's very hard when your grade depends upon the instructor believing that he/she has successfully brainwashed you, but many students are heroically standing up for what's right, and that's great to see.