Blissfully Uneducated(VICTOR DAVIS HANSON)

american.com ^ | July/August 2007 Issue | Victor Davis Hanson

[KC Burke]

VDH bump.

[khnyny]

“Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are destined to repeat them.” - Santayana

[kellynla]

ping

[NeoCaveman]

For each course on rap music or black feminism, one on King Lear or Latin is lost.

Bump!

[Banjoguy]

In other words, “The dumbing down of America via government schools is completing itself.”

[SittinYonder]

ping to an article worth reading

[johnny7]

“Women’s Studies, Gay Studies, Environmental Studies, Peace Studies, Chicano Studies, Film Studies... ”

These are more like welcomed diversions from serious study... societal pastimes... cataracts... clouding ones ability to observe and analyze reality.

[ClaireSolt]

“But if there are no prisms—no absolutes, no eternals, no truths, no ages past—then the present will appear only as nonsense.” And that is how the ruthless get ahead. Now they seek only to consolidate their power like parvenues in every age have.

[kittymyrib]

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death among US young adults. There is a reason for that.

[the anti-liberal]

Bookmarked.

[yetidog]

As a second career college teacher (now retired), I periodically reentered college as a matter of personal enligtenment and professional development. Hansen nails this one. The difference in the education that I received as an undergraduate in the early 1960’s was as different from my later soujourns into higher education in the 70s, 80s and 90s as King Lear is from Big Momma’s House. What passes for education today —with some exceptions—is nothing more than a reiteration of the popular culture wrapped up in post-modernist language. And many younger faculty are truly dumber than wooden watches. They have no understanding of historical context of philosophical underpinning to the world of ideas. Be very careful where your son or daughter matriculates. If someone has not already done so, it would be a very good idea to establish a list of higher education institutions whose core curricula reflect the value and content that Hansen describes as worthwhile.

[Savage Beast]

What else would anybody expect when irresponsible, shallow, hypocritical, anti-American hippies, who believe that America is hopelessly corrupt and incorrigible, take over American universities--or government?

[SMARTY]

“Once students understand how gender, race, and class distinctions are used to oppress others, they are then free to ignore absolute ‘truth’ since it is only a reflection of one’s own privilege.”

Yup... that was their mantra in college, when I was a student. “Damn the absolute, the truth is relative.”

However, I had a for-real upbringing (read: right and wrong exist and we depart from that fact at out own peril. I am living proof that you will not only survive serious a^%-kickings for infractions on that rule, but you will become a responsible and mature adult just the same and I think, a whole lot sooner). ALSO I read books lots of them, NOT just the ones on the syllabus.

[rabscuttle385]

The theme of all such therapeutic curricula is relativism. There are no eternal truths, only passing assertions that gain credence through power and authority.

I study mathematics and engineering. Unfortunately for the liberals, it is nearly impossible to make relativist such coursework as Linear Algebra, Data Structures, and Algorithms.

[the anti-liberal]

"If someone has not already done so, it would be a very good idea to establish a list of higher education institutions whose core curricula reflect the value and content that Hansen describes as worthwhile."

Here's something I found:

Colleges of Character

"Each month, this section features a college or university that is making a sustained and comprehensive effort to promote the moral and civic education of its students."

It's not a concise list, but it's something.

[PhilipFreneau]

>>>Sometime in the 1960s—perhaps due to frustration over the Vietnam War, perhaps as a manifestation of the cultural transformations of the age—the university jettisoned the classical approach and adopted the therapeutic. <<<

A glut of draft-dodging PHD’s who majored in the social sciences — those who were pumping gas near the end of the war, and afterward — were able to infiltrate our education system, and our government. Don’t forget that our government (federal and state) has created a myriad of social programs since 1970.

[ClearCase_guy]

Uhhhhh, two of the college listed as having "character" are Haverford and Brown. Both are highly selective, hard to get into and -- therefore -- "very good schools".

They are also, however, major leftist indoctrination camps.

[PGalt]

If someone has not already done so, it would be a very good idea to establish a list of higher education institutions whose core curricula reflect the value and content that Hansen describes as worthwhile.

Hillsdale College (Michigan) comes to mind.

Good article. Thanks for posting.

[FreedomPoster]

A large percentage of the worthwhile undergraduate majors left in most universities, are in majors with a quantitative emphasis.

Engineering, the real sciences (typically ones that don’t have “science” in the name), accounting, finance, etc.