Posted on 11/23/2008 10:08:51 PM PST by mojito
1. Four years of high-school Latin would dramatically arrest the decline in American education. In particular, such instruction would do more for minority youths than all the 'role model' diversity sermons on Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X, Montezuma, and Caesar Chavez put together. Nothing so enriches the vocabulary, so instructs about English grammar and syntax, so creates a discipline of the mind, an elegance of expression, and serves as a gateway to the thinking and values of Western civilization as mastery of a page of Virgil or Livy (except perhaps Sophocles's Antigone in Greek or Thucydides' dialogue at Melos). After some 20 years of teaching mostly minority youth Greek, Latin, and ancient history and literature in translation (1984-2004), I came to the unfortunate conclusion that ethnic studies, women studies--indeed, anything "studies"-- were perhaps the fruits of some evil plot dreamed up by illiberal white separatists to ensure that poor minority students in the public schools and universities were offered only a third-rate education.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
ping
“evil plot dreamed up by illiberal white separatists to ensure that poor minority students in the public schools and universities were offered only a third-rate education.”
Actually the intent was to give their silver-spoon legacies easy A’s so they could go on to law school and help destroy the economy, John-Edwards-style.
“The extra splurge was marginal and hardly worth the stain of avarice on one’s immortal soul.”
Thanks to our university professors and John Stewart’s, noone believes in an immortal soul anymore. Hence, rome will fall to the savages within.
“[California sucks].”
Yeah, America will follow suit now that the democrats are in control, just like in California!
And the last point is just wow to me. I pray that another Reagan will come and lead us out of the mediocrity the millenials will force upon us.
brilliant
In the days of our founders you had to have latin and greek, maybe hebrew too just to get into college.
Which may explain how they were able to imagine what liberty must look like, what its legal and moral framework would have to be, and create something that would last until our generation of illiterate moral imbeciles got their hands on it and ran it into a ditch.
Excellent. Bookmarked — thanks for posting!
Very nicely written column. Thanks for posting it!
(The first one may be a laugher, but think in terms of classical education rather than just language.)
The ten thoughts:
“”1. Four years of high-school Latin would dramatically arrest the decline in American education.
2. Hollywood is going the way of Detroit.
3. All the old media brands of our youth have been tarnished and all but discredited.
4. After the junk bond meltdown, the S&L debacle, and now the financial panic, in just a few years the financial community destroyed the ancient wisdom: deal in personal trust; your word is your bond; avoid extremes; treat the money you invest for others as something sacred; don’t take any more perks than you would wish others to take; don’t borrow what you couldn’t suddenly pay back; imagine the worse case financial scenario and expect it very may well happen; the wealthier you become the more humble you should ...
5. California is now a valuable touchstone to the country, a warning of what not to do.
6. Something has happened to the generic American male accent.
7. We have given political eccentricity a bad name.
8. Do not farm.
9. As I wrote earlier, the shrill Left is increasingly far more vicious these days than the conservative fringe, and about like the crude Right of the 1950s.
10. The K-12 public education system is essentially wrecked. “”
Yes, I just did. This is a great article. I really enjoy reading Hanson.
Read the Melian Dialogue when I was a high school sophomore. Opened my eyes to political reality. If everyone read it Obama would never have been elected.
Wasn’t what Noah had an Ark not an Arc? Or is that a nuance meant to indicate a life arc or story arc?
Excellent read. Thanks for the post!!
As an educator, I have often wished we’d kept Latin as a requirement for graduation. I had only two years because HS was only 3 years long. But the value of the 2 years I had was phenomenal...wouldn’t trade that for anything. Victor has summed up the present state of America very well. It is a sad eulogy, really. I don’t see us turning this around in a generation. Hopefully, within a couple generations, though, we’ll see a freedom-longing people return to the founding principles of our once-great nation.
And they started college at 14-16 and graduated in 3 or 4 years, too. Of course, none of them learned electrical engineering ...
I didn’t study latin, I studied math and science
I found that what mattered more in work situations was learning the trades: carpentry, plumbing, understanding of mechanics
what mattered more in understanding world affairs was history,history,history
not once did the knowlege of a dead language matter to me, either in engineering or technical manufacturing
I am going for an EE degree now, an AS degree
and I WISH I was doing it over 4 years instead of 2, this stuff is NOT something I have any natural inclination for!
Best wishes - it’s a difficult course of study. It took my husband almost 7 years, iirc, to get his BS in EE (usually part time).
There’s no doubt that an educated man of the Founders’ generation was *really* educated, but many fields that make a modern American employable didn’t exist at the time.
it’s tough, everything happens invisibly, even using a scope, if the instructor doesn’t explain it well but acts like everyone knows what he is talking about all the time...
My electronics instructor is one bright guy, bends over backwards to help when you are alone, but he just whizzes through class and talks like everyone is dumb if you dont get it: not insulting, but like he has no clue that some people...like me...have to work at some of this stuff!
I do love LABview, Digital isn’t that hard, and my circuits II class has a huge take home test that isn’t due until NEXT week and I am getting an ‘A’ in that one, too... :)
A in circuits at midterm, A in Digital, B in LABview and a high C in electronics this semester
Just don’t make me conjugate irregular verbs ...
Bump for later
Congratulations!
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