"And without citizens broadly informed by humanities, we descend into a pyramidal society. . . A growing mass below lacks understanding of the present complexity and the basic skills to question what they are told."

The above comment says it all - the very essence of education is to learn how to think rationally so that you may do whatever you do effectively, including the conduct of one's private life.

Acting on emotion alone is the road to destruction.

Alas, we seem to fail on both sides. By the time students graduate from high school, they rank nearly last in math, science, and practically everything else. Except "self esteem". We have not abandoned the Classics in favor of technology, we've lost it all.

"Ya want fries with that?"

Bravo! Well said!

"Acting on emotion alone is the road to destruction". MM, surely you meant to say "Acting on emotion alone is the road to being a democrat".

Oh VDH, I couldn't agree more, except for the fact that liberals have still turned liberal arts into a melodrama of race, class and gender oppression. Liberal arts are a sweet fruit that can transform individuals and societies into reasoning and moral beings, but that fruit is completely rotten now because of what liberals have done to it, and is thus poisonous. It should be thrown out until it can no longer be used as an excuse to indoctrinate the youth in the ideology of liberalism.

Well put, Sir. May we add formal logic to the stew as well? Too many students know nothing of the classics, and to the extent they study such things at all it is through the lenses of 'isms. Want to study Homer?... Then read Homer! A student gains nothing by examining the "Iliad" through a Marxist, Feminist, Classist, Genderist, or other post-modern lens. In fact, such study actually makes them less knowledgable than if they left all the books closed, since it is preferable to be knowingly ignorant than to be confident but utterly wrong.

A solid foundation in logic should innoculate students against many of the 'isms that pass for scholarship in academia today.

Two points -

First - My ninth grade daughter is reading and editted version of "The Odyssey". My daughter stated that Odyseus is not a hero because he leaves Penelope for adventure and cheats on her. Penelope is the real hero because she stays home to take care of things and is faithful to him. I asked, "What about Circe? He gave up immortality to return to Penelope." That's not in her version of "The Odyssey".

Second point - In Desmond Young's book, "Rommel: the Desert Fox", Mr. Young talks of Rommel's being the superintendant of a school for SS youth. He was concerned that too much emphasis was put on physical activities and not enough on the humanities. He states that Rommel felt that neglecting the humanities made his students less kind, more brutal (I'm paraphrasing, but it's something like this). I think the subsequent actions of the SS and their lack of training in the humanities prove the point.

Well said sir, I couldn't agree more. I'm an enrollment and admissions advisor for a private, not-for-profit college on the west coast. The first English class that our students take is entitled "Freshman Rhetoric." Many of the potential students seeking information about courses do not even know what the word rhetoric means. All education attained is a prerequisite for the next level. The primary through secondary schooling system is failing our young students. They should possess some basic skill level of critical thinking ability before attempting an undergraduate degree and incurring loans. I'm not ashamed to say that I have even assessed some students' transcripts on the spot after talking with them and even told some that college is probably not for them. A college degree is not a guarantee of success, but it can assist in openings some doors to oportunities that would heretofore be closed.

When I went to art school we talked about structure, content and form: how those things interrelate.

When I saw the course descriptions at a local art school 20 years later I nearly cried: "Class, race, ethnicity and gender," it said. "Quality," opined a piece in the New York Times, is a "pejorative term used to keep minorities out..."

And then a fellow artist was confiding her horror that her friends, proposing to make a film about lesbian sado-masochism was refused a grant! How could they! they all echoed. And I wondered aloud why and how should the mere subject matter guarantee a grant. They grew silent and no answer came. But here's the answer: Many artists crossed boundaries: were "transgressive," in their terminology so, therefore it follows (to a fool) that to transgress is to make art. Assange is an artist! Who knew?

And a young philosopher said to me, "oh all that [rigorous employment of honest thinking] is old hat." He preferred Derrida's mental masturbation. Without studying the master philosophers and their continuing argument, we have no hope of wisdom.

We cannot win a war against barbarians if we ourselves are barbarians.

Much of the Western canon has been treated derisively: as if only the faults and not the virtues were created by or reflected in it, even the virtue of introspection and the kind of change espoused in their speech: do they think they can really divorce themselves from the culture in which they dwell?

Dare I finally mention the Bible? How can one possibly understand Dante without it or Eliot without both Dante and the Bible? "All flesh is grass" was said by Jeremiah before it was quoted in "Difficulties of a Statesman." A culture is built brick by brick, life by life, from honest men and women who mapped as accurately as they could the relationships they felt between themselves and others, and nature, their destiny and mortality.

I'm so glad you wrote this, Dr. Hanson. It is a subject deepest in my heart.

My dad used to say that the point of school (primary, middle or advanced) was not to teach you "stuff," but to teach you how to learn. Once you learn how to learn, you can find out as much "stuff" as you want to. Unfortunately, now all that is taught is the "stuff", and most of that doesn't stick because our kids haven't learned how to learn.

Bravo, Dr. Hansen, Bravo!!!! I could not agree more! And well said, too. These words should be printed on the front pages of every last news paper in the country, especially "internet newspapers." Here's to you, Dr. Hansen!

"Sermo tuus...veritas est" (John 17:17b) Thank you Dr.Hansen. I was fortunate to attend a strong Liberal Arts College - in the Lasallian tradition - which I cherish even more today. Whether our Philosophy class of 125 students or our Literature and Religion classes of 14 and our Western Civilization class of 50 ->all built a foundation of 'critical thinking' for knowledge and understanding of ANY subject and provided a lifetime of enjoyment in ALL types of business or activities. I honestly believe -perhaps naively ?- that those persons grounded in a true Liberal Arts education are happier people...well-adjusted...and are the bedrock of a successful business, a moral society and a true concern for caring in our communities. A Happy and Holy Christmas prayer to all of you and your families.

Would that teachers taught students how to ask questions that advance learning rather than waste time.