The hidden weakness of the pornogogues running our children’s schools

Several years ago, I was rummaging about a used furniture store in Antigonish, a college town in Nova Scotia. It was September, I was on sabbatical, and yet the urge to teach got the better of me when three young men entered the store, obviously looking for a few cheap things for their dormitory. They were freshmen, all Canadians, though one of them had gone to high school in Washington, D. C.

I could not resist. “I'd like to know a little about what they teach and what they don't teach in school these days,” I said. “I'm going to name a few famous writers. You tell me if you recognize the names. You don't have to tell me anything about them. I just want to know if you've ever heard of them.” They were up for the game, so I started naming English poets.

Milton? Nobody. Keats? Nobody. Tennyson? Nobody. Wordsworth? Nobody.

I tried Dante. “Dante's Inferno?” asked one of the boys. “All right, that's something,” I said. “Do you know anything else about him?” No, he said; it was just that Dante's Inferno was a video game.  (more...)

The hidden weakness of the pornogogues running our children’s schools