Another Dissent from the "Higher Education for Everyone!" Line

George Leef

I recently came across the following:

By and large, until say, 1945, the expansion [of education] was fairly harmless. The underlying motives were noble, benevolent, or at worst foolish: a democratic ideal, the need to occupy the young increasingly excluded from the labor market, the quest for prestige. Certainly the affluent society cold afford keeping the kids in school. The academic types were probably not much hurt — smart kids can adjust to anything, except being debauched by base rewards. . . . Unfortunately, however, there came to be established the misconception that being in school was the only appropriate was of being educated. . . . Yet for the majority of adolescents academic routine is time-wasting, unreal, dispiriting, desexualizing and destructive of initiative; and it is resisted by the usual devices of sabotage, by “sub-culture” and — on the part of the highly intelligent — by “underachievement” for they do not want to “achieve” in this way. . . . The majority are being cruelly miseducated and hoaxed; they will not get jobs relevant to what they have been put through.

Okay. Who wrote that? Charles Murray, perhaps? No. It was the renowned liberal Paul Goodman, in The New Republic, Oct. 5, 1963. You can read the whole piece here. Hat tip: David Edwards

  • Share

Most Commented

September 6, 2024

1.

Professor Alleges "Widespread" Discriminatory Hiring Coverup at University of Washington

Audio acquired by the National Association of Scholars describes allegations of coverup race-based hiring coverup at the University of Washington...

October 29, 2024

2.

The Looming Irrelevance of Middle East Study Centers

Today’s Middle Eastern Studies Centers are facing a crisis due to the winds of change in the Middle East and their own ideological echo chamber....

September 25, 2024

3.

NAS Statement on University of Pennsylvania Sanction of Amy Wax

The National Association of Scholars is outraged—but not surprised—by Penn's decision to penalize Wax for exercising her academic freedom. ...

Most Read

May 15, 2015

1.

Where Did We Get the Idea That Only White People Can Be Racist?

A look at the double standard that has arisen regarding racism, illustrated recently by the reaction to a black professor's biased comments on Twitter....

October 12, 2010

2.

Ask a Scholar: What is the True Definition of Latino?

What does it mean to be Latino? Are only Latin American people Latino, or does the term apply to anyone whose language derived from Latin?...

September 21, 2010

3.

Ask a Scholar: What Does YHWH Elohim Mean?

A reader asks, "If Elohim refers to multiple 'gods,' then Yhwh Elohim really means Lord of Gods...the one of many, right?" A Hebrew expert answers....