I found a great article about whether or not liberal democracy can indeed endure when not only the mother culture is dumb but even the elite stewards are dumbing down, with thousands of students churning through the ivy league colleges and universities.
Lukelea thinks that the only way of making sure that cultural transmission can move forward intact is better error-correcting, requiring more hands-on education and nurturing.
I am very impressed with this paragraph:
"I wonder if it wouldn't be a good idea to ditch the Ivy League undergraduate colleges with their enrollments in the thousands for each class and lectures for the hundreds, and go back to the concept of small teaching colleges, with small classes, and teachers who are not expected to publish or break new ground in research, or do anything original
-- but rather to pass on "the best that has been thought and said" in
the (approximate) words of an old cultural critic whom I admire."
Via Gene Expression
Post new comment