CONECTIONS: PART II – Don’t Know Much About … Anything

December 8, 2008

THE IGNORANCE OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

In Part I of my rant, I wrote about the ignorant bimbos of Fox News. While I was going through my “ideas” for the day (and I wasn’t planning to write anything today), I came across an essay Victor Davis Hanson did for City Journal. I must preface this with a disclaimer that I do not like the City Journal. I think it is far too extreme right wing, to the point of being a little spooky, to say the least. Thus said, I find Hanson’s essay excellent and very much makes a point.

“…Until recently, classical education served as the foundation of the wider liberal arts curriculum, which in turn defined the mission of the traditional university. Classical learning dedicated itself to turning out literate citizens who could read and write well, express themselves, and make sense of the confusion of the present by drawing on the wisdom of the past. Students grounded in the classics appreciated the history of their civilization and understood the rights and responsibilities of their unique citizenship. Universities, then, acted as cultural custodians, helping students understand our present values in the context of a 2,500-year tradition that began with the ancient Greeks….”

I am a product of the “humanities”. My major was in British Medieval History with an emphasis on the monarchy. My specialty was post-Roman Britain and the historical King Arthur. My minor was in fine arts, art, and music. I did graduate studies on the formation of the United States, Founding Fathers, and the Norman Period in Britain.

Once I finally began reading ( I was a late bloomer in the 4th grade before I began my love affair with the written word) I jumped from “kid” books straight to the hard stuff. In the early part of the 4th grade I was barely reading at grade level. Within a year I was reading at a 12th grade level.

Why?

I had a mother, and a local librarian, who encouraged me to explore the world. Nancy Drew became a constant companion. Nancy Drew knew so much about so many things, and I had a Nancy Drew mentality that I had to learn – about everything.

My reading was voracious. I went from Dr. Seuss to Bulfinch in a single leap. My 5th grade challenge was reading the life of Marie Curie by her daughter. (I highly recommend the book). I read the “scholastic” version for kids, and liked it so much I had to read the full biography.

Once a kid does something like that, reading is an adventure, which is why I fully approve of those 700 page Harry Potter tomes. After a kid successfully reads those, anything else is a cinch.

That year in the 5th grade, we had a reading challenge. I think I came in second, with a good 75 or 80 books, not all of them “scholastic” devoured.

By the 6th grade I was hanging out with Cherry Ames, Trixie Belden, and had established a pattern for mystery novels that lingers to this day. My local librarian then introduced me to a writer who changed the course of my life – Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Maybe it was the family connection. We are related several different ways. My father’s family grew up in the 1880′s in Minneapolis. In fact, my father’s great aunt was Mary Ingalls’ room-mate and best friend at the school for the blind in Iowa. She wanted Mary to spend the summer with her one year, but Nancy Nutt Perkins wouldn’t hear of it. “Those Ingalls are from the back woods, and we really don’t know anything about them.”

I read T. H. White’s The Once and Future King in the 6th grade. Read it!

The librarian then challenged me to read mythology and try Edith Hamilton. I did, and loved it. My first week in Junior High was spent with a broken leg propped up on a chair in front of my desk, while I devoured the Illiad. My mother encouraged me to read her Mary Stewart mysteries. (If you have never read her work, you are missing a treasure). The moment The Crystal Cave was published, I was in love with it, and my life-long passion about King Arthur.

The 9th grade brought a very difficult year of Latin under Judy Beaty.

I went from that to an excellent class in comparative religion.

Then came more Judy Beaty and her demands that we memorize 50 lines of American poetry. She and Mr. Puckett made sure I was placed on the school newspaper, and shoved into a track to allowe me to start writing.

Then came British Literature.

Get it?

I had a traditional, classical education and did not realize it until I was out of college, complaining about how ignorant kids were becoming. We were required to read Home, Shakespeare, Plato, The Bible, and could discuss all of these elements.

We were taught history. We were required to understand the workings of the American government, and recite in order the 10 Amendments. World War II was required history. Comparative religion brought with it an intensive month long course (10th grade, 1970′s) on the Koran. We were taught what Islam was. There was a history of Jihad, along with the Crusades. And yes, we were required to register to vote and encouraged to do so.

Credit was given for outside speeches. I was the darling of the local DAR for my Young Republican patriotism. And – I was allowed to cut class to go meet Ted Williams.

The people I went to school with were fairly well educated. We had the #3 high school in the state. Clemson University was right down the highway. Consequently we were encouraged to use the library. If we happened to cut class to catch a play by Shakespeare, it was extra credit, not being damned for cutting class.

My sister did the home school thing with her three. They are far better educated than their peers, thank heavens. Go up to the average 19 year old and mention the world “Bulfinch” and they will think you have discovered a new way to swear. They think Beverly Sills is a suburb of Hollywood. The 10 Commandments are 10 Suggestions.

And – you never say anything bad about Islam.

Classical learning was a virtue. Western Civilization was considered the doorway to the modern world. In fact, if one did not understand our “Western Civ” we could not possible understand our world and why we are.

Hanson writes:

“…classical education was a window on the West. Study of Athenian democracy, Homeric epic, or Roman basilicas framed all exploration of subsequent eras, from the Middle Ages to modernity. An Aquinas, Dante, Michelangelo, or Montesquieu could be seen as reaffirming, adopting, modifying, or rejecting something that the Greeks or Romans had done first. One could no more build a liberal education without some grounding in the classics than one could construct a multistory house without a foundation….”

Now though, in order to placate the more prurient aspects of our popular culture and the minorities who have a proverbial chip on their shoulder and a very bad attitude, Western Civilization has been denigrated and ejected. What was once the light of the world is now “evil”. Instead we are to find virtue in cultures where Animism and sacrifice is still practiced. We are to ignore the tendency for cannibalism that the predecessors of the “enlightened” Hopi practiced. The fact that the African culture that is now in the US was shipped here via slavery is shoved down our throats, along with enough politically correct guilt to cause cultural suicide. Nothing, though, is rarely, if ever mentioned about the fact that their own people sold them to Islamic and Moorish (Muslim) traders at a profit.

Our civilization is to be denigrated. Oh, we can celebrate Greek statuary, especially if it is nude male and homosexual in nature. We cannot admire Rome. The Romans conquered the world and were ugly task-masters. The only aspect of Ancient Egypt we even know is the fact that we must now consider the Ancient Egyptians “African Americans” rather the Semitic tribes which they actually world. Native American cultures were gentle, custodians of the land, given to spats of poetry as they led, against their will, the evil white interlopers who destroyed their way of life forever.

Christian missionaries were brutal as they forced vile and evil Christian values on people – you know those ugly 10 Suggestions about not stealing, murdering, adultery, etc. Those things aren’t acceptable in today’s society. You see, if someone is murdered, well, we need to check on the problems their killer had as a child. If someone steals, well, that’s acceptable in today’s society. Adultery? Everyone does it.

Christians are to be derailed, persecuted, and harassed.

When a society is forced to forget who it is, where it comes from, and how it got here, it is in danger of imploding.

That’s where we are today.

We need those humanities courses.

I’m in open rebellion against the practitioners of political correctness.

I trust you will join me.

Trackposted to Rosemary’s Thoughts, Faultline USA, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, The World According to Carl, Rosemary’s News and Ideas, Pirate’s Cove, Leaning Straight Up, Cao’s Blog, A Newt One, Democrat=Socialist, Conservative Cat, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.