The great education reformer Charles Eliot wrote in 1854 about the considerable number of Americans who lived in no cocoon but went from farm hand to office boy to apprentice to businessman, etc:

We are accustomed to seeing men leap from farm or shop to court-room or pulpit, and we half believe that common men can safely use the seven-league boots of genius.

Today’s problem is the opposite. We are no longer accustomed to seeing such men, and it is a problem for America. Living in a cocoon of ideas is no way to live, and alas, it has become all too common among Americans in influential positions today. It is daunting to think just how far the education establishment must be torn down and reconstructed in order to make it less dysfunctional than it is today.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 14th, 2011 at 1:19 am and is filed under Democrats, General, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.