No Subject Of Study Is More Important

The One Thing That Unifies Men In A Given Age Is Not Their Individual Philosophies But The Dominant Problem That These Philosophies Are Designed To Solve.

A Student Under My Care Owes His First Allegiance To Himself And Not To My Specialty; And Must Not Be Burdened With My Work As If He Followed No Other And Had Contracted No Obligation Under Heaven But That Of Satisfying My Requirements.

The Eager Or Dutiful Persons Who Subject Themselves To These Tidal Waves Of The Classics And The Moderns Find Everything Wonderful In An Absent-minded Way. The Wonder Washes Over Them Rather Than Into Them, And One Of Its Effects Is To Make Anything Shocking Or Odd Suddenly Interesting Enough To Gain A Month's Celebrity. And So Another By-product Of Our Come-one, Come-all Policy Is The Tendency To Reward Cleverness, Not Art, And To Put One More Hurdle In The Path Of The Truly Original Artist.

Everybody Keeps Calling For Excellence - Excellence Not Just In Schooling, Throughout Society. But As Soon As Somebody Or Something Stands Out As Excellent, The Other Shout Goes Up: "elitism!" And Whatever Produced That Thing, Whoever Praises That Result, Is Promptly Put Down. "standing Out" Is Undemocratic.

I Can Only Think That The Book Is Read Because It Deals With The Difficulties Of Schooling, Which Do Not Change. Please Note: The Difficulties, Not The Problems. Problems Are Solved Or Disappear With The Revolving Times. Difficulities Remain. It Will Always Be Difficult To Teach Well, To Learn Accurately; To Read, Write, And Count Readily And Competently; To Acquire A Sense Of History And Start One's Education Or Anothers.