Logging

Book:  The Closing of the American Mind by Alan Bloom

I started this book a couple years ago and just never finished.  I got into it again and plowed through the rest recently.  Really intelligent plea for what the university ought to be in American culture and how we've veered off into viewing education as primarily about finding a job.  The book was written in 1984 and is highly intelligent and erudite.  But it confirms a lot of my instincts about education and how it should be viewed as an end in itself.  That is to say, being an educated person means something beyond whether it leads to a job or a specific trade.  It means a certain familiarity with a broad spectrum of fields and works from the past.  I think back upon my own schooling, which for the most part was pretty "good" by American standards - and it encompasses about 20 years if you include grad school and college - and yet - I haven't read all of Shakespeare and have only a passing knowledge of Greek Myth and the ancient philosophers.  What the hell did I do in all that time?

At least the good thing about reading is you can continue to pursue it on your own.  Just the older stuff is easier to read and digest in the context of a class and with a teacher.

I suppose my little summary most deeply describes the latter part of the book, which I most recently read.  Bloom also rails against certain trends in education, particularly relativism and various forms of ethnic studies, and how democracy is undermined by such teachings at the expense of a classical liberal education.

Anyhow, I found it a good read.