Saturday, April 07, 2007

The Education of Men

A very telling riff from Dreher:

In his biography of Kirk, James Person quotes from a letter the literature teacher Tom Howard wrote to Kirk late in Kirk's life. Person relates how Howard would give his college English lit students an "exercise in the permanent things" at the beginning of each semester. He would give the class a list of words: majesty, magnanimity, valor, courtesy, grace, chastity, virginity, nobility, splendor, ceremony, taboo, mystery and purity. Howard told Kirk that the young adults consistently reacted thus: "either a total blank, embarrassed snickers, or incredulity."

So, folks: what have YOUR high schools (or colleges) said about these things? Anything?

"Bueller........Bueller??"

Or are things no longer 'permanent'?

The Pope speaks often about the Reign of Relativism now abroad in the West. This short list should give you an idea about the breadth and depth (so to speak) of that Relativism.

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