Joseph Sobran Quote 

"In 100 years we have gone from teaching Latin and Greek
in high school to teaching Remedial English in college."

by:
Joseph Sobran
(1946- ) Columnist
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Reader comments about this quote:
I didn't exactly know how to rate this, a thumb's down for what it means to the whole of America, or 5 stars for accuracy.
 -- Mike, Norwalk		 
Its the intention that matters. - the only true education is Liberal Arts. Liberal Arts education provides the basis for survival it fosters critical thinking and individualism, both essential ingredients in a world where purely academic education is only represented by a small majority of available jobs. It allows an understanding of the different disciplines from a variety of life’s rich knowledge. It provides understanding through communication and experience that is wide and inclusive. Teach your child these qualities and all else with fall into place – you will have a child that questions authority and whose vocabulary does not include mediocrity.
 -- RBESRQ		 
 -- Anonymous 
Remedial English is important. We don't want college graduates who can't read their diplomas or even spell diploma.
 -- jim k, austin		 
If I were advising a youngster about college, I'd say take all the math you can take. Especially if you plan on getting a good job later.
 -- jim k, austin		 
A true indictment of our countries parents! All in my family learned to read long before starting school, and continued to read for the joy not due to assignments from school. And to learn math, take music first, the connection has long since been proven.
 -- Anonymous, Reston, VA US		 
Latin and Greek are a waste of time for most people. Good for the literary types and historical researchers. But ah! the vernacular. While we try to rid people of it, poets and playwrights try to capture it for its profundity and sheer joy. For an appreciation of vernacular and street talk watch the film "Educating Rita". Good stuff RBESRQ, the purpose of school is not to facts and math per se but ideally to inspire, awaken and get children to reach for the stars in their own individual ways not creat straight A factoid robots.
 -- Waffler, Smith, Arkansas		 
Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK, so why do we not honestly examine why the standards for education have been reduced so low while the standards of European and Asian schools go up? When will we admit that our own government has willfully been dumbing us down for several generations now? To what end? For what reasonable purpose? Has this been done intentionally? YES! The American education system has been subverted with the absolute intention to produce generations of uneducated, conditioned (i.e. socialized), and dependent citizens who do not know their rights, have been disarmed in every way possible, and taught to worship authority of the state above the sovereignty of the individual. We are being taught to forget who we are, and to render us mere serfs in on our own land and in our own country. It is the 'renaissance' of the subservient mind and debtors' mentality.
 -- E Archer, NYC		 
So why does the world beat a path to our colleges and universities. The best in the world. Your a flake Archer!
 -- Waffler, Smith, Arkansas		 
Getting a US student visa is one step closer to getting a Green Card and ultimately citizenship -- that's one popular reason. Of course, plenty of English-speaking folks choose England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, even India! Again, America-centric thinking clouds the mind of numerous possibilities. Believe me, Americans are leaving in droves. Secondly, 'distance learning' is one of the fastest growing fields in the 21st century -- soon 'school' will be for socialization only, since if you really wanted to learn something, you could do it right now! That's another reason the 'state' is coming down harder on homeschooling -- because entire generations of students will not get the necessary programming needed to maintain the 'status quo.' I mean they will need someone to take Waffler's place when he and his ilk are pushing up daisies.
 -- E Archer, NYC		 
For once I have to back a New Yawker. Archer is absolutely correct.
 -- Ken Castleberry, Bowling Green, KY		 
50% of English is derived from Latin and 10-15% of English is derived from Attic Greek. If one remembers the derivatives he can have an extensive vocabulary. Although Latin and Attic Greek are dead languages they teach the mind to think.
 -- Dan Dennehy, Boston		 
We do have about 70 Celtic words we still use today and the word 'Red' is one of them - much of the Celtic language has its roots in Indo-European (Sanskrit) also much of our language today is from Old-English, German and Dutch. Latin I believe was brought into Italian peninsular by the Etruscans - please correct me if I'm wrong. Another great contributor is obviously Greek
 -- RBESRQ		 
Does anyone know where to get the source for this quote - or any other quotes at this site?
 -- Bea, Fresno		 
Why do foreign students come here-because they can beat the pants off the competition and then take the best paying jobs you idiot-I suppose you aren't in industry but are part of academia
 -- Anonymous, Salem, NH		 
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