They had to be manufactured in large numbers, out of refractory material which could be more easily prepared in the virtues of the heart and the techniques of play than in any intellectual discipline. “he extension of free, public, compulsory education to all and in increasing amount (the high school dates from 1900) soon exhausted the natural supply of teachers. Literature was a trivial surface phenomenon, the pastime of a doomed elite: Why read books, why read, why teach the alphabet? Here, at least, the logic was perfect.” Dialectical speech and grammatical blunders were natural and, as such, sacred the linguists proved it by basing a profession on the dogma. It therefore became wrong to correct a child, to press him, push him, show him how to do better. Everybody was, by democratic fiat, right and just in all his actions he was doing the best he could he was human we knew this by his errors, his errors were right. “he last phase of liberalism which by 1910 had proclaimed everybody’s emancipation, including the child’s, took the form of total egalitarianism. This perversion of true science led to calling ‘experiment’ almost any foolish fancy and to believing in ‘studies’ of ‘behavior’ without a scintilla of regard to probability, logic, observation, or common sense.” “he emotion of scientism… for seventy-five years has preferred numbers to words, doing to thinking, and experiment to tradition. However, Barzun perceives a “hostility to reading” in America that’s a threat to Western Civilization.Īccording to Barzun, there are four cultural forces that “encourage and still sustain” this hostility to reading in America: At least, he did back in 1971 when he wrote his brief essay titled “The Centrality of Reading.”įor Barzun, as for others, reading and writing are the primary vehicles by which human beings transmit ideas, and both preserve and develop a civilization. Noted historian and education philosopher Jacques Barzun (1907-2012) is one of those takes a more somber attitude toward reading in America. Those optimistic about our country’s reading prowess may point to the fact that 74% of Americans read at least one book in the past 12 months, or that book revenues in America increased last year to nearly $28 billion.īut those who argue that reading ability is in decline will point to the statistic that 32 million U.S.
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