Music, the humanities, and "a sense of where you are."

Much of what now passes for reform in education and public policy and in educational accreditation - the pseudojargon and trends I now encounter and struggle against in education - seems to me to glorify trivialities of fashion, without serious thought. On many days, the sentence that echoes with me is George Steiner's "Fashion is the mother of death."(1) This insight has a somber and arresting resonance, but not a terrifying one, as long as we have our wits about us.

Acquiescence in fashion, taking comfort in riding where fashion would carry us, is not inevitable - nothing ...

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