Gershwin? Who's Gershwin?

National Review, Nov 9, 1998 by William F. Buckley, Jr.

NEW YORK, OCTOBER 2

Much of the handwringing over student delinquency is critical of the students. And the obvious bears saying, that there is sloth among teenagers even as there is sloth among non-teenagers, and it's true that they can get away with it better as kids, because lazy grownups run into market disciplines. The ambitious student feels the equivalent of market forces if he is fighting for admission to a choosy college. But then those who do this aren't likely to be so lazy. The primary responsibility is that of the teachers, though parents must be held responsible for failing to discipline their children, and the society at large for the permissiveness that makes it difficult for parents to exercise their waning wills. The National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas, Texas, summoned a fortnight ago a "National Conference on School Choice." The invitation to participants began with a sentence that chills the blood. "Compared to other leading nations, the United States continues to finish dead last when it comes to education." The letter arrived coincidentally with a letter from a college instructor in art history in a privately administered, religiously oriented college in the Midwest. The writer wished to share with me the results of a test he gave the first day of class. The students were predominantly freshmen, but also included sophomores, juniors, and one senior. 1. Name the most significant architect who created public buildings in the United States in the twentieth century. Now the names of architects do not roll off the tongue, but an interest in learning about art history would suggest some exposure to architects. There were 27 students in the class. Twenty-three gave no answer. Four named Frank Lloyd Wright. 2. Name the most acclaimed sculptor of the twentieth century. Again, sculptors aren't household words. But they might expect to do a little better than: No answer, 25; Remington, 1; Michelangelo, 1. 3. Name a winner of the Nobel Prize in the last 5 years (excluding Mother Teresa). The assumption is that everybody knows that Mother Teresa won a Nobel Prize-or was that Princess Diana? Answer: 26 blanks. One student gave the name "Dr. Smith." Research (not memory) informs me that Dr. Michael Smith won the 1993 Nobel Price in Chemistry. My dirty suspicion is that the student who gave that answer is Dr. Smith's grandchild. 4. Name a composer of classical music who wrote music in the twentieth century. Now here is knowledge one reasonably expects students to bump into, almost unguided. It requires dogged resolution to avoid coming across the name of Gershwin, for instance. Answers given: No answer, 22. Yanni, 1. (I do not recognize the name). Randy Rhoads, 1. (He is the late rock guitarist.) Beethoven, 2. (Beethoven died when John Quincy Adams was President.) Pavarotti, 1. 5. Name an author who has received a Pulitzer Prize in the last five years. Only three of the students came up with a name.

THE test was in two parts and the students came quickly to the show. Name a TV series about the existence of aliens infiltrating the United States. Twenty-four students knew about The X-Files. Almost everybody came up with the name of a Spice Girl, though a mere 21 could give the name of the Titanic star. These, then, are college students. The very best colleges have got used to the need to teach remedial reading and writing (50 per cent plus of students at the exclusive Berkeley are required to take remedial writing). The need seems to arise for remedial acculturation. As in, Who was the first President of the United States? That kind of thing. The conference brought together very big names from the concerned world over miseducation, including William Bennett, Steve Forbes, Congressmen Bill Archer, Dick Armey, Newt Gingrich, Jim Talent, and J. C. Watts, and Senators Coats, Coverdell, Lieberman, and Torricelli. The theme of the conference was, "Liberating America's children through school choice." The central assumption here is that parents want to send their children to schools that will acquaint them, before time to go off to college, with the existence of George Gershwin. The alternative is nightmare-time: If it is true that parents are satisfied with the performance of their public schools (of course, some public schools are superb-but what of such schools as graduated such students as filled out the questionnaires) then we are suffering the fruits of a second generation of under-education-parents who do not know what their children are not learning or else do not care. Universal Press Syndicate