From the Academy

The Educationist Book-Burners

About four years ago, the late Collier’s began publishing a series of articles on public schools by Mr. Howard Whitman. As Mr. Whitman visited schools over the face of the nation, he became increasingly impressed with the failure of American public schooling; and his dismay appeared, though moderately and good- naturedly, in his articles. Even this mild criticism enraged the hierarchs of the National Education Association. They retaliated by organizing a campaign of protest-letters to Crowell-Collier Corporation: and they proceeded to boycott Collier’s. They sent letters to the principals of all schools, informing them that Collier’s was “against education,” and that it ought to be stricken from the list of magazine-subscriptions sold by school pupils to raise class funds. This assault is said to have cost Collier’s some hundreds of thousands of dollars in subscriptions.

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Russell Kirk

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The Educationist Book-Burners

About four years ago, the late Collier’s began publishing a series of articles on public schools by Mr. Howard Whitman. As Mr. Whitman visited schools over the face of the nation, he became increasingly impressed with the failure of American public schooling; and his dismay appeared, though moderately and good- naturedly, in his articles. Even this mild criticism enraged the hierarchs of the National Education Association. They retaliated by organizing a campaign of protest-letters to Crowell-Collier Corporation: and they proceeded to boycott Collier’s. They sent letters to the principals of all schools, informing them that Collier’s was “against education,” and that it ought to be stricken from the list of magazine-subscriptions sold by school pupils to raise class funds. This assault is said to have cost Collier’s some hundreds of thousands of dollars in subscriptions.