From the Academy

Infinite Variety

Although the higher learning in America has many vices, it also has certain peculiar virtues; and one of the most conspicuous of these latter is its proliferating variety. One can study anything in America, under any auspices. And if this diversity shelters fad and foible and folly, nevertheless it encourages healthy experiment, invigorating debate and competition, and strong individual personalities. It is also a powerful bulwark of freedom of thought. In this virtue, at least, we enjoy a considerable advantage over the systems of education dominant in most European states (and copied by most of the Latin American republics)—centralized, uniform, and state-supervised.

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Russell Kirk

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Infinite Variety

Although the higher learning in America has many vices, it also has certain peculiar virtues; and one of the most conspicuous of these latter is its proliferating variety. One can study anything in America, under any auspices. And if this diversity shelters fad and foible and folly, nevertheless it encourages healthy experiment, invigorating debate and competition, and strong individual personalities. It is also a powerful bulwark of freedom of thought. In this virtue, at least, we enjoy a considerable advantage over the systems of education dominant in most European states (and copied by most of the Latin American republics)—centralized, uniform, and state-supervised.