School Wars:

WE MIGHT gauge the intellectual heft of today’s college students by watching their faces as they gather their texts in the campus bookstore at the beginning of the semester. Expressions of curiosity and expectation as they glance over the titles tend to be outnumbered by those of resigned indifference and, sometimes, shock; the students unite only in disgust at the prices. But the same exercise can also give us an idea of the intellectual heft of the institutions to which these students have handed themselves over for an education.

One of my students recently described her trip to the bookstore to buy the texts for a course I have taught, a survey of major classical works in translation. She looked over the authors, daunted. Aeschylus, Sophocles, Plato, Virgil. Standing in the checkout line, she showed them to her roommate, whose response was unexpected.

About the Author

Tracy Lee Simmons

Tracy Lee Simmons is the author of Climbing Parnassus: A New Apologia for Greek and Latin.

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WE MIGHT gauge the intellectual heft of today’s college students by watching their faces as they gather their texts in the campus bookstore at the beginning of the semester. Expressions of curiosity and expectation as they glance over the titles tend to be outnumbered by those of resigned indifference and, sometimes, shock; the students unite only in disgust at the prices. But the same exercise can also give us an idea of the intellectual heft of the institutions to which these students have handed themselves over for an education.

One of my students recently described her trip to the bookstore to buy the texts for a course I have taught, a survey of major classical works in translation. She looked over the authors, daunted. Aeschylus, Sophocles, Plato, Virgil. Standing in the checkout line, she showed them to her roommate, whose response was unexpected.