Prof. Tom Bertonneau here completes his series for the Pope Center on the difficulty of teaching today’s students about great literature.

As you read about his students, you have to conclude that they spent their previous years in schools where careful reading, writing, and thinking didn’t matter much. The fact that Bertonneau’s students have trouble simply keeping the characters and chronology straight is a strong indictment of K-12 educational standards, where a “well you tried your best and that’s all that counts” philosophy seems to reign.

An even more depressing thought: that philosophy reigns because most of the teachers themselves are not good at reading, writing, and thinking.