Editor’s note: this article first appeared in the March 1998 edition of Crisis Magazine. It seems a bit strange that a well-worn former government employee and sometime philosopher like myself should be asked to address this assemblage on matters of ethics and honor, right and wrong, on the question, “Does Honor Have a Future?” But as … Read more
It seems a bit strange that a well-worn former government employee and sometime philosopher like myself should be asked to address this assemblage on matters of ethics and honor, right and wrong, on the question, “Does Honor Have a Future?” But as Sir Thomas More said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the times.” And … Read more
Governor Cuomo proclaimed the 1990s to be the “Decade of the Child.” A couple of weeks ago Time magazine’s cover story was devoted to “the sorry plight of America’s most disadvantaged minority: its children.” At the end of last month a special edition of the Today show focused exclusively on the condition of our children. … Read more
Let me start by telling a story. I was in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where I lived before coming to Washington. Chapel Hill is a fairly typical up-and-coming community. I think it would be fair to call parts of Chapel Hill a home of Yuppiedom — very successful, wealthy young professionals on the way up. … Read more
Does the larger world have a place in American education, in education for democratic citizenship? I believe that it does. In fact, it always has. To cite a great 19th-century educator by the name of Abraham Lincoln, every American’s schooling should equip him “to read the histories of his own and other countries, by which … Read more
Editor’s Note: The address which follows was given by Secretary of Education William J. Bennett on October 22 to the Vietnamese League of Orange County, California. Acknowledging the impressive educational achievements of a new generation of Asian-American immigrants to the United States—and in particular the refugees from Vietnam—Dr. Bennett emphasized the crucial importance of the … Read more