Digging Out from the Rubble

From the “don’t know whether to laugh or cry” department: A front-page story in The Oklahoman this morning (‘39% need catch-up in college’) informs us that “44,608 students enrolled in remedial courses at state colleges and universities during the 2004-05 school year. That’s about 39 percent of first-time freshmen.”

This news report brought to mind a memorable remark the author and columnist Joseph Sobran made several years back. I had the pleasure of shuttling him around town, and in the course of our conversation the topic of education came up. Sobran’s observation: “In one century we’ve gone from teaching Latin and Greek in high school … to teaching remedial English in college.” Let that one soak in for a while.

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