Overschooled and Undereducated, by Anthony Esolen 

The purpose of schooling—which is not the same as education—is to encourage people to express confident platitudes, which they are pleased to call their opinions, about things they know nothing of. This is far worse than ignorance. I am trying to imagine my grandfather expressing an opinion about the Middle Ages. It is impossible. I cannot do it. He would have been as likely to put forth dogma regarding green men from Mars.

Now, Nonno was no timid man. If he had an opinion, he’d set it down as solid truth. That got him into some nice discussions with my father, whom he loved as if he were his own son. He and my father, for example, had exactly the reverse opinions about Presidents Roosevelt and Truman. …

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