In opvoeding, op watter vlak ook al, behoort dit om geestelike vorming te gaan. Van Europese skoolkinders sê Bloom: "Their self-knowledge was mediated by their book learning ... their ambitions were formed as much by models first experienced in books as in everyday life" (p 47). Volgens Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), daarenteen, is Amerika nie "a people with a book" nie (p 53). "It would be a sad commentary on the human condition if the brotherhood of man is founded on what is lowest in him" (p 48). Studente moet aan "the best possible material" blootgestel word. Dan word hierdie studente "a kind of democratic version of an aristocracy". Pleks van "leveling education" word "better education for the best people" benodig (p 49). "Intellectual effort" (p 50) sal groter insig tot gevolg hê. Bloom stel sy "Great Books conviction" op teen die "culture leeches" wat met "great spiritual bleeding" besig is (p 51). Ek het voorheen oor Robert Hutchins (1899-1977) en Mortimer Adler (1902-2001) se Great Books Program aan die universiteite van Columbia en Chicago geskryf (SêNet, 20.08.2010). Bloom was lank aan laasgenoemde universiteit verbonde. "The substance of my being has been informed by the books I learned to care for" (p 245). Daar is deesdae steeds Amerikaanse universiteite wat op variasies van die Great Books Program gebaseer is en van hulle bied geen sportaktiwiteite aan nie.
Die gemis aan ’n boekkultuur maak studente "narrower and flatter. Narrower because they lack what is most necessary, a real basis for discontent with the present and awareness that there are alternatives to it ... Flatter, because without interpretation of things, without the poetry or the imagination's activity, their souls are like mirrors, not of nature, but of what is around. The refinement of the mind's eye that permits it to see the delicate distinctions among men, among their deeds and their motives, and constitutes real taste, is impossible without the assistance of literature in the grand style. So there is less soil in which university teaching can take root" (p 61). "No longer do any universities have the vocation of producing gentlemen as well as scholars" (p 89)/ "The students who enter are uncivilized ... the universities have some responsibility for civilizing them" (p 341).
Dit is ’n onbegonne taak om die res van Bloom se uitstekende boek binne 1200 woorde op te som. Ek volstaan met enkele aanhalings. Met verwysing na swartes lys hy kenmerke soos: "permanent quotas in admission, preference in financial assistance, racially motivated hiring of faculty, difficulty in giving blacks failing marks, and an organized system of grievance and feeling aggrieved" (p 95). (Al hierdie euwels het hulle in oortreffende mate aan Suid-Afrikaanse universiteite ingeburger.) "The fact is that the average black student's achievements do not equal those of the average white student in the good universities, and everybody knows it. It is also a fact that the university degree of a black student is also tainted, and employers look on it with suspicion, or become guilty accomplices in the toleration of incompetence" (p 96). Die oorwegend wit Amerikaanse "democratic society cannot accept any principle of achievement other than merit" (p 96). Die waarheid is dat aan talle Suid-Afrikaanse swartes, wat plaaslik in die meerderheid is, dekades lank Amerikaanse "minority" beurse toegeken is. Gaan gerus na hoeveel van hulle sit deesdae in topposte. Terselfdertyd is wit Suid-Afrikaners, wat plaaslik in die minderheid is, stief aan Amerikaanse universiteite behandel. Hulle het nie vir "minority" beurse gekwalifiseer nie.
"The American university in the sixties was experiencing the same dismantling of the structure of rational inquiry as had the German universities in the thirties" (p 313). "The imperative to promote equality, stamp out racism, sexism and elitism ...as well as war, is overriding for a man who can define no other interest worthy of defending" (p 314). ’n Soortgelyke situasie het hom aan universiteite in die nuwe Suid-Afrika en in die breër samelewing gevestig. Volgende keer skryf ek oor die verenging van die Suid-Afrikaanse gees.
Johannes Comestor