STATE OF THE UNIVERSITY – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 10:43 A.M. ET:  Occasionally we come across a piece that clarifies some subject beautifully.  David Solway has written a superb article for American Thinker on the declining state of the sandboxes we used to call universities.   It contains this quote:

Those of my graduating class who survived the curriculum and performance standards then in place became leaders in their fields, names to be reckoned with in medicine, engineering, math and science, law, education, politics, literature, entertainment, music, and television. None of us profited from the “participation trophy” syndrome -- honors awarded for merely being there. James Harrison, a linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers, reacted to his sons’ receiving such trophies by returning these gewgaws to sender. “I’m not sorry,” he explained, “for believing that everything in life should be earned.” You don’t get to be a star linebacker by hanging around the locker room or claiming special consideration on the field. Similarly, university graduates cannot be expected to achieve real-world results, make their mark or contribute meaningfully to society unless, by hard work and applied intelligence, they have justly and faithfully earned their degrees -- with the proviso, of course, that these degrees are genuinely substantive.

COMMENT:  Well said.  I believe that part of Trump's victory – which was a protest vote – was a rejection of the society our universities are creating.  But those universities don't listen, and won't listen.  They see themselves as the adolescent resistance.  They grieve over the election results.  They join their coddled students in expressing their deepest emotions, which are on the emotional level of 12-year-olds. 

Saving our educational system will possibly be the most important fight of our times.  There is no guarantee it will be won.  Trump, with his brashness, may well be the man who can be a key leader in that fight.  If he can get us halfway there, he'll be an outstanding president. 

Read Solway's entire piece. 

December 12,  2016