Paglia Attacks School System

Camille Paglia, a frequent critic of some of Harvard's most eminent humanities professors, decried the state of education last night before a standing-room-only audience at the Kennedy School's ARCO Forum.

Alleging that "schools have become instruments of social engineering" which force "shallow irony on young people who are full of passion," she urged listeners to rediscover the great works of art and history for themselves.

Throughout the stream-of-consciousness speech, the professor of humanities at the University of Arts in Philadelphia hit upon her favorite topics of scorn: post-modernism and post-stucturalism, Ivy League humanities departments and political correctness.

To combat these "disasters," Paglia advocated standardized testing and a rigorous back-to-the basics approach to primary education.

"It's the best sustenance that we can give to the students to be of use to them in the long run, not just to the individual but to the society at large," she said.

At both the primary and secondary levels of education, Paglia proposed that students be taught to appreciate the history of art and history itself.

"Art and the ability to respond to art aesthetically is one of the most sustaining things that teachers can teach to their students," she said, noting that without it, they become "little blind gnomes."

Paglia, who credited her upbringing in the public schools of upstate New York and her Italian heritage for her love of art, said "the feeling of reverence, the feeling towards grandeur has been stripped away from students."

The force of Paglia's ire remained on the "humanities departments in elite schools," Who, she said, ignore the real problems that exist.

In previous speeches in Cambridge, Paglia had specifically attacked Porter University Professor Helen H. Vendler and Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France and Professor of Comparative Literature Susan R. Suleiman.

Without naming names last night, she condemned educational theories claiming that all forms of "greatness" and "genius" are the result of oppressive "political ideologies."

"Nothing great was ever produced by people whoare told greatness doesn't exist," she said.

She said she believed that contemporarypost-modernist and post-structuralist modes ofinquiry are a "disaster for students."

"There's no longer a sense of the heroic," shesaid. Post-modernism "ignores the sensoryexperience."

"I know this is unfashionable," she later said,"but I believe in facts."

Shifting her focus to the national educationalstage, Paglia also condemned forced bussing andbilingual education, saying her mother never wouldhave learned English without immersion in thelanguage.

While the majority of the audienceenthusiastically applauded Paglia, some studentsattending last night said they found her ideas"silly."

"I have a hard time taking her seriously," saidJustine Sandoff, a divinity school student.

"I find her inconsistent, but she's a goodsoundbite," he said.

Paglia's last official Harvard appearance in1994 drew a crowd of protestors. There were noprotests last night

"Nothing great was ever produced by people whoare told greatness doesn't exist," she said.

She said she believed that contemporarypost-modernist and post-structuralist modes ofinquiry are a "disaster for students."

"There's no longer a sense of the heroic," shesaid. Post-modernism "ignores the sensoryexperience."

"I know this is unfashionable," she later said,"but I believe in facts."

Shifting her focus to the national educationalstage, Paglia also condemned forced bussing andbilingual education, saying her mother never wouldhave learned English without immersion in thelanguage.

While the majority of the audienceenthusiastically applauded Paglia, some studentsattending last night said they found her ideas"silly."

"I have a hard time taking her seriously," saidJustine Sandoff, a divinity school student.

"I find her inconsistent, but she's a goodsoundbite," he said.

Paglia's last official Harvard appearance in1994 drew a crowd of protestors. There were noprotests last night