The Destruction of the Scottish Canon
Excerpt: "The Tradition’s destruction is a tragedy. Knowledge enriches life and cannot be acquired outside a course of disciplined study.
This was the Scottish tradition’s philosophy: By mastering the common course, children would acquire a systematic, structured view of the world. So equipped, its students could enjoy complex literature, understand the natural world, trace the origins of their language, and make sense of their national history, all as part of a single whole.
The old curriculum’s teachers and professors brought a particular spirit unique to Scotland, a certain attitude or element of taste in thought, a particular temperament and pride. As perfectly decontextualized knowledge becomes ever more automated, this tacit, untextualized spirit may be one of the last things which remains distinctively human.
Yet, Scotland, oblivious to past and future, rushes ahead to discard the last remaining traces of its once Great Tradition."