Wisdom requires thinking, exertion, toil, and attention. It is rarely easy, and those who attempt to make it so end up dumbing down the content of what is to be taught.
Last fall, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran an article outlining some of the challenges facing public schools in our time. The report included a school official who was quoted as saying that middle schools in the area should no longer be thought of as "cold, instruction-driven places." I was amazed by that particular comment. How could any school official in the business of educating and instructing today's youth possibly characterize instruction as being "cold"? Wouldn't it be like a doctor saying that today's hospitals are no longer "stale medicine-driven ...