Education: Old-Fashioned Progressive

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Last week, at his banquet, Perry Smith delivered one final plea for the middle way of the "oldfashioned progressive." He denounced those who would sweep away all discipline and intellectual content from the school ("Certainly the old-fashioned progressive never advocated any such thing"). He also deplored those who insist that everything progressive is wrong. "As one great headmaster put it, 'You are neglecting to put the fear of God into [children].' Yes, perhaps so, but it is my belief that we put the love of God into children, and that is far better."