Review of "An Education for Our Time"

Think of a mixture of Newman's "The Idea of a University," the Virginia Military Academy, and Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged." Let's take classical 18/19th century educational ideals, combine them with military school rigors, and sequester our budding "ubermensch" in an isolated Western retreat where they will develop the skills that one day might save our country from the decadence currently overtaking it.

This is something of a "if I had unlimited resources, I would . . . " book. The author, Josiah Bunting III, novelist, decorated officer, and superintendent of VMI, is a good writer and intriguing thinker, but this book feels like it was written pre-9/11, and it was. It's very much of a piece with the other disgruntled, pessimistic, anti-Clinton, "Slouching Toward Gomorrah" works that conservative circles were particularly prone to in the late 90s.

As such, I didn't find too many things worth adopting in our contemporary JBU context, though I could certainly see what the appeal might be of the kind of education Bunting is promoting. Part of me wishes that I had had a school experience along these lines. And I think some of the "Classical Christian" groups would be particularly supportive of many the ideas mentioned.

But in the end, I'm much more optimistic about the current state of America and the world as well as being wedded to the blessings (and yes, I see them by and large as blessings) of our contemporary society to desire to create something like what Bunting is suggesting. Would it be nice if such a thing existed? Sure. Am I at all interested in trying to implement even small pieces of this particular vision? Not really.