"....we may say that educational nonsense consists in proposing or promoting something else than the prime object of the school, which is the removal of ignorance."

"These are the signs of a turning point in civilization. The high Renaissance ideas on which we have lived for 500 years have lost their power and we drift. We shall do so until the collective mind is emptied of dogmas and slogans and turns once again to the actualities of teaching and the plain limits of schooling. Then, some of the principles found in the perennial philosophy of the old reformers will regain their place of honor, after being restated by some crusading genius and being hailed as great new discoveries."

Jacques Barzun, "Where the Educational Nonsense Comes From"