Aldous Huxley Quotes
Plasticene and self-expression will not solve the problems of education. Nor will technology and vocational guidance; nor the classics and the Hundred Best Books.
Huxley, Aldous. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Other Essays. Harper & Brothers, 1956.
The second sentence was used by demonstrators in a parents protest in Raleigh, NC shortly thereafter.
Some find interest in the fact that Adams did not see education as raising the lower classes to be equal to that of the upper class. He chose the word “nearer.”
The phrase “national care and expense” was one that was seen as precedent for those advocating federal aid to education and a strong Department of Education. However, the majority of Adams contemporaries saw education, even public education, as a local matter. The word “education” or “school” never appeared in the Constitution. Adams was well before his time on this point.
Many argued that it had been tried and found wanting. Mr. Chubb’s company had been awarded many contracts to operate public schools in competition with the school board. A number of these were cancelled or not renewed based on a perception of poor competitive performance.
At the time the Colonial British Government controlled the Indian Educational System. Kahn and a few others thought that the Indians should take control of their own educational systems.
This plank if ever actually implemented would clearly destroy the American educational system. Extreme radical ideas such as this are not typical of Libertarian Party positions before or afterwards. The quotation illustrates that there are people in America who would end public education if they could. The quotation also illustrates how a small cadre of people can capture control of a political party and create a platform that is their own personal views which may be different from most of the party members or the historical position that the party has taken. In 1980 the Libertarian Party Vice Presidential Candidate was David Koch, one half of the billionaire conservative Koch brothers. Their money financed the Libertarian Party in that year and David Koch’s views then prevailed in the party platform. Historically, the Koch brothers moved from a minor third party to the Republican party at the beginning of the 21st century when their money was able to help drive the party very far to the right from the traditions of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and philosopher. He wrote nearly 50 books—both novels and non-fiction works—as well as wide-ranging essays, narratives, and poems.
