要約問題/1971年

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　What has made nonsense of most modern education in North America is simply the misapplication of the democratic belief that all men are created equal. Nobody believes this in anything that matters to the common man: the common man does not for an instant believe that an untrained fighter is the equal of the trained one, or that a boy with slow reflexes can play baseball like Babe Ruth or Ted Williams. But in education it is convenient to believe that all men are created equal, and this has been the main difficulty ever since any of us alive can remember. In order to be true to the democratic idea, our schools for years have supported a system in which excellence has been sacrificed. The intelligence level of the not too bright literally controls the curriculum, and able pupils are compelled to do their work at the slow learners' pace. This was already the case when I went to school. Since then a flood of new theories has invaded the system with results which would have horrified even the liberal teachers and parents of my day. In some educational philosophies it is argued that it is practically a form of cruelty to expose a dull or lazy child to the competition of excellence, so giving grades such as A, B, or C is abolished. Failure, it is claimed, will turn the dull boy into a neurotic. It never occurs to people who think like this that frustration will do the same for the excellent boy.

（注）　reflexes　反射（いわゆる反射神経）
　　　　neurotic　神経症患者
　　　　frustration　欲求不満