Tomorrow H. L Mencken would have turned 130. Today, to honor that anniversary, the folks at the Enoch Pratt Library in Baltimore and the Mencken Society put on a program that included Jonathan Yardley, book critic at that Washington Post, giving the annual Mencken Day Lecture. What follows is from the newly published set of Mencken’s Prejudices from the Library of America Series.
Almost the only thing I believe in with a childlike and unquestioning faith, in this world of doubts and delusions, is free speech; nevertheless, I find it increasingly difficult to sympathize with the pedagogues who, ever and anon, are heaved out of some fresh-water college for trying to exercise it. Why? Mainly, perhaps , because I can’t get rid of the suspicion that nothing a pedagogue ever says, as pedagogue, is worth hearing – that his avocation is as fatal to sense as that of an archbishop, a Federal judge, or one of the automata in Mr. Ford’s great squirrel cage at Detroit. But also, no doubt, because I am obsessed by the superstition that, assuming him miraculously to have sense, he is so much out of place in any ordinary American college as an archbishop would be in a bordello.
What ails all these bogus martyrs is a false theory of education. They seem to believe that its aim is to fill the pupil’s head with a mass of provocative and conflicting ideas, to arouse his curiosity to incandescence and inspire him to inquiry and speculation – in the common phrase, to teach him how to think. But this is surely nonsense. If education really had any such aim its inevitable effect would be to reduce nine-tenths of its victims to insanity, and to convert most of the rest into anarchists. What it seeks to do is something quite different – something, in fact, almost the opposite. It is financed by the state and by private philanthropists, not to make lunatics and anarchists, but to make good citizens – in other words, to make citizens who are nearly like all other citizens as possible. Its ideal product is not a boy or a girl full of novel ideas but one full of lawful and correct ideas – not one who thinks, but one who believes. If it actually graduated hordes of Platos and Nietzsches it would be closed by the Department of Justice, and quite properly. (“In the Rolling Mills,†Prejudices: Sixth Series [Library of America] vol. 2, p. 509.)
Old Life 
That many college campuses produce anarchists and those who are much more confused about life after they leave then before they entered is undoubtedly true. Someone is probably better off not going to college, learning to work with his hands to make a living (a trade) and then learning good theology at a good Church each Sunday. Your life will probably be much more satisfying and content. That certainly simplifies life and as far as I can tell that is all the scriptures require of us.
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“That is all the scriptures require of us.” Probably not an accurate thing to say but I was referring to his yoke being easy and his burden light. He did do all the work in regards to our salvation but Paul took that as deep motivation to pour out his life for his Savior.
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Where is the Facebook ‘like’ button?
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I am surprised that this blog got so little attention while Putting the TR in Trueman got so much. What’s up with that? Perhaps confessionalists and 2kers are tired of debating this issue in regards to their kids and whether they should go to public schools or not. It seems that there are great problems in the institutions of higher learning too and Christians who believe in a broad liberal education in order to understand God’s world and Word better should make their voices heard in this arena. Or, should confessionalists just try to establish their own institutions of higher learning separate from governmental regulated and aided types?
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John, maybe it’s because Mencken wasn’t a Christian and so what he says doesn’t matter for TRs.
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John, if Mencken wasn’t being sarcastic, then I’ve never understood a word he wrote.
However, it does seem that covenantal education concerns are limited to coming out and being separate from public primary and secondary schools. Colleges, on the other hand, validate the success of their alternative education and should be attended as soon as is feasible, preferably before their public-schooled counterparts graduate from high school.
Thoughtful criticisms of higher education, particularly the liberal arts, are supplied readily by Roman Catholics (ISI) or other infidels, like Mencken, Richard Mitchell, or Neil Postman. The paucity of a Reformed equivalent — something transcending both, “There are feminists; they have sex,” and “the worldview where’s the worldview there’s the worldview it’s from HELL” — is one of the things that can haunt you for years before you finally count to 2k.
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I went to Calvin College and found I had to unlearn much of what I learned there. After leaving there I was gung-ho about bringing my Christian convictions to our family business. I tried it in the office but my older two brother did not take to well to it. So, I ended up working in the back part of the factory trying to improve the manufacturing processes (where the real problems of the business actually were) of our casket lowering device (which my great uncle invented back in the early 1900’s).
I read a book at Calvin called The Goal by a Jewish physicist who applied his doctrinal thesis on liquids flowing through different mediums to the manufacturing process. There are bottlenecks in the flow of parts through a shop that keep the throughput and work-in-process inventory at levels which you do not want. You want to decrease the throughput time (time it takes to flow the part(s) through the shop) and decrease the work-in-process. This is not as easy a task as it is to explain and all sorts of difficulties pop up which befuddle your plans and strategy. Plus it is hard to get your employees to cooperate. It was especially difficult to get my brothers and the production manager on board. It became a source of much conflict, resistance and arguing. A great problem ensued in that no one was willing to read about it and get it but everyone had their own ideas about how to accomplish our goals. The production manager just wanted to buy new equipment. We kept having cash flow problems because the money that went out for raw material was taking too long to get a return due to lags in getting the device out quickly. Our lead times were 4 to 6 weeks when it should have been going out within 1 to 5 days.
My education at Calvin did not help me much although I enjoyed the time I spent there. The professors were great and I still correspond with some of them. I still have a hangover, however, from trying to transform the culture in our business. MY brother and I barely talk anymore (besides he ended up being a Willow Creeker who know Bill Hybels quite well) and I decided to take a hiatus from the business for a while (I could not tolerate the resistance anymore and gave up on my project for a variety of reasons). Then the economy took a severe downturn. The problems are still not fixed there. It has been a nightmare. I still want to go back and fix the problems but have developed a rather confrontational personality as a result of all this and my brother does not really want me back. It was a very frustrating experience.
I find it hard to believe that Mencken thought the purpose of education was to get people to believe in order to be good citizens. We were often told at Calvin that the purpose was to get us to think more critically. That was the buzzword fed to us all the time. You can drive yourself crazy thinking critically all the time and I think I get what Mencken was trying to say- even though his beliefs were not Christian in nature. That should be pursued a bit further here I believe.
Matt, I have finally counted to 2K and would have approached the problems at the factory in a much different way if I had known then what I do now. Live and learn I guess.
I have also learned that you can learn much from non-Christians who often possess much wisdom. I still am not convinced that your view of reality does not ultimately take its toll on you though and you eventually have to deal with the grim reaper in your life. There are many thoughtful non-Christians who we run into in our vocations whom I have learned to listen to more intently and develop relationships with. I think it is very beneficial to do this.
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