Don’t let your right-wing political correctness spoil your enjoyment of Bruce Springsteen today.
But if you actually know something about music, perhaps you’d prefer to think of it as John Coltrane’s birthday.
And if you’re still all worried about the crisis in civic literacy, you might want to celebrate the birth of the man who did so much to bring that old-fashioned kind of literacy to our country, William H. McGuffey of the McGUFFEY READERS.
Professor Lawler -- Any good essays on the McGuffey Readers that come to mind? I'd being interested in knowing more. I only know these readers were excellent and were good transmitters of civilization, history, and literacy.
David, Peter: Marilynne Robinson, the novelist who won a Pullitzer for her novel Gilead, has a wonderful essay on the McGuffey readers in her non-fiction work, The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought.
Its worth noting that she's a very serious thinker, and probably is the best interpreter of Calvin writing these days.
Matt S., thanks, I'm ordering that book right now.