path: root/reading/we think it ordinary to spend twelve or sixteen or twenty years of a person's life and many thousand.txt

"we think it ordinary to spend twelve or sixteen or twenty years of a person's life and many thousands of public dollars on "education"-andnot a dime or a thought on character. Of course, it is preposterous to suppose that character could be cultivated by any sort of public program. Persons of character are not public products. They are made by local cultures, local responsibilities. That we have so few such persons does not suggest that we ought to start character workshops in the schools. It does suggest that "up" may be the wrong direction." (Wendell Berry – What Are People For North Point Press (2005))