innocuous crack to the Powers at ThenVillage Voice. Was he afraid that thenpaper would see to it that all U2nalbums were pulled from the racks innNew York before the start of businessnthe next day? Well . . .nOne of the more intelligent films bynJohn Carpenter is Escape From NewnYork. The movie posits that Manhattan,nin the not-too-distant future, isnturned into one big walled prison.nSomehow, that seems about right.nNew York had been without thenGrammy ceremonies for 10 years,nwhich makes sense, given the musicnindustry’s base in L.A. But since NewnYork wanted the show, it spent a fewnhundred thousand dollars to get it.nCertainly, there were financialnTHE ACADEMYnSchools Then andnNownby Thomas MolnarnThe present agitation around AllannBloom’s book. The Closing of thenAmerican Mind, reminds me of thenmany similar debates I have witnessednin this country during the last fourndecades. At almost regular intervals thenmediocrity of our system of education,nfrom grade school to university, isndemonstrated, denounced, deplored,nand pilloried. Committees are set upnwhich propose — the slogans hardlynchange — an “education for excellence,”nby which the pronouncementsnmean more millions of dollars, highernsalaries for teachers, new divisions ofnthe school year, and new methods ofn”motivating” students. All this for thengreater glory of the textbook and audio-visualnindustry, the real beneficiariesnof the reforms. Then, as soon asnformulated, these reforms abandon thenpath of a genuine improvement (whichnis never envisaged anyway) and generatennew ills, suspiciously like the old.nThe dialectics of solid mediocrity andnfalse cure reminds one of Tocqueville’snfamous phrase, describing much of ournpublic life and mood as an agitatednmonotony.nPrompted by these circumstances, Inam tempted to remember my ownnyears as a schoolboy and student, not tonpaybacks: restaurants holding postawardsnparties must have made a bundle.nAnd the guys in WashingtonnSquare would have seen an influx ofnheavy demand. But I really wonder ifnmiddle-American rock fans were saying,n”Hey, all my favorite musiciansnwent there — I will too!” before bookingna seat on Northwest and a room innthe Hyatt for a weekend of economynboosting in the Big Apple.nDespite the accounting that wasnfaster than a street-side three-cardnmonte game. Mayor Ed Koch wasnbeaming in the front row at RadionCity. Sitting next to him was CyndinLauper, the Betty Boop of the Boroughs,nwho was once not only the NewnArtist of the Year Grammy winner butncompare (that would be futile) but tonoffer other educational postulates,nthemselves the products of other culturesnand other human relationships. Inuse the plural because I went to schoolnin three different countries —nHungary, Rumania, and Belgium. Differentncountries, yet sharing the tacitnassumption: education concerns thenmind and the traditional areas ofnknowledge, refined and enriched bynevery generation. It has nothing to donwith the “well-rounded personality,”n”sociability,” and “getting along,” ornwith saving the world for this or thatnism and Utopian dream. Conduct,nmanners, and morals were left to otherninstitutions — family, church, the circlenof friends, military service. And therenwas something else very important: ournattitude vis-a-vis teachers and professorsnwho, merely by having authority innthe social structure and value system,nan authority not exchangeable for thensmall coin of personal friendship, letnalone a first-name based pal-approach,nwere corporately respected. They possessednthe knowledge to which wenaspired. Some of them were our intellectualnheroes, the others simply ournbetters.nI am not arguing that the reality wasnas ideal as this picture, but I insist thatnthe young need to be surrounded bynstrong images and influences; notnFreudian “father figures” which implynweakness in the young, but sources ofnrespect and admiration. Our Americannstudents’ basic and all-too-frequentnmediocrity and lethargy can be ex-nnnalso something of a success. Fortunenhad turned. There she was, her hairnperoxide blondey.her dress cut lownenough to test the physics of the straplessngown. She,looked like a burnedoutnactress hoping” to win a few minutesnon a casting couch.nIf Carpenter rriade a movie of thenaffair—a Return to New York — hencould cast Donald Pleasance as Kochnand the ever-irrepressible AdriennenBarbeau as Lauper. (I vaguely recallnhearing that Pleasance may be dead,nbut that wouldn’t make any difference;nhe’d still be great in the role.)nVasilash is in tune in Detroit.nplained as an outcome of hardly evernencountering personal or institutionalnstrength. Hardly anybody displays excellencenbefore them; all, from parentnto dean to advisor, seek to flatter them,nusing the pseuido-pal system. Longnbefore Bloom, Plato told the wholenstory.nThe overall cultural message for usnwas excellence. I recently read a volumenof Goethe’s various writings andnjottings, and it struck me that thenever-recurrent phrase is: superiornmind, views of a high order, spiritualnheights. These for Goethe were nounsnand adjectives not in need of definitions.nEnough of this mentality survivednto the 1930’s to remain thenstrongest current in the gymnasia andnlycees that I attended for a total of eightnyears, in two countries. Let me notngive the impression that we were intellectuallynstanding at attention. True, innclass we listened, hardly asked questions,nand ne4^|’discussed” (I stillnbelieve this to l^Me best method), butnwe absorbed a great deal, thenndiscussed — and/ours were free andnpassion-filled .^conversations — atnhome, in coffee’ houses and pubs, andnin endless strolls when two, three, fournyoung students opened their souls,ndreams, and whatever intelligence theynhad. Think of conversations innDostoevsky’s novels and you have it.nIn class we learii;ed, not in order justnto acquire knowledge but to satisfynstern parental demands, avoid thenprof’s sarcasms,’and to hold our ownnwith competing fellow students. It oc-nAUGUST 1988 / SIn