It seems that my 'letter to the editor' on the shamefulness of the English Department has sparked a firestorm of rebuttals. Although the magnitude of the response was surprising to me, I think that I understand its cause.

We are in the midst of a cultural war. Assumptions unquestioned for centuries have been torn from the social fabric. Right now, because of the current politicization of intellectual life of this university, it is better to read inferior writings of ideologically correct writers than it is to read works of undoubted genius from dead (European) white guys.

This is a shame. As students, we are being cheated. Instead of being taught the best of what has been thought and written, we are receiving, in many cases, instruction that is second or third rate, or worse. Instead of beauty, we receive the tawdry. We ask for bread and are given a stone.

Let me share with you why English and the traditional canon are important to me.

In high school, I was as dispassionate about English class as I was of the surprise 'meat' in the lunch line. Back then, I would rather drink fire than to spend a whole day in that class--I would, for example, be the fellow who, dozing off, drops his very heavy pen to the ground, startling the whole class.

It was not until college, that the mist dissipated and I seemed to wake up. Starting last summer, I began seriously studying the writing style of some wordsmiths of the nineteenth century. I would take someone like Cardinal (John Henry) Newman, and specifically study some of his writings.

With that study, I would write on notepad paper the passages, paragraphs, or even the whole chapters, verbatim. Now, you may ask yourself why I would devote so much time and effort to such study when it was not a requirement in some course.

Well, let's just say that it is something that I enjoy doing. I have, over these months, seen a dramatic change in my own understanding of sentence structure and the power of words.

Admittedly, I have much to learn. My ideas are not formed as they will be when I am older. My writing style has not yet matured. Yet I -- even I! -- can have a valid opinion about what is taught in the English Department here at the University of Houston.

It seems to me, that with this trend of having classes devoted to so-called unprejudiced and nonjudgmental topics, the art of words about which I am passionate becomes obscure and unimportant. When a class focuses on Gay and Lesbian Literature, not for the sake of the literature, but for the sake of 'feelings' and 'diversity,' the class loses the tradition of the great ideas. In place of art and the belle lettres are confusion and a mind so open that it becomes no mind at all.

The traditional canon should be re-introduced into this campus before it is too late. Soon, and so very soon, those who enter the university with a passion for English and for literature selected on the basis of its beauty, power and greatness, will leave it in utter despair. Others, who might have learned the beauty of ideas will remain ignorant. They will do their stint of four or so years and leave without their share of the accumulated centuries of knowledge, art and culture that a university education is supposed to convey.

©2001 Terry Bohannon.  Contact the author terry@abortionessay.com for intended use.