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Teaching in the humanities.

For Erasmus, the problem was, “We are teaching them to rule us.”

The teacher, who knows the liberal arts that are unknown to the pupils, rules the pupils. The teacher can administer corporal punishment. And the beatings go on all day.

Meanwhile the teacher is giving new powers to the pupils. Making them fit to rule.

For my students, poetry is not a path to preferment. Knowledge of poetry will not help them attract a duchess's attention. Humanistic learning will not qualify them to be ambassadors to the courts of Europe.

For me and my colleagues, the problem is that we are keepers of a treasure no one else wants.