I am reading Who Killed Homer? by Hanson and Heath. In the book they contend that the current view ofeducation has shifted towards pragmatism and away from the classics. By "classics" I think they mean learning to actually think. I tend to agree with this assessment mainly because a pragmatic view of education would simply be equivalent to learning inputs and outputs without learning HOW the inputs become the outputs. Education becomes mechanical only, not thought provoking.