Thus he was part
of the broad,
humanistic, and stoic (and, later, Christian)
tradition of the West — one that
valued basic natural rights and was incessantly called into question by variations
of utilitarian and utopian thinking.
While I have come to recognize the
value of such schools for some students, parents, and teachers, I continue to subscribe to the ideal
of a
humanistic liberal arts education that is highly prescriptive and, while global in scope, grounded in the intellectual, aesthetic, and moral
traditions of western civilization.