“In her essay, Vanessa Wills casually conflates activism, compassion, and a typical liberal agenda. I say this is sophistry. As antidote, I suggest Max Eastman’s Reflections on the Failure of Socialism, one of the world’s great (short) books. I would love to know if anyone at Princeton teaches it.

Personally, I’d been noticing the last few years how so-called activists always seemed to be liberals. When I decided to set up a Web site (Improve-Education.org) pushing more sensible approaches to education, I decided that I would hail myself, in press releases, as an “education activist.” A little tongue-in-cheek, but when I think about the ignorance and illiteracy that so-called liberal educators have fostered, I have to conclude I’m the real activist here.”

BRUCE DEITRICK PRICE / Norfolk, Va.
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Well, that’s the edited version that they published; but the gist is there. The key thing omitted about Max Eastman’s book is that, after he renounced Communism, he couldn’t decide what to call himself. He said, in effect: “I want to call myself a liberal. But the Commies have stolen the word.” This all the way back in 1953!! The problem persists. People calling themselves liberals push ideas (in education and elsewhere) that aren’t liberal at all. Not Jeffersonian liberal. Not liberal as in devoted to liberty (the terms were once synonymous). So I, like Max, can’t call myself a liberal. I thought I had better start calling myself an education activist before some of the same people could completely steal this phrase. And that is how I became an education activist!