my quote of the week

I've been reading (as part of my background research for Denying Science) and absolutely adoring Susan Jacoby's The Age of American Unreason (2008) -- more about it at the end of the month when I post my informal notes on the books I've read during May, but for the moment just know that you should put this book right at the top of your to-be-read pile, and if necessary cast aside whatever it is you're reading at the moment.

What's not to love about a text where you keep coming across shafts of illumination like this one, which comes amid a discussion of the idiocy of supposedly educational video series for pre-speech infants and even babes in the cradle (think Baby Einstein and BabyFirstTV):

How pathetic it is that such products now appeal to a huge market of people who do not understand that the way to introduce children to music is by playing good music, uninterrupted by video clowns, at home; the way to introduce poetry is by reciting or reading it at bedtime; and the way to instill an appreciation of beauty is not to bombard a toddler with screen images of Monet's Giverny but to introduce her to the real sights and scents of a garden. (p15)