Tea at Trianon: School Can Be Hell

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

School Can Be Hell

One family's experience at a government school. (Via Serge) Share

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: This story illustrates some of the many reasons why we homeschool. As a child, I witnessed similar garbage at our 'top' and 'award winning' local public school. I swore that if I ever had children that I would never make them endure the living nightmare of a dysfunctional school.; July 29, 2009 at 4:13:00 AM EDT
Julygirl said...: A sad but real condition, and it goes beyond our schools. There is a hierarchy of bullying. The bully has in turn been bullied by someone meaner and stronger. The bully learns from having been bullied. One would think that having been bullied, the bully would take a different stance in life. To intimidate in order to show power can be seen in every area of society.; July 29, 2009 at 9:49:00 AM EDT