Tea at Trianon: American Academy Plan For Education

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

Saturday, November 23, 2024

From The Easton Gazette:

Last week we wrote about Trump's plan for education in the United States using his campaign web page as reference. A large part of Trump's education plan is the "American Academy." He explains it in this video posted on "X."

Jack Montgomery on X: "Trump's best education policy, announced as part of 'Agenda 47' in November 2023, is the American Academy. This completely free, online institution, funded by taxes on woke universities' endowments, will offer full degrees, and college credits to people with incomplete degrees: https://t.co/0GWnJmloWK" / X

One of the most interesting parts of this plan is the idea that large universities endowments need to be taxed, particularly in this era of ridiculously high college tuition. Here are the top ten endowments in the U.S. by university: (this data was by September 30, 2022.) (Read more.)