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456 lines
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IS THIS AN UNTAMPERED FILE?
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This ASCII-file version of Imprimis, On Line was
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Imprimis, On Line -- September 1992
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Imprimis, meaning "in the first place," is a free
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monthly publication of Hillsdale College (circulation
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360,000 worldwide). Hillsdale College is a liberal arts
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institution known for its defense of free market
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principles and Western culture and its nearly 150-year
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refusal to accept federal funds. Imprimis publishes
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lectures by such well-known figures as Ronald Reagan,
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Jeane Kirkpatrick, Tom Wolfe, Charlton Heston, and many
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more. Permission to reprint is hereby granted, provided
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credit is given to Hillsdale College. Copyright 1992.
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For more information on free print subscriptions or
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back issues, call 1-800-437-2268, or 1-517-439-1524,
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ext. 2319.
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------------------------------
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"Public Policy and Some Personal Reminiscences"
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by Thomas Sowell, Senior Fellow,
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Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace
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------------------------------
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Volume 21, Number 9
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Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan 49242
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August 1992
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------------------------------
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Preview: In a series of fascinating personal
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observations, world-renowned economist Thomas Sowell
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talks about the failure of central planners and social
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engineers to improve the lot of blacks in America. He
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contrasts that failure with the success of blacks who
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have regarded hard work and determination rather than
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entitlements and victimhood as the key to getting
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ahead. He describes a bygone era in Harlem, but makes
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it clear that the values that inspired this era live
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on. Dr. Sowell's remarks were delivered during
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Hillsdale's Shavano Institute for National Leadership
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10-year anniversary gala in Colorado Springs this past
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January.
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------------------------------
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There is a story, which I hope is apocryphal, that the
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French police were chasing a criminal who fled into a
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building in Paris. Their first thought was that they
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would surround the building. But then they realized
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that the building was so large, and had so many exits,
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that they didn't have enough policemen on the scene to
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do that. So they surrounded the building next door,
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which was smaller and had fewer exits.
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Much of the academic research in the social
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sciences follows exactly this pattern of reasoning.
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Often we don't have information on the variables
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that matter, so we surround other variables, using
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statistics that the Census Bureau, or the Congressional
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Budget Office, or someone else has supplied to us. Last
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year, for example, both the media and the politicians
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seized upon statistics which showed that blacks
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received less prenatal care, and had higher infant
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mortality rates, than whites. The obvious answer was
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more government spending on prenatal care. Yet the very
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same study showed that Mexican Americans received even
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less prenatal care than blacks and had slightly lower
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infant mortality rates than whites.
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Prenatal care was the building next door.
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Recently, looking back over my life while writing
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some autobiographical sketches, I realized that the
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variables which economists and sociologists can measure
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are not the variables that matter. Sometimes friends
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and colleagues, at gatherings like this, introduce me
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as someone who came out of Harlem and went on to the
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Ivy League (and, better yet, the University of
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Chicago). But this presents as unique something that
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was far from unique.
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It was not the norm for people in Harlem to go on
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to college, but neither was it unique--not among the
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kids who grew up in Harlem in the 1940s, as I did. I am
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neither the best-known nor the most prosperous person
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to come out of the same neighborhood during the same
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era. Nor were all the others basketball players.
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All of the places where I lived while growing up
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in Harlem were within a ten-block radius of 145th
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Street and St. Nicholas Avenue. Within that same radius
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lived a boyhood friend named Eddie Mapp, who is today
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dean of one of the colleges in New York City. In a
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building on the corner of 145th Street and St. Nicholas
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lived another boy, named Leonti Thompson, who was not a
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friend of mine--I can recall the teacher having to
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separate us when we were fighting in class--but Leonti
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grew up to become a psychiatrist, owned property in
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California's Napa Valley, and is today retired and
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living overseas, while I still have to work for a
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living. In the same building as Leonti lived an older
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boy who also did well and who made a name for himself--
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Harry Belafonte.
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Within the same ten-block radius, at the same
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time, another fellow grew up to make money and a name--
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James Baldwin. Someone else who went to college within
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this same ten-block radius, though he lived elsewhere,
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was a young man named Colin Powell.
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Were all these simply rare individuals? Perhaps,
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but it is also true that more black males passed the
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difficult entrance examination for Stuyvesant High
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School in 1938 than in 1983, even though the black
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population of New York was much smaller in 1938. As for
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the masses of students in the Harlem public schools at
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that time, their test scores were lower than those of
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students in affluent neighborhoods, but not
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dramatically lower like today, and they were very
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similar to the test scores of white students in other
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working class neighborhoods, such as on the lower east
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side of Manhattan. During some years, the kids in
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Harlem scored higher than the kids on the lower east
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side, and in other years the kids on the lower east
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side might nose them out. But they were both in the
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same league.
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Ability grouping was very common in the Harlem
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schools in those days, as it was throughout the system.
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A Harlem youngster who was in the top-ability class at
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his grade level received a solid education that would
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allow him to go on and compete with anybody, anywhere.
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It is somewhat embarrassing today when people praise me
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for having gone through the Harlem schools and then on
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to Harvard. I did not go through the Harlem schools of
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today--and would be lucky to get into any college if I
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did.
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What is relevant to public policy is that none of
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the educational success of the past was a result of the
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kinds of policies and programs that are today being
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actively promoted in Washington or in the media. That
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is, we had none of the so-called "prerequisites" for
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quality education.
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We did not, for example, have racially integrated
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student bodies. Nor did we have racial role models:
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Virtually all the teachers were white. I was taught
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more about a Dutchman named Peter Stuyvesant than about
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Frederick Douglass or W.E.B. DuBois. There was no
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"community input." It is also very doubtful that we had
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"adequate funding," since there never seems to be any
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in education. Those things are all like the building
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next door.
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Certainly we did not have small classes and there
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were no teacher's aides. More importantly, there were
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no security guards. I was 42 years old when I first saw
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a security guard in a public school. Today, there are
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national conventions of public school security guards.
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No one asked us if we preferred innovative and
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"exciting" teaching, rather than "rote memory." The
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Bible says: "By their fruits ye shall know them." In
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the educational literature of today, it is "by their
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excitement ye shall know them." When they proclaim a
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new program to be "exciting," people who ask, "Does it
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work?" are regarded as party poopers.
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Back in the Harlem of the 1940s, no one asked if
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our homes were broken or bent. We did not sit around in
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circles unburdening our psyches, nor would anyone have
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dreamed of calling a teacher by her first name. No one
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asked what my sexual preferences were--nor would I have
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known what the question meant if they had.
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I was very fortunate to have gone through school
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in those days, rather than today--and that good fortune
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has benefitted me the rest of my life. It was one of
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many pieces of good fortune which I could not fully
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appreciate until years later. But my good fortune did
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not consist in the kinds of things being promoted
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today, or the kinds of things that can be measured in
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the statistics of economists or sociologists. If I had
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been raised in a home with twice the money and half the
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attention, there is no question that I would have been
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much worse off.
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Another piece of good fortune was meeting the kid
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named Eddie Mapp, whom I mentioned earlier. He came
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from a family with more of an educational background
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than mine, and he was more sophisticated about
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education and culture. He took me to a public library
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for the first time, and I can still recall the great
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difficulty I had understanding why we were in this
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building with all these books, when I had no money to
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buy books.
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Part of my good fortune consisted of the family
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that I grew up in--and part of the ill fortune of
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today's students consists of the systematic undermining
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of families, and of the traditional values that parents
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try to pass on. Nowhere is this undermining of parents
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and parental values more pervasive and systematic than
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in the public schools. You would simply have to read
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the textbooks, or see the movies shown in schools, to
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understand what a betrayal is going on behind the backs
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of parents and the public.
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Where I have been able to find schools with the
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kind of academic quality once taken for granted, they
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have seldom had the "prerequisites" listed by the
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education establishment. One of these schools, which I
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researched some years ago, was P.S. 39 in Brooklyn, a
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ghetto school where students scored at or above their
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grade level, even though about a third of them were on
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welfare. The building was so old that there were gas
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jets in the halls, because it was built in the era of
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gas lights, before electricity.
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One of the unfashionable things the school
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principal did was to have ability grouping within the
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school. This school, like so many schools, was once an
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all-white institution. As the neighborhood changed, the
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composition of the students obviously changed with it.
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I asked the principal: "Suppose someone else wants to
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reproduce what you have done here. If they have ability
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grouping, won't there be a period of transition, where
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the white kids are concentrated in the top classes and
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the black kids in the bottom classes? And even though
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that will take care of itself over time, won't you get
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a lot of flack during the transition?"
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His reply was: "You just take the flack." That is
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not an attitude you find among most public school
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administrators.
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One of the great contrasts between the schools of
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the past and the schools of today is in discipline.
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Here I speak from some experience, because I was one of
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the mischievous kids who ran afoul of that discipline,
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though not in anything like the ways kids get into
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trouble today.
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When my eighth-grade teacher discovered a prank in
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the classroom, she said "Oh, if I ever find out who did
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this, Sowell._"
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On one of the many afternoons when I was kept
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after school, Miss Karoff said sarcastically, "Well,
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here we are again, Sowell, just the two of us."
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"Good grief, Miss Karoff, " I said, "if we keep
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staying in after school together all the time, people
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will begin to talk."
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Without even looking up from her paperwork, she
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replied, "We'll just have to learn to live with the
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scandal."
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Today, punishing a student, much less suspending
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him, can literally be a federal case. Recently, in East
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Palo Alto, a ghetto not far from Stanford University,
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there was a legal challenge to the suspension of a
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student who kicked a teacher in the groin. The student
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had legal counsel supplied by the Stanford law school,
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which runs a project in East Palo Alto. Apparently
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Stanford thinks that they are helping the residents of
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East Palo Alto by keeping hoodlums in their schools, so
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that the other children there can't learn.
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Isn't it a shame that blacks don't have enough
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money to be able to hire attorneys to go over into
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white neighborhoods and create lawsuits to keep white
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hoodlums in school, so that the people at Stanford and
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similar places could understand the consequences of
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what they are doing?
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The great tragedy of contemporary American
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education is that actual consequences mean far less
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than prevailing myths. These myths and illusions cover
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many areas, including the role of teachers and the
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relationships between students and teachers.
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My great mentor, the late George Stigler at the
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University of Chicago, was not one of those who shared
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these illusions. When someone mentioned to him the
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legendary image of Mark Hopkins sitting on a log,
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talking to a student on the other end, Stigler said:
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"Sometimes you could do just as well sitting on the
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student and talking to the log." The "self-esteem"
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dogma, so much in vogue in education today, never
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seemed to be one of Stigler's guiding principles.
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Anyone who crossed swords with George Stigler, whether
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in a classroom or otherwise, was unlikely to have his
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self-esteem raised. As for the warm and close
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relationship between student and teacher, Stigler once
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said of his own mentor, Jacob Viner: "I never threw my
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arms around Jacob Viner; he would have killed me if I'd
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tried." And I never threw my arms around George Stigler
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for exactly the same reason.
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There are those who believe that evaluating the
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quality of a teacher means having someone sitting in
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the classroom, observing what is going on, and then
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writing up a report afterward. Many would apply this
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procedure all the way up to the college level. From my
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own experience, I think this is both a mistaken and a
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dangerous idea.
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What goes on in a classroom is neither the sum
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total of teaching nor even the most important part of
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teaching. Certainly during my own teaching career, at
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least half the work of a course consisted of preparing
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the course, and all of that took place before the first
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student showed up.
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One of my teachers in college, Professor Arthur
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Smithies, never would have passed the classroom
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examination test. Smithies used to sort of drift into
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the classroom, almost as if he had meant to go
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somewhere else and had taken the wrong turn. He would
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wander around the room, look out the window, and become
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fascinated by the traffic in Harvard Square. Then,
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being a polite fellow, he would realize that we were
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still there, and turn to say something to us. Students
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thought he was a terrible teacher. But, in fact, his
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course shaped my whole career.
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Professor Smithies taught the history of economic
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thought, and through him I became interested in that
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subject which became my professional specialization in
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economics. It was through Smithies' course that I first
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learned of George Stigler. After reading an article by
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Stigler among the assignments in that course I resolved
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that I would study under him in graduate school.
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Had you observed Stigler himself in class, he was
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much better than Arthur Smithies. But I am sure that
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there would be other teachers whom you could not have
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distinguished from George Stigler in the classroom--
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except by the substance of what he said. Only if you
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could understand and appreciate his substance would you
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realize that here was one of the great minds of our
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time.
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Education professors may believe that there is
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such a thing as teaching independently of what is being
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taught, but that is one of the reasons our schools are
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so bad. The notion that some college dean, especially
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from one of those large universities with 20,000 or
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30,000 students, could sit in classrooms with
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professors from 30 or 40 different disciplines and
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form any intelligent idea of what they were saying in
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substance--such a notion boggles the mind.
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I had another reminder of my good fortune a few
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years ago, when my niece confessed to me that she had
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harbored a number of resentments over the years. One
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thing that provoked her resentment was when her father
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and I would talk about the old days when I was growing
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up, and all the things we did together, sane and
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insane. What made her resentful was that he never did
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any of those things with her. Her resentments were also
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on behalf of her brother, as well as herself. Her
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father, she said, "treated you better than he treated
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his own son." When I thought about it, I realized that
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she was probably right. The reason was simple: I
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happened to come along earlier, at a time when her
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parents were a couple of carefree young people with two
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salaries and no children, and with lots of time, much
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of it given to me.
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This good fortune, like so many of the factors
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that go into shaping people's lives, consisted of
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things which are utterly uncontrollable by the
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government, or by any other human institution. Had I
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been born five years earlier or five years later, there
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is no question that I would have been worse off. If you
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looked at the kinds of statistical indices used by
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economists and sociologists, my niece came from a
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better environment than I did, but it was not an
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environment that was able to offer her as much as my
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environment offered me.
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The whole notion that you can equalize opportunity
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in the things that matter is utopian. Some years ago,
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there was a study of National Merit Scholarship
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finalists broken down by the size of the family they
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came from, from two-child families to five-child
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families. In each family size, the first-born became a
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National Merit finalist more often than all the other
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children put together. Here we are talking about
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children born of the same parents and raised under the
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same roof. Yet even though heredity and environment, as
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those terms are conventionally defined, have both been
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held constant, nevertheless here is a major disparity
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in outcomes.
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Clearly, conventional statistics do not measure
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what really matters, nor are policy-makers who rely on
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such statistics able to do much more than surround the
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building next door.
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------------------------------
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Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover
|
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Institution on War, Revolution and Peace and is the
|
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author of such well-known books as Classical Economics
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Reconsidered (Princeton University Press, 1974),
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Knowledge and Decisions (Basic Books, 1980), Markets
|
|
and Minorities (Basic Books, 1981), Ethnic America
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(Basic Books, 1981), A Conflict of Visions (William
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|
Morrow & Company, 1987), Compassion Versus Guilt
|
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(William Morrow & Company, 1989), and Preferential
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Policies: An International Perspective (William Morrow
|
|
& Company, 1990). Nobel economists F.A. Hayek and
|
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Milton Friedman have called his work "brilliant";
|
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Forbes has called him one of the greatest economists
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writing today.
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###
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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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End of this issue of Imprimis, On Line; Information
|
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about the electronic publisher, Applied Foresight,
|
|
Inc., is in the file, IMPR_BY.TXT
|
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+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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