Ben Stein and His Money

For the past six years, the Malott Public Affairs Program at Scripps College has brought a conservative speaker to campus to bring an opportunity for meaningful dialogue in the area of public policy.  Last night's speaker, Ben Stein, was to speak on "Dark Days in America: How to Get to Daybreak."

Here is the basic outline of how Ben Stein said, last night, we get there. We will have smart people, like Steve Jobs, and people like you who are teachers, policemen and military personnel, doing small heroic things turn this country around. (I paraphrase, but don't simplfy.)

Huh?  That's it?  This, after telling us that we have the worst educated society in recent memory (he told many funny anecdotes about people he has spoken with who can't even name five rivers in America, or even people who can't subtract three-digit numbers).  He offered not one suggestion about how to fix education, but did manage to say that money won't do it.  Our schools, apparently don't really need the air conditioning, he said (when moments later he thanked the people backstage for turning on the AC because he was getting warm, and that AC is a better invention than the internet).

Stein is a funny speaker, but in terms of depth of content, I found him utterly lacking.