Surprised? Not Really

Have a look at this:

Look at the set-up: who are you and what are you doing here? You're going to play piano? Classical piano? The judges look suitably cynical and once he starts to play there are shots of bored audience members yawning. Then it goes all funky as he does a robotic dance to a pumped up version of Für Elise with orchestra. All is saved! We won't have to listen to boring old piano music after all. Just moments before I read this:

One day, while giving my annual talk in 2005 about the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1856 at a respected East Coast college made famous by Lincoln, I had a eureka moment of sorts. I was trying to explain the deep differences between Northern and Southern Illinois, which reaches well below the Mason-Dixon line

I expected these sterling students – based on their SAT performances – to know about this famous dividing line which was important for Senator Stephen A. Douglas’ support. But I was mistaken. I saw the puzzled look in their eyes, and I realized that these college sophomores had never heard of the Mason-Dixon line. I pressed on. I asked. Where is Illinois?

One answered, “near Philadelphia,” most just shrugged their shoulders, with the best of the lot explaining that it was “in Chicago.” In what followed I gave the supposed college students an 8th-grade geography lesson.

I had loved teaching history. But it was from that moment on that I began to plan my escape into retirement.

We are living in a time when it seems that most people are not just musically illiterate, but illiterate period.