The Book Of Virtues William Bennett Pdf Free Download [BETTER]
Sage Hussy
Sidney's formulation contains three terms that have figured in discussions of literature's ethical possibilities for centuries: to delight, to teach, and to move. Notice how they crop up in Bennett's introduction to The Book of Virtues. First, he assures us children will be delighted by the tales in his collection: "You can't beat these stories when it comes to engaging the attention of a child." Through their delight, he continues, youngsters will be instructed: The stories, in his words, show "what the virtues look like, what they are in practice, how to recognize them, and how they work." By contemplating the stories, Bennett says, children will be moved to proper behavior: "They must achieve at least a minimal level of moral literacy that will enable them to make sense of what they see in life and, we may hope, help them to live it well."
I do not mean, by these criticisms, to denigrate Bennett's project. The Book of Virtues has much to recommend it, not least the willingness to take stories and their potential for moral education seriously. I wish only to suggest that the virtues are not in The Book of Virtues per se. They arise from our interaction with the tales, from our willingness to confront the hard questions the best of them raise.
In the aftermath of 9/11, I am re-thinking some of the things I wrote a couple years ago about the American character. I had feared, frankly, that we had drifted so far from the ideas and principles of our Founding Fathers that their understanding of nobility had become but a dim memory. Certainly it remains true that the words and deeds of George Washington and of the other great figures of American history are not sufficiently vivid in the minds of our kids, or even of too many of our adults. Nevertheless, 9/11 provided pretty compelling evidence of the solid virtues we Americans retain.
its own reward? A slipcovered, paperback set of four stories from the PBS animated series Adventures from the Book of Virtues, based in turn on William J. Bennett's The Book of Virtues, extols four different virtues. Each title is adapted by Shelagh Canning, illus. by Davis Henry, and contains a two-page story-within-a-story: for example, Honesty: Zach's Tall Tale uses the tale of George Washington and the cherry tree. Other titles include Courage: Annie's Race; Compassion: Zach Lends a Hand; and Responsibility: Annie Shows Off. Unfortunately neither the art nor the prose do much to make the morals very lively. The books are also available separately.
Believing with Plato that ``tales which the young first hear should be models of virtuous thought,'' former Secretary of Education Bennett ( The De-Valuing of America , LJ 4/1/92) has produced a McGuffey's Reader for the Nineties. The author draws upon a variety of literature ranging from biblical stories to political legends and speeches to illustrate the catalog of virtues--self-discipline, compassion, work, responsibility, friendship, courage, perseverance, honesty, loyalty, faith--that he believes are foundational to strong moral character. Most selections are introduced by a short thematic note, e.g., ``an honest heart will always find friends.'' Bennett's elevation of these virtues to moral absolutes renders the book's view of morality rather simplistic. In addition, the collection's lack of attention to women's and non-Western voices encourages the view that the experience of virtue belongs primarily to Western males. Still, this anthology will prove popular with some readers. Recommended for public libraries.-- Henry L. Carrigan Jr., Westerville P.L., Ohio
The principled former secretary of education has culled a selection of poems and stories to be read aloud in hopes of passing on specific virtues to the younger generation. The selected works appear under chapter titles such as "Compassion"; "Responsibility"; "Friendship"; "Courage"; "Perseverance"; and "Faith." As artificial or perhaps self-righteous as this project may seem, it is effective. The old stories from the Bible, from great authors, and from folklore do exert a charm and send a message that will stir families to discuss or contemplate the issues set forth. It truly is a treasury, with some tales so brief they can be read at the dinner table. Perfect bedtime, anytime family reading.
A thoughtful collection of stories, essays, poems and speeches assembled with commentary by Bennett to illustrate various moral virtues such as self-discipline, compassion, and honesty. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
When we were attacked on Sept. 11, we knew the main reason for the attack was that Islamists hated our way of life, our virtues, our freedoms. What we never imagined was that the free press - an institution at the heart of those virtues and freedoms - would be among the first to surrender.
And now the restoration may be near: so conservatives have been saying in thewake of the 1994 election, the growing power of the Christian right, and therecent popularity of radio shows, books, and movies with conservative themes.Some conservative intellectuals have even begun to see signs of a return totraditionalism in private behavior as well as public life. Charles Murray makesthis case in an interesting essay, "The Partial Restoration of TraditionalSociety," in last fall's issue of the Public Interest. Though he ispessimistic about the underclass, Murray thinks the rest of America is about towitness "the restoration of a culture in which family, parenthood, the lifeof the mind, morality, and the virtues are all perceived and valued in ways thatour grandparents would find familiar." In agreement with Irving Kristol, hediscerns the beginnings of a great religious revival that will sweep through allclasses. The sales of William Bennett's Book of Virtues are "just aharbinger of wonderful things to come." Waxing rhapsodic, Murray evenanticipates that the "concepts of 'gentleman' and 'lady'" will "onceagain become governing norms for behavior in parts of American society."
Since I am in favor of virtue, morality, family, and the life of the mind, notto mention good manners, I wouldn't mind a "partial restoration" aslong as I could choose which part. I have even tried reading passages of TheBook of Virtues to my four children and can report highly satisfactoryresults, though I cannot yet vouch that the concepts of "gentleman"and "lady" will govern their behavior, especially that of myeight-year-old boy, who nearly fled the dinner table while we read GeorgeWashington's 54 "Rules of Civility." Bennett's ten virtues areself-discipline, compassion, responsibility, friendship, work, courage,perseverance, honesty, loyalty, and faith. I approve of each one (though I misswisdom and justice, which were on Aristotle's list). However much conservativesmay suspect it, I do not know of liberals who endorse indiscipline,insensitivity, irresponsibility, hatred, sloth, cowardice, vacillation, lying,disloyalty, and despair. Bennett himself writes in the introduction, to myimmense relief, that "good people can be liberals," so I am not surewhat The Book of Virtue's ascent on the best-seller list signals aboutthe Zeitgeist, although an increase in hypocrisy is never a bad bet. In anyevent, as I write, the number one best-seller is Rush Limbaugh is a Big FatIdiot, by Al Franken, followed by It Takes a Village, by HillaryClinton. There goes one trend.
Duplicity and waffling, say the critics who want either/or. But while both/andcan be a dodge and a self-contradiction, these policies are neither. Wisdom andjustice, those virtues Bennett left for his sequel, often require compositesolutions. The difficulty has been fiscal and political: Both/and would havebeen a lot easier to carry off at a time when the federal budget wasn't so tightand when the president himself hadn't accepted the aim of zeroing out thedeficit. Even "carve and spend," the Clinton administration's earlyboth/and budgetary strategy, has almost vanished because the carvings are to gomostly to deficit reduction, not to education and training, research,infrastructure, and universal health coverage as Clinton originally envisioned.Wattenberg says that in Democratic administrations, the center gets rolled bythe left, but the progressive side of both/and policies has gotten no money--andwith a Republican Congress, there will be none.
In any event, the effectiveness of policy isn'tWattenberg's concern, nor is it chiefly what preoccupies a lot of otherconservatives. They want moral reaffirmation. They want what the conservativehistorian Gertrude Himmelfarb calls the "remoralization" of society,by which she means the restoration of Victorian standards of virtue and shame.Himmelfarb is unhappy even with the contemporary moral language, with its shiftfrom "virtues" to "values," because "values"implies diverse orientations and thereby, in her mind, makes morality a matterof merely subjective choice. But contemporary pedagogy and culture, except insome of their silliest forms, are not neutral about moral conduct--not aboutlying, laziness, irresponsibility, or hatred. What they do recognize is thelegitimate demand of different people for equal respect in a society wherediversity is not a slogan but a fact. The old homilies can't just be handeddown, certainly not in the didactic style that conservatives favor, withoutcritical reflection and debate.
In this view, a good or virtuous citizen is nothing other than agood or virtuous person acting morally in the public or politicalsphere. As we shall consider later, just what the virtues arethat constitute, at least in part, that person is not easy toascertain.
We have already encountered Aristotle's view thatpolitea or the mixed constitution provides the excellence ofboth good citizens and good men. Because that requires men tohave the virtues both to rule and be ruled, we should not be surprisedthat ancient Greece, and especially ancient Athens, is the home ofdemocracy. One of the requirements of any democracy is having therule of law, because it demands, or should demand, that no one is abovethe law and that all are equal before the law. Thus, before theycould have democracy, the Greeks had to have not only laws but alsowritten laws. Otherwise, those in power could declare the law tobe whatever they wanted it to be. So the Greeks wrote down theirlaws, their statutes, on wood or marble tablets and placed them for allto see in the public squares. Of course, citizens and residentsof the cities had to be able to read them, and so the rule of lawcalled for public education to teach the people to read. Thus theancient Greeks provide one of the earliest forms of civiceducation.
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