Pushing back …

… Tom Stoppard Thinks You’re Dumb - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Not having seen “The Hard Problem” and not knowing Mr. Stoppard personally, I have no opinion on the play’s comprehensibility, much less its author’s alleged snobbishness. But I feel quite confident that audiences on both sides of the Atlantic are growing “dumber,” if what you really mean to say is “less culturally literate.” It’s certainly no secret that American students are taught less and less about the canonical literary masterpieces of the past, and there is no shortage of people who believe that what little they’re required to learn in school is still too much.