Johnny from West Virginia went off to college, the first from his mountain hollow to do so. When he came home for his Christmas break his father took him to town just to show off his prodigy. “Say something smart!” Daddy requested. Full of academic zeal, Johnny proudly said, “Pi R square.” Daddy hung his head in shame and muttered, “No, son. Pie are not square. Pie are round. Cornbread are square.”

So it went in colloquial America. Today, if Johnny came home, he would likely be to timid to venture into town let alone discuss geometry.

I have written before of the fall from academic grace. Dr. Walter Williams has done a better job. He points out that colleges today are less institutions of learning but more asylums for the emotionally handicapped:

Christina Hoff Sommers is an avowed feminist and a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. She’s spent a lifetime visiting college campuses. Recently, upon her arrival at Oberlin College, Georgetown University and other campuses, trigger warnings were issued asserting, in her words, that her “very presence on campus” was “a form of violence” and that she was threatening students’ mental health. At Oberlin, 30 students and the campus therapy dog retired to a “safe room” with soft music, crayons and coloring books to escape any uncomfortable facts raised by Sommers.

Williams.

Safe rooms, therapy dogs and crayons, all in response to a liberal with slightly different ideas. And, for this you’re shelling out $50K a year? The lottery almost seems a better investment.