In the first paragraph of his revolutionary Essay on Liberty, J.S. Mill emphasized that popular government is neither for the uncivilized nor the uneducated. A republican form of government was a daring experiment in 1796, and for this explicit reason the first Congress authorized the establishment of public education through the states. It recognized that an educated citizenry was necessary for the infant government to prosper. All through the 1800s—well up into the 1860s and beyond—scholars and historians of the first rank were fearful that this noble experiment would fail. Republican government required an uncommon civility and a generous yet disciplined habit of mind in order to debate public issues and come to a wise and amicable reconciliation.
The pressures of the Internet age and the demands of new technologies have inevitably turned the education of our young away from the liberal arts. Young men and women are commonly "on track" from their sophomore years in college; and though they become experts in the technical requirements of their professions, the basic skills of disciplined thinking, writing, and verbal expression are neglected. Absent is the cultural breadth that cutting-edge neurologists these past 25 years have found to be necessary for creative cognition.
The urgent mission of the Buckley Foundation is to make this . . . available to the widest number of Americans.
Robert E. Moffit, Chairman of the Board, the Buckley Foundation for Communications