Perhaps the best and only thing that the old can bequeath to the young is a good fight, a truly good struggle in something that matters, a fight that carries a person beyond the confines of a little, self-serving life into something deeper and more lovely.
Fr. Bob Sprott, God, Country, Notre Dame.
Excellent. That parallels some of the educational ideas I’ve recommended:
“[Students in higher education] must feel that they are part of something larger than themselves, a tradition that has come before them, and that will go on after them, and to which they can make important contributions. And to those who reflexively assert that traditions are stifling and prejudiced, I reply that no one is more in need of strong traditions in their education than the radicals and subversives of the future, because they more than anyone need something challenging to push against. They need ‘teachers of athletes’ who will show them respect by arguing with them and making them strong, not spineless educationists who will tell them ‘whatever you want to believe is fine’—a disrespectful and self-serving excuse for a lack of real engagement.”