‘They can’t read’: Victor Davis Hanson shares horror stories that drove him out of university

Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Victor Davis Hanson recounted the challenges he faced teaching at California State University, Fresno during a Thursday episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.”

Hanson was awarded an American Philological Association Excellence in Teaching Award in 1991 while at the university. He asserted on his show that he left because his students were incapable of reading the classics he assigned them in an introductory humanities course.

WATCH:

“I taught for 21 years at a California State University campus. And when I started, Jack, in 1984, I taught a course called Introduction to the Humanities. I had nine readings,” Hanson told co-host Jack Fowler. “And it started out with Homer’s Iliad, Homer’s Odyssey … Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Euripides’ Bacchae, Aeschylus’ Orestia, selections from Thucydides and Herodotus. This was the ancient part of the first semester. And I ended with Plato’s Apology and Crito. I might have had Aristotle.”

“When I finished 21 years later, that same course had two readings: Homer and Sophocles. In other words, I could no longer ask students to read that material. And I started with 30 students in the class,” he added. “And at the end, in 2004, I had 58. And I would say all of them could not read those things. So I was curious about this. I always tried to be empirical rather than just get angry. I would call one of them in. He said, ‘Dr. Hansen, I can’t do your class. I got to drop. Can you please get me out without an F? I can’t keep up with the reading.’”

Hanson said he told the student that he did not believe he was studying and requested he visit his office.

“So he came in. And I gave him the Iliad. And I said, ‘Can you read?’ Sing maiden, the wrath of Achilles,” he said. “He said, ‘What does wrath mean, honestly?’ And he said, ‘What does sing mean?’ And I said, ‘It means to sing a song. It’s an active verb.’ ‘Well, what’s an active mean? What’s a verb mean?’ … I said, ‘Could you read this out loud? And I’m going to time you to see how long it takes you to read.’ Well, it took him 10 minutes to read the whole one page. So I said, ‘Well, we’ll say half, five minutes it will take you to read these short pages of hexameter translated by Richmond Latimore.”

“So I said, ‘You know what? You’re absolutely right. It would take you a week to read the Odyssey. And you can’t do it,” he added. “So I let him out … I was getting directives all the time: ‘This person is on the football team. This person…’ Then I would call and say, ‘He’s getting an F.’ And they said, ‘Well, he wasn’t supposed to take your class. So he didn’t belong there in the first place. So I want you to give him now.’ And then I would get from the EOP or equal opportunity: ‘Jose Mendes or Jack Smith is the first in his family to go to college. If you give him an F, you’re denying him. Then he won’t be eligible.’”

Hanson said he then decided to retire, despite being told he was “crazy” to do so.

“I said, ‘I don’t care. I can’t take it anymore … You people are letting in people and they can’t read, they can’t write … I can’t do it anymore,’” he recounted.

Hanson announced during a Dec. 26 episode that he was undergoing a major medical operation after discovering a major health issue. He received the operation on Dec. 30.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice posted a statement from Hanson on X on Sunday revealing he had a cancerous tumor removed.

“I recently underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor and am now recovering,” Hanson said in the statement. “I’m doing well and hopeful as I move forward.”

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