Andrew Klavan, writing in City Journal on how cultures transmit themselves from one generation to the next:
The teacher told me that she once had to explain to the class why her last name was the same as her father’s. She dusted off the whole ancient ritual of legitimacy for them—marriages, maiden names, and so on. When she was done, there was a short silence. Then one child piped up softly: “Yeah . . . I’ve heard of that.”
I’ve heard of that. It would break a heart of stone.
Our culture is doing a lousy job transmitting itself, because the people charged with doing so, the teachers, have by and large been trained to think that it’s not worth transmitting.