Refocusing on the Gods of the Copybook Headings

I was introduced to Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “The Gods of the Copybook Headings,” by Dr. John Silber’s book, Straight Shooting—What’s Wrong with America and How We Can Fix It. It was 1984, and Silber was president of Boston University.  He had a PhD in philosophy from Yale. Formerly a Dean at the University of Texas and a Democratic candidate for governor in Massachusetts, Silber served as president and, later, chancellor of BU for more than 30 years. At the time, he was very concerned about the state of American education and American culture. He opened the book with this: “Our […]