"STANDARDS ARE OUT OF FASHION",

“STANDARDS ARE OUT OF FASHION”, writes Eric Burns of FOXNews.com:

[Jayson] Blair started betraying trust more than three-and-a-half years ago. His job performance was a low point almost since the first day he held the job. Why was he not punished earlier? Why did it take until now to accuse him of violating the standards which the New York Times so ardently professes?

The reason is simple. It is also appalling.

Standards do not matter. Standards are out of fashion. Standards are high-button shoes and whalebone corsets and horse-drawn carriages or possibly even dinosaur eggs. Ours is a society which does not believe in standards, a society that cringes at the prospect of imposing standards because, if it does, it will hurt the feelings of those who cannot meet them.

That is why our schools give A’s to B students and B’s to C students and passing marks to boys and girls who have not only failed to master their subjects, but who don’t even know the numbers of the rooms in which they are taught.

Sadly, he’s right, of course.