Item: 1 copy of The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories, edited, with commentary, by William J. Bennett

This book is, as stated in the introduction, aimed at the moral education of the young.

This book is divided into 10 sections: Self-Discipline, Compassion, Responsibility, Friendship, Work, Courage, Perseverance, Honesty, Loyalty, and Faith. My bookmark is stuck halfway through the section on Responsibility, and has been for at least a few years. (Apparently I have not yet learned the responsibility necessary to get any further).

This book is an item I am trying to decide whether to pack or get rid of. I got it probably ten years ago or so. One of my friends had worked for Mr. Bennett at the Department of Education and thought very highly of him, and this was somebody whose opinion I valued. Almost inevitably, it seems, Bennett was in the news a few years ago for having problems with gambling. But that is not what makes me uncomfortable with the book.

This book, or its author's name, can draw a sort of violent and immediate reaction among certain political segments: of course, a hypocritical white male describing to you his definition of what it means to be virtuous. Even having the title on my bookshelf makes a political statement about me that probably is not accurate, but so does deciding that it doesn't belong there anymore.

I actually agree that a lack of moral instruction is a sad lack of care for a child. What is so wrong with virtue, anyway? What is wrong with teaching a child about self-discipline, compassion, and so forth, or at least attempting to?

Well, I would never want to not criticize what I would otherwise criticize for fear of a political group. Here is what I don't like about the book: the introduction to each piece that tells me what lesson I'm to draw from it (although, truthfully, there is some of this in every introduction). Why do I need to be told that the anecdote on Knute Rockne illustrates loyalty? What if what I get from it is perseverance, or courage?

Aesop included morals at the end of his fables, but these usually involve a surprise ending, the lesson one learns after making the mistake.

Here are some of the pieces in the book: the myth of Echo and Narcissus, the great index-like letter from F. Scott Fitzgerald to his daughter telling her what and what not to worry about, the "Death, be not proud" sonnet by John Donne, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s letter from the Birmingham jail, and 7 poems by Edgar Guest (?!). One could definitely teach a child something about selection from it, anyway.