Tales From a Left-Wing Campus: Conservative Icon Gives the Disturbing Reason Why He Quit Teaching

It's a problem that doesn't seem to be getting any better: the American education system. Parents send their children off to school to learn how to read, write, do math, learn about science, and maybe even a bit of actual American history. But the education most are receiving, at the taxpayers' expense, is one of left-wing indoctrination. America is inherently bad; it is racist and imperialistic, men can become women, and make sure you use correct pronouns. Recently, one of the most respected voices in the conservative movement gave a graphic description of students who are receiving that "education."

I mean, pure ignorance of, pure lack of knowledge, dumbness as products of our educational system.

Victor Davis Hanson: The Danger of Dumbing Down American Students https://t.co/zQ8kZrlF5V
— T (@Rifleman4WVU) January 11, 2026

Recently, on an episode of his podcast, "Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words," Hanson recounted his early days of teaching at California State University, Fresno, and how students weren't just ill-prepared for higher education, but for life in general. Hanson told his co-host, Jack Fowler:

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. 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.

Granted, that's heady stuff. I read Homer's Odyssey for a class, and I would be lying if I said I never looked at a Cliff Notes. But that's not what was going on here. Hanson continued, saying that at the end of his teaching career, 21 years later, the same class had just two readings, Homer and Sophocles. The reason: college-aged students simply could not read the assignments. Hanson then told the story of a student who requested to drop the class. The student was flunking and could not keep up with the reading. Hanson stated that he didn't believe the student was studying and asked him to come to his office. Things got worse from there. Hanson said.

So he came in. And I gave him the Iliad. And I said, "Can you read?" Sing maiden, the wrath of Achilles. 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."

As far back as 1984, American students did not know the basics of the English language. They did not know the simple meanings of words like "wrath" or "active." That was 40 years ago. What might that same class look like today, dumbed down for the average college student? Are the classic works of Homer and Sophocles still taught, or have they been thrown out for more "important" topics like transgenderism and climate change? Have they been thrown out because even more college students cannot read or write, and can't grasp the meaning of easy words?

We’re dealing with students who don’t even know how to research using the web browsers.. don’t know how to use a search engine, identify proper links & read articles bc they rely on ChatGPT to give them a direct answer. Haven’t read a full book in years. Can barely use a pen…
— Tori Wan Kenobi (@MajestyRia) August 23, 2025

ALSO READ: Minnesota University Proves DEI Is Alive and Well With Warning of ‘Whiteness Pandemic’

Hanson tacked on the fact that he would receive directives from the Equal Opportunity Program (EOP) about football players needing to pass the class, or students who were the first in their family to go to college, and if they flunked the class, it might affect their EOP eligibility. It was there that Hanson decided to call it quits, saying, “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.'”

We can only imagine what America's future might be like when the education system is not only failing students, but it's failing good teachers, too.

Watch:

Editor's Note: President Trump is fighting to dismantle the Department of Education and ensure America's kids get the education they deserve.

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