When columnist George Will wrote the baseball book "Men at Work," he said he decided to write the book he always wanted to read but could never find.
The same might be said of William J. Bennett's "The Book of Virtues." Bennett, who served as "drug czar" in the Bush administration and secretary of education under Reagan, has put together an anthology of familiar folk tales that teach us how to live. It is a textbook - a reader - that super-educator Bennett has obviously been searching for - and not finding - for decades.In Bennett's book, learning about character is just as important as learning about characters, and the hundreds of poems, stories and short essays were selected to give kids - and adults - a daily dose of moral fiber. As in the slight and less filling "Book of Qualities" that appeared on the scene several years ago, Bennett's meatier "Book of Virtues" takes us through self-discipline, compassion, responsibility, friendship, faith and five other traits that Bennett sees as vital to a good inner life. Each section is introduced by Bennett with a small personal essay.
As a writer, Bennett compiles more than he creates. He assembles quotes and ideas from an amazing array of sources. He is obviously a passionate teacher, though the jacket blurb comparing him to C.S. Lewis is somewhat over the top. Bennett's essays lack the precision and creative leaps found in Lewis. He is, at heart, a better reader than writer - a literary hunter and gatherer.
And he is obviously one of the best-read minds in America today. Here he casts his net wide to snare some of the world's most poignant stories. In the section on "Honesty," for instance, Bennett brings in the stories "The Boy Cried Wolf," "George Washington and the Cherry Tree," "Pinocchio" and "The Pied Piper" as well as many lesser-known and clever examples of the consequences of fibbing. Many ethnic stories and tales are included, though - in honesty - Bennett's selection of minority writing does tend to fortify rather than challenge traditional notions of propriety.
Yet, in the end, for parents and teachers who think its time to start teaching kids "how to be" as well as "what to be," "The Book of Virtues" does demand a spot on the bookshelf.
In his classic book "On Moral Fiction," the late John Gardner lamented the loss of the moral component in contemporary art and education: He writes:
"For the most part our artists do not struggle - as artists have traditionally struggled - toward a vision of how things ought to be or what has gone wrong; they do not provide us with the flicker of lightning that shows us where we are. . . . The good of humanity is left in the hands of the politicians."
William J. Bennett - politician turned teacher - hopes to block the trend toward an anything-goes society. And his hefty book makes for a solid stone in the wall.