Long before he became a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Victor Davis Hanson spent two decades in the trenches of the California State University system. But after 21 years at the Fresno campus, the acclaimed classicist walked away, citing a collapse in student literacy so severe he could no longer teach his subject.
Hanson, who was awarded an American Philological Association Excellence in Teaching Award in 1991, detailed his exit from academia during a Thursday episode of his podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.”
According to Hanson, the decline in standards between his arrival in 1984 and his departure in 2004 was stark. He noted that his “Introduction to the Humanities” course initially required nine major readings, ranging from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey to works by Sophocles, Thucydides, and Plato.
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By the end of his tenure, the syllabus had been slashed to just two texts.
“I could no longer ask students to read that material,” Hanson told co-host Jack Fowler, noting that despite class sizes nearly doubling, the ability of students to parse the material had evaporated.
Hanson recounted a specific, jarring interaction with a student who asked to drop the course to avoid a failing grade. Attempting to gauge the student’s ability, Hanson asked him to read the opening lines of the Iliad aloud in his office.
“He said, ‘What does wrath mean, honestly?’ And he said, ‘What does sing mean?’” Hanson recalled. When he explained that “sing” was an active verb, the student reportedly asked what an active verb was.
Hanson timed the student, noting it took him ten minutes to read a single page of text.
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“So I said, ‘You know what? You’re absolutely right. It would take you a week to read the Odyssey. And you can’t do it,’” Hanson said.
Beyond the academic struggles, Hanson described an administrative environment that actively discouraged failing underqualified students. He recalled receiving pressure to pass student-athletes and first-generation students to maintain their eligibility or enrollment status.
“I would call and say, ‘He’s getting an F.’ And they said, ‘Well, he wasn’t supposed to take your class… So I want you to give him [a pass] now,’” Hanson said.
Ultimately, the historian told administrators he “couldn’t take it anymore,” arguing that the university was admitting applicants who simply could not read or write at a collegiate level.
The reflection on his teaching career comes as Hanson recovers from a significant health scare. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice confirmed on Sunday that Hanson recently underwent successful surgery to remove a cancerous tumor.
“I’m doing well and hopeful as I move forward,” Hanson said in a statement released shortly after the December 30 procedure.
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