In recent years, as school shootings and violence among the young intensifies, the United States has begun to wonder where these problems originated, and how best to solve them. Is the fault with the school system? Or are our cultural ills the result of changing values? John E. Grote, in his provocative study of modern education, claims that culture and education are inextricably intertwined, and that the former is responsible for the decline of the latter. Grote outlines the modern condition, addressing the causes rooted in the Enlightenment’s concept of man, and formulates a vision, based upon the Greek concept of paideia, that will renew the relationship between community and education.