"You have to have values, I happen to thinkthat [those in the Western canon] are the bestvalues in the world," Pipes says.
"Students really emerge from four years ofcollege without any deep cultural roots, and thathas very serious consequences, because theknowledge of what has happened teaches you to copewith your own problems," Pipes adds.
Even Benhabib, who tries to integrate themodern perspective in her teaching of the ancientgreats, says that in the last 20 years studentshave becomes less interested in learning what camebefore them.
"To some extent, there is kind of ahistoricalattitude now," Benhabib says.
And some professors, thought they praise theacademic freedom of today's students, still lamentthe dissolution of the canon.
"I would feel a certain nostalgia of what hasbeen given up, and I don't know what has beengained," Maier concludes. "I think most of uswho've become academics carry around a canonwithin us, so we're sad when it dissipates."