Bloom Book Bombastic And Boring

``Giants and Dwarfs''

by Allan Bloom

Simon & Schuster, $22.95

Remember Allan Bloom? Perhaps you don't; American celebrity fizzles pretty fast. Bloom is the University of Chicago professor who caused an uproar when he called Margaret Mead a ``sexual adventurer'' and blamed the decline of higher education on the sexual beat of rock 'n' roll.

That Allan Bloom. The author of ``The Closing of the American Mind.'' Bloom ranted about students and faculty wanting to expand college curricula to include the contributions of women and people of color. He thought that reading the ``classic'' texts, which all happen to be written by white males, should be enough.

``The Closing of the American Mind'' made the best-seller list because it was relevant to current controversies in higher education. It may have been largely unreadable, but it struck a chord. That is more than one can say about Bloom's new book, ``Giants and Dwarfs.''

Clearly hoping to capitalize on Bloom's status as an ``academic equivalent of a rock star,'' his publisher has gathered a collection of his academic essays. Some academics pride themselves on being dull and unreadable, and these essays meet those standards.

The only piece here that will interest most of us - those of us who haven't devoted our lives to the study of Rousseau and Plato - is the introductory essay, ``Western Civ.'' This is a talk Bloom delivered at Harvard University defending himself against attacks of elitism.

His salutation, ``Dear Elitists,'' sets the tone for his sarcastic, defensive remarks. He likens criticism of his book to ``Stalinist thought control'' and implies that his critics are Nazis. The people who have the audacity to want to read more than those ``giants'' Rousseau or Plato are clearly seen as ``dwarfs.''

Arrogance is never the sign of a great mind, and if Bloom's concept of education breeds arrogance, it is a failure. True education brings humility and respect for a widening circle of ideas; it brings an openness and commitment to change.

I learned this in the 1960s, at a civil-rights conference in Georgia.

Taking part were men and women who had just come from the history-making march on Selma; it was from them that I first began to understand my own arrogance.

I had been under the impression that you couldn't really understand the concepts of freedom and democracy unless you had a college degree. And here were people with third-grade educations. Here were people who had risked their lives for freedom and democracy. What understanding did I have, compared to theirs?

Indeed, what understanding has Allan Bloom - someone who has spent his life reading about these concepts in the security of his book-lined study? Surely the children and grandchildren of those civil-rights heroes of the '60s deserve to learn about the contributions of African Americans to world thought. Surely I deserve to learn about women who opened opportunities for other women.

That's what all the curriculum fuss is about, and Bloom's arrogance will be unable to stop the changes.

Cecile Andrews is director of continuing education at North Seattle Community College.