Where's the thirst for serious knowledge?

What can the trivialization of Newsweek tell us about our education system?

"Universal education seems in the end not to have produced the thirst for knowledge that many once forecast," author and columnist William Murchison writes ('News of the Weak').

The merger of entertainment and "news" in the pages of the new Newsweek isn't especially edifying, but an air of financial inevitability surrounds it. [Editor Jon] Meacham reasons thus: We can be highbrow and serious and civic-minded as all get-out and go broke. Alternatively, we can talk about Suzanne Somers and thrive. He's probably got it about right. Which raises the question of what schools are doing to raise tastes and arouse a thirst race for serious -- I said serious -- knowledge. A whole lot less, seemingly, than they did when Newsweek and Time were in their heydays.