"If an inspector stood at your desk chatting to you about the war, would you have a silent room?"
"Certainly."
"But why?"
"Oh," he said impatiently, "for various reasons. They aren't there to talk; and they've got to be disciplined, to understand that they are not free to do as they like whenever they like."
"Also," I suggested, "the inspector might be annoyed?"
"There's that in it," he confessed with a little confusion.
"The wisdom of the ages agrees with you," I said, "and I think that in this case the wisdom of the ages is wrong. In the first place I want to know what you're trying to produce."
"Educated citizens," he replied.
"And since the Solomon tradition has been in vogue for quite a long time, do you consider that it has produced educated citizens as yet?"