Meet William J. Bennett

Outside Washington D.C., it is William Bennett’s books that have made him something of a household name, even to many who don’t particularly follow national policy. He has written and edited 14 titles—including bestsellers The Book of Virtues, The Moral Compass, and the beautifully illustrated The Children’s Book of Virtues, The Children’s Book of Faith, The Children’s Book of Heroes, and The Children’s Book of America.

After completing his doctorate in political philosophy at the University of Texas, he also acquired a law degree from Harvard. Jokingly, he claims he then got into politics in a backwards sort of way. “I was chosen by Ronald Reagan to be chairman of his National Endowment for the Humanities because, frankly, there were so few professors in the humanities who had voted for Ronald Reagan. There were about five of us. He had a small group from which to choose.”

Bennett later served as U.S. Secretary of Education under President Reagan. For President George Bush, he directed the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Since leaving government in 1990, Bennett has continued his high-profile efforts to improve America’s public and private education system. But it was the publication of The Book of Virtues that gave him widespread name recognition.

Having devoted most of his professional life to improving America’s schools and studying what works in education, Bennett became convinced that the root cause of so many problems in this country is moral breakdown. “Virtues are not taken seriously as they used to be, either by teachers or by parents or by people making public policy and, therefore, by children,” he remarks. “But it used to be understood by people who ran universities and who ran schools that the major purpose of education was moral improvement.”

As a tool for combating the neglect of moral education, he compiled hundreds of selections from great literature into an anthology designed to help both children and adults understand and develop character. Taken from the Bible, American history, poetry, fables, Greek mythology, philosophy, fiction, and fairy tales, the selections, together with commentary by Bennett, illustrate essential virtues such as honesty, self-discipline, compassion, responsibility, work, courage, and faith.

Bennett remarks that, “one of the risks of giving this thing a title The Book of Virtues is that people think, ‘Oh, this is going to be sort of namby-pamby stuff.’” But, he argues, “This is hard stuff. This is real stuff. There is a lot in here about being born and dying and suffering and sacrificing. This was the stuff in which kids were raised. It’s not the feel-good stuff of today. There are no lessons in here to have self-esteem, just to feel good about yourself because you’re a nice person. The lessons in here are you should have regard for yourself because you’re made in the image of God and you should have regard for yourself if you’ve earned it, if you’ve done something right. They were not less realistic in the old days; they were more realistic.”

Some of his titles dealing with virtue at the national level include The Index of Leading Cultural Indicator; Our Sacred Honor: Words of Advice from the Founders in Stories, Letters, Poems, and Speeches; and The Death of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals, which hit number one on The New York Times bestseller list.

Dr. Bennett continues to raise awareness of the need for fundamental education reform, including school choice. His recent bestseller, The Educated Child: A Parent’s Guide from Preschool Through Eighth Grade, offers a back-to-basics road map for parents wishing to take an active role in their child’s education, as well as nurture Christian character in their children’s lives.

Bennett lives in Maryland with his wife, Elayne, and their two sons, John and Joseph.