...Even the academic world is fraught with ambition, rivalry and conceit. The same threat of vilification and ostracism can just as easily apply to researchers as it does to politicians, or to teachers who happen to espouse a view that is is contrary to the progressive zeitgeist. For instance, in a speech to the Baltimore Curriculum Project in 2012, Shepard Barbash discussed the rejection of Direct Instruction by the educational establishment in the US, and related this anecdote. He had been corresponding with an academic researcher who had praised his book, ‘Clear Teaching‘, on Direct Instruction, but gave this response when asked for a public endorsement:
