Modern Education and a Man of Straw

"It must be remembered that in Mark's mind hardly one rag of noble thought, either Christian or Pagan, had a secure lodging.  His education had been neither scientific nor classical--merely "Modern." The severities both of abstraction and of high human tradition had passed him by: and he had neither peasant shrewdness nor aristocratic honour to help him. He was a man of straw, a glib examinee in subjects that require no exact knowledge (he had always done well on Essays and General Papers) and the first hint of a real threat to his bodily life knocked him sprawling."

                                 --That Hideous Strength (CS Lewis)