Crapping out a diamond

Usually I think Thomas Sowell is a flaming conservative doofus. But I wholeheartedly agree with this "random thought" of his:

A recently reprinted memoir by Frederick Douglass has footnotes explaining what words like 'arraigned,' 'curried' and 'exculpate' meant, and explaining who Job was. In other words, this man who was born a slave and never went to school educated himself to the point where his words now have to be explained to today's expensively under-educated generation.

While I suspect he's trying to make a point about affirmative action here, I think it really speaks to the awful quality of our schools and universities.