The excerpt reads: "...for the greatest of all battles in the years ahead--the battle to throw off the self-image the rulers teach us, and to recognize that we are capable of taking power and organizing society, as we collectively educate ourselves and learn the exploiters in the process."

Shouldn't "about" appear between "learn" and "the"? Other than that, this Pathfinder pamphlet sounds like it's perfect for the reality that's unfolding before us. Thanks for publishing it. Now we have to get it into workers' hands. The other night I got a call from an old friend from high school who's now a teacher in Jersey. We got to talking about education and I told him about Jack's new pamphlet and read to him the "Lifetime Education for All" section of Capitalism's World Disorder. He thought it was excellent and is now going to buy a copy for himself.

Kevin McGuire 
by e-mail

Editor's reply--The excerpt quoted is not an error. As a second definition of the word "learn," Webster's dictionary says: "Nonstandard: teach." For example: to teach the exploiters a lesson.

The dictionary's editors, in their own class-biased way, explain the usage as follows:

"Learn in the sense of 'teach' dates from the 13th century and was standard until at least the early 19th made them drunk with true Hollands--and then learned them the art of making bargains --Washington Irving. But by Mark Twain's time it was receding to a speech form associated chiefly with the less educated -- never done nothing for three months but set in his backyard and learn that frog to jump --Mark Twain. The present-day status of learn has not risen. This use persists in speech, but in writing it appears mainly in the representation of such speech, or its deliberate imitation for effect."