Author and actor Ben Stein, guest lecturer for Scripps College’s sixth Annual Elizabeth Hubert Malott Public Affairs Program, said February 9 the real stars of the world are people like senior Emily O’Brien ’12. He discussed career plans with her during a dinner with students and faculty prior to the lecture. O’Brien told Stein she plans to teach special-needs students after graduation.
“If every Scripps College student became a teacher, our schools would be in much better shape,” Stein said to an estimated crowd of more than 600 at the College’s Garrison Theater.
Drawing applause, shouts of enthusiasm, and laughs from the audience, Stein added, “I just love, love, love this school. The students I’ve met are such bright, polite, and charming women.”
On a more serious note, Stein discussed the current state of the nation’s economy and schools. “We’re in a cruelly severe recession and our schools are falling apart,” he said.
“How do we get out of this situation? We just don’t know,” Stein said. “The miracle, to me, is we’re still doing fairly well.”
He referred to education as the “wealth of nations” and urged students to work hard, get a good education and be somewhat frugal noting that this is how our country has moved forward.
In addition to his career as an author, lecturer and actor, Stein has worked for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford as a speech writer and lawyer. He served as an economist at the Department of Commerce and a poverty lawyer in New Haven and Washington, D.C. He has been an editorial writer and columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He has been a regular columnist for The New York Times, Los Angeles Magazine and New York Magazine.
The Elizabeth Hubert Malott Public Affairs Program was established by the Malott family in memory of Elizabeth Hubert Malott ’53 who wanted “to bring the world to Scripps students” by instituting a speakers program that would facilitate informed debate on topics of public policy.
The program brings to campus speakers with politically conservative points of view and substantive expertise in areas of national and international interest. Although the primary audience for this annual program is the Scripps College student body, the event was also well attended by The Claremont Colleges community and the general public.
