Quote of the day: Reagan on Education and Absolutes

Here is a quote I ran across while doing research about conservatism by the late Ronald Reagan.

“The educator is wrong who denies there are any absolutes – who sees no black and white or right or wrong, but just shades of gray in a world where discipline of any kind is an intolerable interference with the right of the individual.”

For some reason, I think this statement is about as clear as mud. Oh, I can read it and understand it, but I had to dissect it before I could figure out what he was going on about. And I really wonder what the original context was.