PAGE TWO
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
WEDNESDAY, MAY 2. 1951
Marvin Arth
the editorial page
Now Here's A Fellow Who-change.
"What is this existing order, then, which seems to stultify progress in our institutions of higher learning? Basically, it seems to me to be a worship of factual knowledge, expected to flow from the notebook of the professor to the notebook of the student, to be transferred precariously during some pre-examination night into the temporary custody of the student's mind, only to drip out again onto an examination blue book—and then back to the professor's desk from whence it came. The cycle is thus completed, and very little indeed has happened either to the professor or to the student in the process."
Sometimes, especially after a tough exam, we begin to wonder whether the "fragments of knowledge" system is really an education. There seems to be something wrong, but it's hard to pin down
Now here's a fellow, finally, who's done a good job of defining the problem. Maybe you've read his article in the last issue of the Jayhawker.
He points out that "It is difficult to direct the faculty's attention to the over-all end result, the student who will become an alumnus. The teacher is primarily a specialist, becoming through the years presumably more and more competent in a smaller and smaller segment of knowledge, until his particular discipline sometimes assumes greater importance in his mind than the student whom he is expected and paid to serve.
There are exceptions, however, in every faculty. Men and women of vision do exist, and there is usually a restless younger element ever ready to battle for change and experiment. But the important faculty committees—the administrative committee, the committee on instruction, and others of power—are usually filled by older members full of years and seniority, who cherish the existing order of things and can set up many a road-block to academic change.
"We need today to place greater emphasis on the qualities, rather than the quantities of education. A person merely well informed may have reaped the quantitative values of education—but he may still be the most useless bore on earth. How much more useful to society the colleges would be if we could seek out for degrees those whom the educational process had endowed with lively curiosity, with clear analytical ability, with magnificent courage to stand up and be counted, with a tolerance for the point of view of other persons and peoples, with innate resources of momentum and power and enjoyment, and with an infinite faith in an orderly universe operating under the laws of God.
an ordinary universe operating.
The quotations are from "Some Marks of an Educated Man," by Chancellor Deane W. Malott. "The chancellor?" we ask. "But isn't he responsible for the very things he criticizes?"
To the greater part of the student body the chancellor is only a name, representing authority and therefore to blame for all the University's faults.
The answer to that misconception lies in the nature of the chancellor's job. As he explains, "The primary responsibility for the academic program traditionally is vested in the faculty; the chief administrator may readily lead this group, but certainly he may not dictate to it. The university president, moreover, has become so preoccupied with the operation of the physical plant, with balancing the budget and conducting a building program, that his interest in purely academic problems has become somewhat atrophied, particularly in view of the fact that, traditionally also, faculties are slow to act and reluctant to change."
Here we too could follow tradition and end by praising Chancellor Malott's record, or by expressing the hope that his successor will be as able. Perhaps it will mean more to suggest that you read (or re-read) the rest of his article and let that speak for itself.
-Lee Sheppeard.
Francis Kelley galley-west
\* \* \*
After listening to General MacArthur's "fade away" speech a while back, we got to thinking that its ending sounded rather familiar. But we couldn't remember where we'd heard it. Finally, one of our brother shackrats turned it up for us. It was on the first page of the feature section in the Kansan's Homecoming issue last fall. Here's the story as it ran then:
"Old sailors never die; they just sail away." This old phrase has almost become a cliche in the literary world. But what happens to old soldiers?
"How long can we keep this organization going?" was asked during the business meeting.
A recent reunion of Kansas veterans of the Spanish-American war in Topeka gives us an answer.
In answer, another oldster of the group (the youngest was 72) recalled a war amecdote.
"During the fighting in Manila, General Lee asked Colonel Funston, of the Kansas regiment, 'How long can you maintain your present position without reinforcements, Colonel?' Colonel Funston answered, 'Until we're mustered out, General'," the veteran related.
"And I guess that's the way with this organization, we'll keep it going until we're mustered out."
Now we know . . .
(Because of space limitations, the editor reserves the right to condense letters of more than 100 words. Anonymous letters will not be published, but names will be held on request. Letters should be addressed to the editor of the Kunsan.)
Letters—
I Conquistatori
To the editor:
Professor Crafton's dramatization of the Girl on the Via Flaminia asks for some comment: not from the standpoint of acting and staging (relatively a minor question) nor of the adherence to the novel, but concerning its human content.
To one who was in Rome at the time the action of the play was to have taken place, "I Conquistator!" presented a faithful portrait of Italian — and European — society. The despair of the great majority ("Europe is finished," instists Mr. Robordone), the drifting into modes of behavior unmindful of any moral standards, the revolt of some against the "Liberators" in the name of extreme nationalism—all this quite adequately portrays the attitudes of the largest sections of public opinion on the Continent. On the other hand, the incomprehension on the part of the "Conquerors" of the feelings of the vanquished people is also effectively presented; from the arrogance of McCarthy to the spiteful aloofness of the English sergeant to Edward Bennett's attempt to "make a deal" with Lisa and buy a semblance of a home with chocolate and powdered soup.
What "I Conquistator" failed to see, however, is that despair and amorality and revolt are not the whole picture. The play totally ignores that in Italy, as everywhere else in Europe, there were forces—the Resistance—fighting the same enemy the Allies were fighting, and working for a new Europe where decent human beings would have a
chance to live. The final word of the play, the statement of the incomprehension between conquerors and the vanquished which love alone could have overcome, was the real tragedy of Europe.
Only the realization of the deep desire of European people for real freedom and social justice and a decent society (not just powdered soup or other economic goods to "make a deal" with) may bridge the gap between the conquerors and the vanquished. Only an understanding of the existing situation and of the needs of Europe, that ask for solutions different from the ones adopted in this country, will permit reciprocal respect and insure sincere cooperation between the people of the old and the new continents.
Albert Roland.
Graduate student from Italy
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