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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS.
FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1943
Liberal Arts Education Needs Revision To Prepare Students For Life
Editor's note: This original article was contributed by Prof. Seba Eldridge, acting head of the sociology department.
By SEBA ELDRIDGE
The draft of college youth has highlighted a long-standing perplexity about liberal education—what it really is, and what value it may have. This perplexity is reflected in a recent discussion by Dr. Alexander Meikeljohn, in "The New Republic." Jan. 25, 1943. He concedes that the army is right in drafting college men, with no deferments for those engaged in ordinary non-technical studies, but he proposes an immense development of liberal education following the war, making it available to all with the necessary talents by means of federal subsidies.
At the same time he deplores the failure of liberal education to do what was expected of it, especially its failure to prevent or at least prepare for the war. This he puts down to want of purpose and direction. Yet all he suggests by way of improvement is setting up as objectives "an intelligent loyalty to our institutions," and "the liberal understanding which is needed by the citizens of a democratic society."
This is of a piece with much contemporary discussion of the liberal colleges. It is commonly contended that they should educate "the whole man," should prepare pupils for living, train them to think, but at the same time avoid anything much that smacks of technology. All this in face of the fact that virtually all college students (girls included) are expected by the community to follow a vocation of some sort, that only a very small percentage (those working later for advanced degrees) will have an opportunity for systematic vocational training after college days are over, and, moreover, that the absorbing interests of students, so far as the future is concerned, center in jobs and marriage. Most colleges do, however, offer a good deal of preparation for vocational careers (including homemaking), often without admitting or even intending it.
But it is in respect to the great non-vocational interests of society that the liberal arts college has failed most seriously. In the long run these interests are as important as vocational ones. Included in them are the needs of consumers, of laymen as against professionals—in short, the interests of all those whom specialists and producers in general are presumed to serve. One such interest lies in the practice of citizenship, which is nothing less than the practice of democracy itself. For whatever else political democracy means, its essence is the ultimate control of public policy by the layman, not by the professional politician.
NEEDS TO BE MET
Any realistic appraisal of the situation will indicate that, in our kind of society, college youth need these forms of educational service and, moreover, that the welfare of the community demands that these needs be met:
(1) Guidance in the choice of a vocation and a broad preparation for the vocation chosen, where training on the collegiate level is involved.
Just Wondering
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Why Kansas weather persists in making a guy feel so insecure about his judgment on that subject.
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(2) Preparation for marriage and homemaking. While this is indispensable for girls, the great majority of whom will be housewives, it is important for boys, too, since the quality of family life depends in no small measure on the role assumed by the husband and father. The sciences and technologies contributory to homemaking have now reached a stage where it can be a profession of a very high order. Nothing is more important where taste and capacity permit it.
(3) Education for citizenship. The functions of the state have now become so crucial, the problems involved so numerous and complex that participation in public affairs must become a major concern of the citizen if we are to preserve, much less perfect, our democratic institutions. Keeping even moderately informed on public issues requires much study, but effective citizenship is no less a matter of action. Such action has its technology and those with the capacity for it—above all, those with gifts of leadership—need a thorough grounding in it.
(4) Discipline in good reading and listening habits, paticularly in respect to newspapers, periodicals, and radio programs. Not that books are less important, but rather that newspaper, periodical, and radio are indispensable means of keeping up with current events, which is a sine qua non of effective participation in public affairs and, for that matter, in other vital interests.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
(5) Development of a satisfying hobby or avocation, especially where one's vocation may not offer an adequate outlet for one's creative interests and capacities. While specific needs
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Student Paper of THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas
EDITORIAL STAFF
NEWS STAFF
Editor-in-chief ... Maurice Barker
Editorial Associates ... Don Keown, Joy Miller,
Matt Heuertz, Jimm Gunn, Florence Brown
Managing Editor ... Virginia Tieman
Sunday Editor ... Joy Miller
Campus editors ... Alan Houghton, Jane
        Miner, Clara Lee Oxley
Sports editor ... J. Donald Keown
News Editor ... Florence Brown
Feature Editor ... Lucille Kadel
Picture Editor ... James Gunn
Society Editor ... Phyllis Collier
Kansas City, Mo.
March 12, 1943
Dear Josie:
Yours of the 5th instance states that there is a dearth of men on the campus. In reply I wish to state that: you ain't seen nothing yet. There hasn't been a man between the ages of 18 and 35 in the plant for so long I wouldn't know what one looks like if I didn't get a glimpse of the foreman as he breezes by every day. He has to spread himself around.
There are plenty of pants here but it isn't the same, somehow. Overalls are plentiful, but no men. Yours of the 5th instance says it makes you very sad to see the men leaving. Josie-I don't even get to see any men leave! I must get a grip on myself. That way madness lies.
I enjoyed yours of the 5th instance very much, especially the part about the men.
I hardly know what to do with myself of nights. You remember how I used to be—just a social butterfly. Now I've been pinned up to the wall like a withered flower. Josie, I'm too young and beautiful to die such a dreary death! But I mustn't think of that, for that way madness lies.
Lately I've taken to drink, trying to drown my sorrows. Josie, Gosh, but I hate the stuff. Vile, pale liquid, insipid and degrading. Josie, if I ever stare a tea leaf in the face again, I'll scream.
How can we women go on, Josie. It isn't human to live day after day, day after day, day after day without men—Men—MEN! But I must get hold of myself. That way madness lies.
Anxiously awaiting your reply to mine of the 12th instance, I remain.
You have it right, Josie. We women are making the sacrifices.
Sincerely yours,
P. S. I have been promoted to a secretarial position and am attending night school to try to improve myself.
Mabel
(6) Such assistance as may be possible in discipline of the emotions, corrections faults of disposition, and enrichment or personal relationships. Needs here are perhaps most acute for those who have rejected the older forms of religious discipline along with the underlying creeds.
under this head may not emerge until a later period, college work can in various ways anticipate and prepare for them.
This list is now exhaustive, but it has the merit of indicating life situations which will confront most college graduates sooner or later and which they will deal with more successfully if they have had a realistic preparation for them. While this discussion is concerned primarily with the liberal arts colleges, the analysis also applies, with due qualifications, to professional schools on the undergraduate level. Three Factorials
Three Essentials
But what is "realistic preparation?" Three things are essential: (1) the stimulation of interest, the development of a "drive" in the given direction such as will carry over into the post-college period and motivate continued activity in that area (2) the growth of usable knowledge of understanding and insight essential to successful action; (3) technical skills utilized in such action Each of these is best developed in conjunction with the others and indeed cannot develop very far on any other basis. One doesn't really possess knowledge unless one is able to use it; ability to use comes only with practice in the process; and interest in turn grows with the mastery and utilization of knowledge. Special attention should be directed to the fact that every major field above listed has its technology. Family life has, citizenship has, and so have management of the emotions and all the others. It is very necessary to understand that any technology can be mastered only by practice. Preparation for citizenship by means of books, lectures, discussions, examinations, and term papers in social science courses—without a corresponding practice of technology-is about as absurd as would be preparation for medicine solely by reading and discussing medical treatises, or an attempt to learn swimming by taking a correspondence course in the subject. Three Main Defects
Three Main Defects
Allowing for exceptions and qualifications, the typical liberal arts college is gravely defective on three principal counts. First, it does not definitely orient its students toward problems, responsibilities, opportunities, life situations that will confront them after graduation. The work is not goal-centered, is wanting in purpose and direction, so far at least as these vital needs are concerned. The college goes in, so its apologists claim, for a broad, liberal education; but such fragmentary evidence as we have indicates that this kind of education counts for comparatively little in later life, except as it is carried forward and put to the test of practice in a vocation. To cite one example, the total enrollment of college students in a normal year just about equals the combined circulations of the two leading national news weeklies and the two liberal journals of opinion (also weeklies), one of which at least is considered indispensable by almost any one who is not illiterate in social, economic, and political matters. Evidently, social studies on the college level, for all their emphasis on reading materials, produce good reading habits in only a small fraction of the students.
FRII
Libu Nee
Proved By Investigations
This bit of evidence is in line with the findings of painstaking investigations of ex-college students. The Minnesota study of 951 young people at the ages of 25 and 34, representing the four largest colleges of the University, resulted in the following (among other) conclusions:
Th
These young people were not much concerned about philosophy or religion, and they were content with this lack of concern. Their leisure time activities were almost entirely passive . . . Our analysis showed that
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