The KANSAN Comments...
PAGE SIX
SUNDAY, MARCH 23, 1941
A LITTLE LEARNING By JOHN W. ASHTON Professor of English
Universal education may be a great danger or perhaps I should say, a casual, half-education may be a great danger. In the stress in recent years (a stress magnified by the present emergency) on the need for "practical," technical training, we have tended more and more to lose sight of this hazard, or if we have thought of it, it has been in terms of the individual. Some years ago in his very interesting projection of things-to-come in "Brave New World" Aldous Huxley described the processes of education in a perfectly dictated society.
Microphones are put under children's pillows and all the while they sleep they are "educated" into the proper beliefs and attitudes by the insistent dinning of doctrine into their subconscious minds. As a result, as the individuals grew up they were perfect unquestioning obedient members of the class to which they belonged, but they were not free citizens in a democracy.
We often naively assume that education can be measured in terms of literacy, that if a person is taught to read and write all is well not only with him but with the nation as well. Presumably if we could only come to a state of 100 per cent literacy for the country, all our troubles would vanish. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
The problem is particularly serious in a democracy like our own where the manipulation of large masses of public opinion to form pressure groups not only in legislative matters but in social and economic situations as well has become an essential part of the system of life. These groups thrive on the ability of their members to read but not to think, to listen without judgment, to accept uncritically whatever is told them in familiar symbols.
In short, it is not the ability to read that is of final importance, but the question of how one reads and what he reads. Teach a boy that Hitler is infallible and give him only "Mein Kampf" and similar works to read and he becomes a perfect party member. Babbitt you will remember (or does anyone remember Babbitt any more?) read his daily paper and from it got all the opinions he had, except incidental additions from his Ph.D. neighbor and from the preacher at the church which he attended. And all this was accepted quite uncritically, without any consciousness of the inconsistencies to which these views often led him.
Under the conditions of modern life, people may safely be taught to read only if they are taught with open, critical, questioning minds. Thus, he alone is educated who has been trained to see beyond the exigencies of the immediate occasion, who is capable of harmonizing new ideas with old ones, who develops a resiliency and toughness of mind that guards him against the easy catchwords of demagoguery.
It is something of a paradox that the very institution which we have thought of as a bulwark of democracy, universal education, may easily instead, unless it is directed to more than immediately "practical" and technical ends, become the instrument for the establishment of dictatorial powers. It was never more true than now that a little learning is a dangerous thing.
Vol. 38 Sunday, March 23,1941 No. 112
OFFICIAL BULLETIN UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Notices due at Chancellor's office at 3 p.m. on day before publication during the week, and at 11 a.m. on Saturday for Sunday issue.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE ORGANIZATION: Christian Science Organization will hold a regular meeting Tuesday afternoon at 4:30 in the Pine Room of the Union Building. All students, graduates, and faculty members are welcome.-Betty Charles, secretary.
DRAMATIC CLUB: Dramatic Club will meet Tuesday afternoon at 4:30 in Green Hall. Initiation of apprentices. All members required to come.-Shirley Jane Rubble.
EL ATENEO: The regular meeting of El Ateneo will be held Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 in room 113 Frank Strong.—Merle Simmons, president.
EDUCATION FACULTY: There will be an Education Faculty meeting Tuesday at 3:30 in room 115 Fraser.—Dean R. A. Schwegler.
ENGLISH MAJORS: Professor Oldfather of the University of Illinois will speak to English Majors, graduate students and others interested, Friday at 3:30 in room 206 Fraser on "Levels of Culture." - J. W. Ashton.
MEDICAL STUDENTS: The Association of American Medical Colleges is changing the time for giving the Medical Aptitude Test from the fall to the spring. This year it will occur on the afternoon of May 1. Will all those premedical students who plan to enter Medical School in the fall of 1942 register with the undersigned within the next two weeks. A special practice sheet is available for those who register and pay the fee of one dollar at the time of registration. All others will pay the fee at the time of taking the test—Park H. Woodard, Room 8B, Frank Strong Hall.
NOTICE TO ALL STUDENTS: Dr. E. T. Gibson will be available for personal conferences at Watkins Memorial Hospital on Tuesday afternoon from 2 to 5. Appointments should be made at the Watkins Memorial Hospital—Dr. R. I. Cameson.
PHI SIGMA: C. V. Anderson of the Zoology department will discuss "Immunity in Trichinella Infection at a meeting Wednesday evening at 7:30 in room 206 Snow. An important business meeting will follow the discussion.-Hal Smolin, president.
PSYCHOLOGY CLUB: The Psychology Club will meet tomorrow in Room 21 Frank Strong Hall. Dr. E. T. Gibson, psychiatrist at the student hospital will speak on his work with students here on the campus. Everyone is welcome—Lois Schreiber, secretary.
W. S.G.A.: W.S.G.A. Council will meet at 7:00 in the Pine Room on Tuesday.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Student Paper of THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas
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The Book Shelf
"Under the Greenwood Tree or The Millstock Quire" by Thomas Hardy, illustrated by Clare Leighton, edition of Macmillan Co., N.Y., 237 pages, $3.50.
My grandmother, who lived in the Kentucky hills and smoked a pipe, used to say that she never liked to read books because they didn't have any pictures. Before and since her time, a good many people have not been attracted by books merely because of the dull and drab bindings on the outside and the unrelieved expanses of fine print inside. Perhaps taking a hint from the almost unbelievable success of certain magazines replete with pictures, book publishers are now beginning to pay increased attention to the attractiveness of the formats of their books.
The most recent and one of the best examples of the book which is beautiful in its physical characteristics as well as in its contents proved classic by time is the Maemillan company's edition of Thomas Hardy's "Under the Greenwood Tree," illustrated by Clare Leighton.
The book is, as the preface suggests, "a fairly true picture, at first hand, of the personages, ways, and customs" which were common in the villages of Southern England about 1820-30. The love story of the unstable Fancy Day, who proves fascinating to two men and conceals from one her promise to the other, and the struggle of a village choir to retain the time-honored orchestra and keep out the intruding organ—these two themes are interwoven and appear against a vivid and strongly painted rural background.
It is almost the only one of Hardy's writings which does not contain a tragedy. And it is no small part of the pleasure with which the novel can be read, and read again, that it does not end in a grave. This idyllic character, suggested by the Shakespearean title, is made capital of by the planners of this edition which is a handsome piece of bookmaking indeed.
Most striking of all are the dramatically beautiful wood engravings by the British artist Clare Leighton. As chapter headings and endings, and as full page illustrations, over 60 of these sharply black and white cuts embody graphically Hardy's power of conveying the mood of outer nature and his monumental descriptions of people.
The cuts are not quite so blithe perhaps as the book would warrant, but their powerful contrasts of light and shade make them the more impressive therefore. The old ways, old music, good cider, country dancing, racy and flavorsome speech of Hardy are all captured in darkly statuesque way by Miss Leighton.
This edition of "Under the Greenwood Tree," then, commemorating the centenary of the author's birth, is an excellent volume to serve as a gift. But is it a volume that would be even better on one's own shelves. For, because of the great pictorial beauty of the engravings, the reader can with even more pleasure than usual revel in the country setting, the country humors, the rich and fragrant air of the recent but irrecoverable past which this novel so satisfingly presents—Bill Read.
ROCK CHALK TALK
The other day a delivery boy breezed into the Chi Omega house with an order. "Where does this go?" he asked two girls standing in the hall.
"You might buzz upon third," suggested one of the girls, intending that he use the house phone buzzer.
But the lad thought "buzz" meant to run, not walk, to someplace. He dashed up the stairway before he could be stopped, and got up to third to try to deliver the order.
Pink and blue were the quizzes presented by Miss Beulah Morrison to a class last week. Although the printer had made a mistake, Miss Morrison decided everything was all right—it was child psychology.
The hot water heater at Rock Chalk Co-op went on a rampage the other night. Ready for any emergency, Everton Doom opened the hot water faucet, let the steam blow, and cried, "Woo, woo, wooooo, have your tickets ready, folks!"
Dorothy Curtis was a contestant in the intramural swimming meet this week, and had to choose two optional dives. She announced that she would do a barrel-roll, which turned out to be her own original name for an ordinary front flip roll—which is not so ordinary for prairie girls in Kansas.
Five men at 1041 Tennessee were moved recently to take a nip out of a bottle of hair tonic because of attractive ingredients mentioned on the label. They praised the delicate flavor, went on to sample everything on the dresser, including skin bracer, aftershave lotion, shampoo, and shaving cream. For results, consult Richard Snyder, Richard Epps, Lloyd Woodburn, Bill Fenney, or Jimmy Draper.
Flash! (Or maybe we mean flashy.)
Equipped with brushes and orange and red paint, Ken Nicolay and Bill Perdue were seen anointing one model A Ford fit for a circus. It was the day before spring, which may explain.
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