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Summer Session Kansan
Page 2
Friday, July 13. 1962
Dollars and Education
Higher education in the United States is increasingly finding itself in a paradoxical situation. On one hand, need increases almost daily as citizens grow more and more aware of the complexities of the world and the understanding they require.
On the other hand, the cost of higher education is also increasing. A four year program in a "prestige" college now costs around $12,000. A recent survey showed that even "medium price" state universities require about $6,000-$7,000 for a Bachelor's degree.
Kansas too has its problems with higher education. Yet higher education in Kansas is an area Kansans can point to with pride.
A CASE in point: the University of Kansas. Cost estimates for a Bachelor's degree range from $5,100 to $5,600 for a state resident. Judging from cost, KU would have to be placed somewhere below the "medium price" universities.
But there is overwhelming evidence that KU is by no means a "medium" university. Its national and international programs, its high level of academic requirement, its research, and faculty, etc., have firmly established KU as one of the top state universities in the nation.
Former Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy was
once asked if he had heard of KU referred to as "the Harvard on the Kaw." Jokingly, he replied: "That should be 'Harvard is the KU on the Charles.'"
Even though said in jest, his comment typifies the striving of past administrations and the present one under Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe. Kansas does not rank at the top in dollars spent for higher education, but can well be proud of the efficiency it receives for the tax dollar put into education.
TOWARD THE end of keeping this tax dollar down, some people have proposed that the state statute requiring state colleges and universities to accept all accredited Kansas high school graduates be stricken from the books.
This they say would eliminate the inefficiency of accepting some students who would later have to be dropped from college. But many educators, including Chancellor Wescoe, have argued that from these "extra" admittees are the sleepers often found who later achieve success.
The theory has worked in Kansas where every high school graduate gets his chance, and where the education tax dollar has reached an efficiency level of which every Kansan can be proud.
GREAT ISSUES IN AMERICAN HISTORY, by Richard Hofstadter (Vintage, two volumes, $1.65 each).
Many University of Kansas students in history have come into collision with these excellent collections. The liberal historian of such things as reform and social Darwinism has compiled key writings, from 1765-1865 in the first volume and 1864-1957 in the second.
Hofstadter also provides excellent introductions to each period and central concept. Volume I considers revolution and independence, the Constitution, Federalists and Republicans, Republican diplomacy, the Jacksonian era, slavery and expansion, and secession, Civil War and emancipation. Volume II treats reconstruction, industrialism and social reform, the agrarian protest, imperialism and war, progressivism, prosperity and depression, and World War II and the post-war world.
It would be pointless to list all that Hofstadter offers here. Suffice it to say that the key writings—Jefferson, Hamilton, Paine, Jackson, Webster, Calhoun, Lincoln, Carnegie, Sumner, Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt, Wilson, Hoover, William Allen White, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower—are here for both student and readers of history who need such source books about. CMP
A PLACE TO SLEEP, by Gerda Rhoads (Ballantine, 50 cents).
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"A Place to Sleep" is another in the series of books (fiction, of course) detailing the emotional problems of 14-year-old girls and their relationships with the lovers of their mothers. Perhaps this is good reading for Kansas—somehow one gets the impression Midwestern really don't know how to live.
A College Exit Examination
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is an excerpt from the June 1962 Progressive. The author, president of Goddard College for a quarter of a century, published several national posts, including those of teacher, principal, superintendent, and headmaster in a number of New England schools. His articles have appeared on newspapers such as Saturday Review, Parents Magazine, the NEA Journal, and the New York Times.
By Royce S. Pitkin
Ours could be called "The Age of the Examination." As soon as a baby makes his appearance in this world he is subjected to an examination, and before a man is permitted to repose in his final resting place he undergoes another examination to be certain there is no more life in him. Along the way the individual encounters a varied and numerous assortment of tests and examinations.
Perhaps the one most discussed among high school graduates is the College Entrance Examination. There seems to be an equally great need for a College Exit Examination. This one, a sort of pilot operation, is designed to be self-administering. It is submitted here for trial and criticism by any who may be interested. The format is simple: It consists of a series of observations on the nature of our life and times, each observation being followed by a question or questions, to be answered by those who choose to be examined. In accordance with sound psychological principles, many of these questions may properly be regarded as open ended.
My first set of observations is concerned with some of the problems that confront the individual in what is known as "mass culture." Modern economic systems depend for their successful operation on mass production and mass consumption. One of the paramount aims of management, whether in a capitalist or socialist economy, is to persuade people to want the product that is produced, whether it is cereal that snaps, crackles, and pops, or cars that are wider and longer or more compact, or lipstick that is more alluring. To achieve this aim, vast amounts of energy and money are spent in the creation and popularization of styles, in food, clothing, drink, furnishings, appliances, vacations, and travel. Appeals are made to status, comfort, happiness, and luxury. The effort is to make people think alike enough to think that they will be different and distinctively different by buying the same things.
IT HARDLY NEEDS to be pointed out that modern communication is itself largely a mass operation. By their very nature television and radio and the newspapers are mass productions and are known, of course, as mass media. The arts,
too, are mass-produced and are produced for the mass. This is particularly true of our motion pictures, books, much of our drama, and music as it is heard in concerts and on records. Even religious organizations direct their appeals to the masses. Through pageentry and ritual designed to attract and hold multitudes, the church endeavors to guide the moral and spiritual lives of the masses. Drive-in services in the summer, ski-slope services in the winter, and nation-wide radio programs the year around attest to the mass character and appeal of religious activity. Education, too, becomes more and more a mass-directed enterprise, not only through the increase in the numbers attending schools but through the methods being used. No longer is the lecture limited to a group of twenty-five. Through the use of amplifiers it is readily extended to hundreds, and through the use of television to thousands. Throughout his life the individual is subject to these ever-present, pervasive mass influences.
ONE OF THE issues that precipitated the American Revolution was the insistence of Americans that certain rights of individuals were more important than the security of the state. According to the Declaration of Independence a chief function of government is to secure these rights. Because they were so highly cherised by our forefathers, they were enumerated in the first ten amendments to the Federal Constitution and have become known as the Bill of Rights. They include freedom of speech and press; freedom of religion; freedom from search and seizure without warrant; protection against excessive bail and cruel and unusual punishment. It is because these rights of individuals have been so strongly identified with this nation that down through the years America has been known as a free country in which personal liberty is valued and protected. With the advent of World War I, the United States for the first time in a hundred years felt threatened by a foreign power, with the result that concern for the security of the nation began to take precedence over concern for the rights of individuals. This was the beginning of a trend that received powerful impetus during World War II and was brought to frenzied heights by McCarthyism and the accompanying fear of Communism.
Thus the first question in the College Exit Examination is: "Given these conditions, what happens to individual integrity, to the ability to think for oneself, to the ability to make intelligent decisions, and to originality? How do you propose to cope with this condition?"
So far has this trend developed that disclosure of scientific discoveries has been withheld in the name of national security. Freedom of people to associate with others has been restricted in the name of national security. Books, periodicals, and letters from foreign countries have been seized and confiscated by postal officials on the grounds that they might subvert the minds of the readers and bring about the downfall of the government. Innumerable examples could be given of situations in which personal freedom, as understood by the founders of the nation, has been curtailed as a means of insuring the security of the state.
Here, then, is the question:
"When the nation is confronted by another powerful nation which seeks to impose its economic and political system on us, can individual freedom and the rights of man, as defined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, be preserved? Which is the greater threat to our national security—the erosion of civil liberties, or subversive activity? How do you intend to deal with this issue?"
Yet it is evident that the unrestrained exercise of rights, unbalanced by responsibility, results in disorder and harm. If one enjoys the right to smoke but exercises no responsibility in the disposal of the burning cigarette butt, lives and property are placed in jeopardy and beauty is despoiled. If one exercises the right to drink cokes and beer without exercising responsibility in the disposal of bottles, injury to persons and machines may readily follow. If one says what he wants to say but in doing so spreads false rumors and defames character, it is evident that the exercise of rights has infringed upon the rights of others. One of the rights of an American is to own property and to use it as one may determine, unless such use runs counter to the law. Where this right is exercised without responsibility, the irreplaceable resources of the nation may be destroyed, as is happening, for example, with the giant redwoods in California.
IF THERE IS any subject on which college students are prepared to speak with force and frequency, it is personal rights. These rights include the right to believe as one chooses; to use time as one wishes; to dress and maintain personal appearance as one pleases. They include also the right to talk, to say what one wants to say, to choose an occupation, and in some colleges to select one's program of studies. Anyone familiar with the activities of an American college campus is aware that personal rights are the veritable stock in trade of college students.
The question for your consideration: "Are you prepared to accept the responsibilities of membership in a society which seeks to protect the rights of individuals?"
THE PUBLIC RELATIONS people, aided and abetted by the anthropologists, psychologists, and sociologists, have made us aware of the importance of status. Even a three-year-old is status conscious, when he chooses to go to the nursery school because his playmates do. And the five-year-old adds to his status by going to Sunday School because the neighbor's children go and it is obviously the thing to do. Adults go to church and join golf clubs for status. Parents select colleges for their sons and daughters on the basis of prestige rather than the quality of the educational experience for the particular student. Colleges in turn seek accreditation and endowments and expensive buildings to give status to trustees, administrators, and faculties. Many persons look for jobs that give them status, select the sections of the community in which they will live, and choose their companions for the same reason.
This universality of status-seeking suggests that it is essential to a well-ordered society. I won't argue the point, but surely status is no substitute for stature. Attendance at church is obviously no assurance of godliness or morality. Membership in the golf club or superlative performance as a golfer is no guarantee of leadership or statesmanship. The accreditation of a college is by no means synonymous with the achievement of educational excellence. Election to high office, whether in academic, business, or political communities, may give status to the elected but brings no stature to the office. Witness the dearth of statesmen in state and national affairs and the failure of college presidents to rise above mediocrity.
"How will you reconcile the urge for status with the need for stature?"
THROUGH SONG and story America has inculcated in its people an intense love of country, a fervent patriotism that causes the nerves to tingle with a thrill to go through us as we watch the raising of the Stars and Stripes or hear "My Country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of the I sing." It is good that this is so. Our achievements, our traditions, our aims justify an ardent patriotism. But it is so with other nations of the English-speaking world — Canada, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand. It is so with the nations of South America and with nations of the Western world — France, Italy, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden. It is so
with the nations of Africa and Asia.
with the nations of patriotism burn fiercely around the world, in new nations with old cultures, and in old nations with new cultures; among the light-skinned peoples and the dark-skinned peoples; among the Communist and the non-Communist societies; in Islam and Christendom. In many of these nations the ideas of freedom and nationality were taken from America. For nearly 200 years our country has been a beacon of liberty, casting its beams into the dark and hopeless places of the earth. Now there is response. The shackles of colonialism, illiteracy, subjugation, and poverty are being thrown off. People everywhere are on the march with strident cries of nationalism. To us they may seem rowdy, undisciplined, offensively defensive, and too self-conscious.
PATRIOTISM IN this kind of world takes on a new meaning. It can no longer be "my country, right or wrong" any more than it can be "my city, right or wrong." We have become members of a world community — a community of conflicting ideologies and traditions. It would be folly to pretend that these conflicts are not deep-seated or that a few meetings at the summit will cause our differences to disappear, or that we can overcome Communism with sweet reason-ableness.
Nevertheless, we have to recognize the utter impossibility of nuclear war and the futility of deterrent power as a guarantee of peace. Because the evils of nuclear warfare are so great, America cannot afford to be wrong in its foreign policies. A full scale war would mean the end of a free society. The modern patriot can no longer indulge in the pleasant illusion that military strength and economic power will make the world safe for democracy. He cannot so easily lay aside the responsibilities of membership in the brotherhood of man, for he is forced to remember that there are literally billions of other patriots who are as convinced as he of the righteousness of their causes. Moreover, the American patriot knows that there are billions who want and need what America can give in materials, ideas, and ideals. And now the final question: "When humanity say, 'Give us patriots who believe heart and soul in the brotherhood of man' — how will you respond?"
SUMMER SESSION KANSAN NEWS DEPARTMENT Steve Clark and Karl Koch Co-Editors BUSINESS DEPARTMENT Bonnie McCullough and Bill Woodburn, Co-Business Mgrs.