The Dilemma of U.S. Secondary Schools: Democracy's Burden on the Intellect

Secondary education in the United States has always been infected with the so-called "democratic spirit," in both its good and its bad aspects. Although concern for the common man led America to institute one of the first universal public school systems in the world, quantity has unusually gotten the best of quality in the public concern.

Mediocrity in Democracy

The very democratic theory which first attached the words "public" and "universal" to education has proven to be education's most ruthless opponent at the other end of the scales of values: democracy in education has come to mean mediocrity.

Two strong prejudices seem to have set themselves deep in American attitudes towards education: First, demands for equal rights often fail to recognize unequal talents--many complain that to select certain gifted students for special instruction violates the democratic principle. Secondly, American emphasis on material success measured in terms of financial profit scorns the academic world as largely useless, except in its strictly vocational manifestations.

Slow Realization

However, it is also true that this has been the case throughout American history, and yet it has not been until the last few years that the implications and results of such attitudes have been noticed.

During the past 175 years the United States has taken the originality of Europe and, with its resources and practical ability, transformed it into the standard of living and the physical strength which make it the wealthiest nation in the world. But now, for the first time, America is confronted with a challenge to an intellectual battle which is perhaps a battle for survival.

The fact that science is the particular area in which the battle is being fought should not obscure the fact that the battle is an intellectual one. Nor should an aversion to the "crass materialism" of science be allowed to make people believe that a return to interests in things spiritual or in the humane letters will solve the problem.

The fact is that the only reason for this concern with improving American education has come out of a threat to our survival. Without this, the problem of increased intellectual activity for its own sake would not be a very pressing problem, nor would anything else, for that matter.

Educators have been pointing out the weaknesses in the American system for years, and no one ever paid much attention, indeed there were no particularly obvious reasons for them to do so. Only recently have the reasons been supplied.

The Sputniks' Jolt

The launching of the Russian earth satellites was a spectacular demonstration of the successes of an educational system which differs drastically from our own, and it jolted, at least temporarily, the American people into recognition of the truth that lay behind the criticism of the past.

Immediate reaction to the surprise Soviet advance was a typically American one--to spend more money. Enthusiasm for educational subsidies, however, gauged by Congressional action, is flagging. Moreover, a "crash program" in science or mathematics is not the answer. Dr. Henry T. Heald, president of the Ford Foundation, asserts that "scientists cannot be made overnight with any amount of money. They must be produced by the American school system."

Surprised at Culture

This is equally true of any other academic field, and there are certainly fields other than science in which America's anti-intellectual tendencies stand her in bad stead. A European quoted recently in Newsweek, said that he was genuinely surprised whenever he came across an American who could discuss modern art intelligently or indeed who could do anything more than tell him how wonderful things were in the United States.

President Eisenhower, in his commencement address at the United States Naval Academy last week, noted that fifty percent of the United States' diplomatic service has little or no ability in tongues other than English. Here is another result of America's deemphasis of the so-called "impractical" aspects of education; such an apparent lack of interest in foreign countries cannot help but give an unfavorable impression to the rest of the world. At a time when the United States needs friendly allies more than ever before, such an educational lacuna may assume considerable importance.

All this appears like little more than a listing of support for George Bernard Shaw's famous dictum, "Nothing is ever done unless people will be killed if it is not done." Unfortunately this is to a large extent true. The current reevaluation of the American school system, such as it is, is attributable mainly to the fear of Russian military power.

Series of View-points

In the following eleven pages, the Crimson presents a series of viewpoints on this system. It does not pretend to be a comprehensive account of the educational problem as it stands. It is, rather, an attempt to achieve some sort of understanding through a number of, hopefully, representative cases. Contrasts between these cases and an examination of several special problems involved will perhaps have more effect than a lengthy accumulation of generalization about "Education."

Private Schools

The possible contrasts are many. Representing the best in American secondary education, the independent preparatory school sacrifices the natural social atmosphere of the high school to achieve a high degree of academic discipline and rigor. The Exeter "round table" system, with a faculty member holding discussions with ten or twelve students, is one of the finest products of secondary education, but this small student-faculty ratio is possible only because of a multi-million dollar gift from Edward S. Harkness. In most of America's public schools, the unwillingness of communities to submit to higher taxes keeps school budgets low and student-teacher ratios high.

In many high schools only one language is taught to any considerable extent, while at Andover, another one of America's large private schools, four years of training in Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, and German are available and a new series of courses in Russian is being started.

High School Contrasts

But the contrasts do not exist merely between public and private schools. American high schools range all the way from Scarsdale High and Newton High (above right) which have many advanced courses of the college freshman type for able students, to the poorer high schools which spend a disproportionate amount of time in driver training, cooking, shop, home-making, and other such pursuits, to the very worst institutions in the country such as the school shown above (left).

Negos vs. Putney

Within the circle of private education one finds such boys schools as Andover and Exeter which breed a rather abnormal social animal, described in his own terms as "nego," and at the same time an institution like the "progressive" Putney School which emphasizes coeducational group learning and community adjustment, qualities conspicuously lacking in most private academies.

Along with these contrasts there are specialized problems which apply equally to all parts of the system. Such questions as "What can be done for the exceptionally bright student?" "What can be done to further the development of science in secondary schools?" and "What is the proper role of organizations such as the P.T.A. in the educational system?" have never been satisfactorily answered in America.

This supplement will attempt to consider in detail a few of these problems and also reveal in detail the nature of several contrasts mentioned above. It is hoped that in so doing it may show the problem in a clear--if oversimplified--light.

Secondary Schools

This is the tenth in a series of annual CRIMSON Commencement Supplements, in all of which the Editors have discussed, though rarely have solved, weighty problems confronting American education.

It is the most recent in a line of distinguished, if somewhat pompous, forebears. For seven straight years, the CRIMSON ground out a yearly State of the Union message on Academic Freedom after sweeping its nets across the country in search of Injustice in colleges both great and small.

In 1956 CRIMSON minions were dispatched to the Southland, seeking out the full story on the segregation problem and the influence of racial antagonism on the quality of public education. And last year the CRIMSON turned its eyes back into the University itself with a lengthy diagnosis of Harvard's troubles and a few guarded prescriptions for cures.

Our search for the source of America's educational woes never flags. This year we turn back to the secondary schools where are sown the problems that Universities like Harvard later fall heir to, through no fault of their own. We will not stop there you may be sure. Tomorrow, kindergarten; the next day, the womb.