mi
^‘Compress Learning/ Jones Warns
7:30, ( ^ ^ ^ f . i
Wklv
(Tiditor’s Note: This is the text
teg 5 j of Jenkin Lloyd Jones’ address at
lay, p the Century Study Forecast Con-
m. Tb ference Thursday nijfht.)
President Rudder has asked me
turdj. to jiive my estimate of the proper
ore a function of this frreat American
H eil college 15 years hence. How
P m. should it perform its duty in what,
tol borrow the grandfather of all
cliches, we call a fast-changing
Wprld ?
Katarj There are a few big IFs, of
rn! course. In the next 15 years we
are almost certain to collide in a
'v>h climactic struggle with the ram
pant forces of international com
munism. I do not anticipate that
humankind will be wiped off the
fate of the earth, although the
| p . present population problem may
be solved in the crudest and most
k DT stupid manner. But in the event
' ' our enemies should win, the func-
L ti<|n of this institution and all
V otners like it in this country will
bear little relation to their pres-
ent aims.
■For in that case, while such
- I' colleges as this might pursue and
•£6 Jk even intensify the job of produc-
injr a technically-skilled elite, the
sebrch for abstract truth would
most certainly end. Under the
"■ watchful eye of Rig Brother the
job would then be to turn the
young student into a useful but
RSl. docile servant of the super-state,
welded psychologically to a pre
fabricated philosophy, a n d ade-
^ quately brainwashed so that any
serious questioning of the omni-
Hience of his leaders will never
^ expressed.
| This is not exactly what any of
Teui UK * lave * n m * n d for A&M of 1976.
It is what, 1 hope, we will resist
and resist successfully. But the
present stalemate will not con-
1 j tinue very long. Within 15 years
I Jl the areas of free inquiry and free
'(I expression will have either van-
ished in this world, or they will
be substantially more widespread
than they are today. It is only
with the latter assumption that
there would Is* any sense in my
making any remarks at all about
how A&M might better serve her
future students.
K So, assuming that government
jOf the people, by the people and
for the people shall not perish
pom the earth, and that the march
of scientific and technical discov
eries remains in as close or closer
RE
order than it Is today, bow should
your college of 1976 differ from
your college of today?
I think it should do one thing
above all. I think it should learn
to compress learning.
I think if we don’t develop
methods of compressing learning
we will fall farther and farther
behind in the job of turning out
with bachelor’s degrees students
who will not only be immediately
useful in an increasingly special
ized society, but who will also
have the philosophical background
that will keep that society free.
I was impressed with the letter
I received from your president
concerning this speech. He was
obviously worried, as are all peo
ple who have rashly invited an
unknown speaker, about how to
keep the orator on the rails. So
he slyly slipped in a suggested
outline for my speech. This I will
pay no attention to. But he ended
with one glorious sentence.
“We would further ask,” he
said, “that you emphasize the re
quirements in terms of American
citizenship which will confront
these graduates.”
This would be a happier and
sounder nation if more presidents
of distinguished technical , and
scientific schools were more con
cerned over the citizenship of
their products.
For, as science has become more
difficult, scientific educations have
become more intensive and time-
consuming. And harried students,
anxious to get on the pension es
calator of General Electric, Du
pont and Texaco, have shown in
creased impatience at such so-
called time-wasting courses as his-
tory, philosophy, political science
—yes, and even English.
Thus, along with the man In the
gray flannel suit, and the organi
zation man, we have become in
creasingly aware of the lop-sided
man. He is the scientific whiz
who doesn’t have the faintest idea
of the anatomy of free institu
tions. He is the human calculator
who has no sense of history. He
is the peculiar phenomenon who
worships cold logic in the labora
tory, but who remains a sucker
for the most outrageous brands of
economic and political snake-oil.
Educated boobery is far more
dangerous to a republic than il
literate boobery. For the illiterate
is usually a Ifrttle humble. But
not the Ph.D. Therefore, one of
the most exacting tasks that this
institution and others must face
is this: How do> you intensify a
scientific or technical education
and at the same time broaden it
with the humimilfcies ? I think it
can be done.
It can be done by perfecting
techniques for poiuring more in
formation and nnore skills into
young human beings in less time
than ever before. Many of these
techniques are aready well-proven.
Others are still in the laboratory.
The success of ou(r educational
system in the years coming on
will be measured by how quickly
we can put new and more effective
teaching methods into general use.
We must begin by re-stating an
un-arguable proposition. Human
minds differ in two important re
spects: capacity to learn and am
bition to learn. Yet immense dam
age has been done to American
teaching by the zany theory
preached by the progressive edu
cators that these differences must
not be admitted.
We have seen the wreckage of
school systems based on together
ness. We have seen the etrosion of
ambition caused by the principle
that everybody passes. We have
seen the devastating effect of the
hypocrisy that gives the kid with
little mental capacity good grades
for generally wrong answers on
the theory that this will spare
him from the trauma of failure.
Even the dumb kids were rarely
fooled and the bright ones decided
that sloppy work must be socially
acceptable.
It is high time that we stopped
letting the dim-bulbs and the goof-
offs slow the able to a stroll. We
will have to go to multiple track
systems in our public schools. We
will always owe it to the slow to
give them the best training they
can or wish to absorb. In any
multi-track system we must have
plenty of switches and cross-overs
so that the late starters or the
narrowly-gifted are given the op
portunity to shine when and where
they can.
But we must apply spurs to the
quick. We must give incentives
to supei-ior young minds. We must
give challenge to those who can
respond to challenge. This is what
our enemies are doing. In the
Russian school yards the young
sters didn’t show me their yo-yos.
They rushed up to show me their
medals. We are not long for this
race if we cling to the easy old
standards.
And, believe me, we cling.
My youngsters in high school
got their language training .just
about as I got it. I could detect
in text or method little difference
from the manner in which I spent
three years not learning French.
And they spent three years not
learning Spanish.
At the end of approximately 500
hours of instruction, plus home
work, neither they nor I could even
remotely handle a living language
as a living language. And I think
we all made a reasonable try.
Yet during the war I watched
the armed services, desperate for
Japanese interpreters, turn out
skilled journeymen in 90 days. Of
course, the training was intensive.
Every audio and visual devise was
used. The students lived with the
language. There were no girls to
talk to in the corridors, no pep
meetings to attend, no football
games. But the results were tre
mendous.
We are low on the inspiration
factor. In Oklahoma last year the
majority of young graduates of
teachers colleges who decided to
go into teaching school stood in
the lower half of their graduating
classes. This may be an indict
ment of our economic system. Pri
vate industry was siphoning off
the ablest of our potential teach
ers for its own profit, and thus,
in effect, was eating the seed corn.
I don’t know how this can be pre
vented short of raising teachers’
salaries above the level that the
communities will support. But
modern technology should permit
us to give less gifted teachers im
mense and potent aids.
Here is the yoimg lady who has
no sense of poetry—who reads it
miserably—who would, if left to
her own devices dry up any inher
ent love of poetry among her pu
pils. Have you been in her class
room ? I have. The flat monotone.
The ludicrous efforts at dramatics
that brings yaks to a rendition of
“The Raven” or “The Bells.”
Well, we have tapes. We have
Frost reading Frost, and Sandburg
reading Sandburg, and Lindsay
reading Lindsay. We have at our
disposal the finest actors who
eould recite poetry with impact
and thrill. In half a semester we
eould sell English poetry instead
of spending a year or more killing
it. One should only measure time
in education by results. Pages
from the calendar don’t educate.
Only that which draws a response
educates. Poor teaching methods
produce yawning classes. And
yawning classes are wasting time.
All over Texas and Oklahoma
and the other 50 states we have
starving little high schools, jeal
ously protected from overdue con
solidation by the pressure of local
merchants, ensconsed principals,
and those who enjoy the football
and basketball games. And each
has a science course.
You can see it now. The gloomy
basement laboratory. Three bun-
san burners and a rack of bland
acids and bases. The dusty plaster
models of brachiopods on the shelf
and the cluttered samples of baux
ite, hematite and fool’s gold. Oh,
yes, and taught by a young man
who doubles as the football coach
and who had damn well better win
most of his games or there’ll be
another science teacher next year.
This, in the rushing atomic age!
And yet even this harried, un
der-equipped and under-trained
young man could do a pretty fair
job if he could flash on the screen
a motion picture of a brilliant uni
versity lecturer in a splendidly-
equipped laboratory going through
the basic experiments with plenty
of animated diagrams, and finally
showing, by pictures of our major
industries, their application to our
modem life.
These devices have been at our
disposal ever since talking motion
pictures began 34 years ago. In
time of war when the survival of
the nation depends on making
navigators out of farm boys and
gunners out of bank clerks we use
them with immense effectiveness.
When will we make a really seri
ous effort to start putting them
into our schools? For, gentlemen,
we are at war now.
Finally, there is the English
language. It is a good, service
able language. It is our only meth
od of communication. I don’t have
to tell the faculty of this college
or any other college how miserably
unacquainted with the English
language most of their incoming
freshmen are. You know too well.
You know what a tiny percentage
of your classes can write succinct,
logical, properly-spelled and prop-
THE BATTALION
Friday, September 22, 1961 College Station, Texas Page 2
erly - punctuated sentences, laced
with an adequate number of poly
syllabic or Latin-root words.
Well, there a lot of factors at
fault. It’s hard to expect much
from a generation that, instead of
reading Dickens or even Steven-
(See SPEECH on Page 4)
SATURDAY EVENING
VILLAGE OF THE
DAMNED”
Starring
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SUNDAY
“CIMARRON”
Starring
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Maria Schell
Anne Baxter
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NOW SHOWING
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Mf M Hi NiMH
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“DONDI”
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CIRCLE
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ALL - AMERICAN”
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POSSESSED”
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Here It Is ...
Application For Town Hall Tickets
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TOWN HALL - 1961-62 - TICKET PRICES
CIRCLE PREFERRED DATE
Applications for TOWN HALL season tickets, 1961-62, are receivable now
either by mail or personal delivery to MSC Building Cashier. Sale of Season
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