Evening star., 1934-07-01
PAN.AMERICAN EDUCATION
FARLEY HOLDS HIGH AIMS
u. S. Accepts Invitation to Santiago
Conference Which Will Promote Bet
misunderstanding Through Learning.
advantage is also individual advan-

advantage is also mdlVldOal adVan-
tage.
1t is in this understanding that
the Inter- American Federation of
Education is being organized. And 1t
is in this understanding that its lead
ing advocate and chief promoter, DR..
Glen Levin Swiggetts> has been work.
ing necessarily for several years, with
a far-sighted vision of the poSSibili-
ties of educational endeavors in Latin
America. Education is progressive
in content, methods and results" he
says. 1T should serve in order. the
individual. community, Nation, region
and world. The Latin American
countries did not have at first this
conception of education. Their cul-
ture, and the church and school upon
which it rests, was borrowed. Higher
education. particularly professional,
was in European universities or by
their own faculties after European
models The extent and kind of ele-
mentary and secondary education
given may be inferred from the high
percentage of illiteracy. There was
little emphasis upon teacher train
ing. Education was parochial. Pub
lie education was to come. 1t has
come. and with rush. Programs
of public education are everywhere
first-page newspaper articles. Their
public men are educators. Their edu-
Gators are in line for the presidency.
Ministers Of education are ranking
cabinet members No part of the
world is today more devotedly COM
mitted to popular education than is
Latin America
Aiming at Skilled Citizenry.
Latin America, as DR.. Swiggett
points out, is ever aiming at skilled
citizenry. Back of the nations pro-
grams for the promotion OF agrlcul-
ture, commerce and industry stand
the nations schools. The epochal
experiments of Mexico are being
studied and introduced, especially in
those countries which still have a
large percentage of Indian popula-
ton. Teacher training is empha-
sized. Their normal schools are real
" higher vocational schools.
This is, in the words of DR.. Swig-
gett, nothing less than a new edu-
cation, an education of the type that
promotes civic understanding, quick
ems the national consciousness and
must inevitably determine the de-
pendability of future international
and Pan-American accords.
Slow Development Necessary.
An institution of the kind that DR..
Swiggett is building up, of course, can
only develop slowly. He realizes that
there are today few nationally rep
resentative education associations. He
finds encouragement, however, In tne
fact that his efforts, sponsored oy
the National Education Association
of the United States. have already
resulted in the establishment OF spe-
cial committees in all the Latin
American countries. These commit
tees. appointed in certain cases by
the associations of teachers or edu-
cational groups of the respective cap
itals. and in others by the ministers
of education of each country, are
earnestly working for the constitution
of similar national associations wnicn,
in time, may merge into one great
organization.
The first steps, then, have already
been taken, and the next step Will
be taken at Santiago, when the meet
ings of the Second Inter-American
Conference on Education are opened.
They may be short, non-spectacuiar
steps, but the goal they are ap-
preaching Is ever 80 important.
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