Evening star., 1939-05-06
Liberal Arts Course
Is Criticized by
Educators
Brown University Head
Defends CIossics as
Still Needed

Still Needed
The liberal arts education took q
beating today in a lively panel dis
cussion before 300 educators attend-
ing the 22d annual meeting Of the
American Council on Education at
the Mayflower Hotel.
OF the five discussants sitting
down together, only Henry M. Wris-
ton, president of Brown University,
defended the old classical. education
as what is needed to solve the edu-
cational problems of today.
Mr.. Wriston hurled American his
tory and the Bible-not to mention
Julius Caesar and Emperor Freder-
lex lat his opponents, who sought
to show that the modern educa-
tional program should be adapted to
the position which the student will
probably occupy in the social struc-
ture of the country.
I'VE have a worm's-eye view Of
conditions today" declared Mr..
Wriston.
Charles H. Judd, director of the
education program of the National
Youth Administration, strongly dis
approved of the liberal arts educa-
ton as taught today, but admitted
there were certain fundamentals
everybody had to know.
"Crazy Over Examinations"
"It's important to every one of us
that people be able to read
Stop, for instance" he said,
"and we have got to know how to
get the right change at the store"
However, he said. there is much
too much supervision in modern
education and we've gone crazy
| over examinations"
Grayson N. Kefauver, dean of the
school of education at Stanford
| University, emphasized the develop
ment Of the total personality" and
Roscoe Pulliam, president of South
ern Illinois State Normal University,
said there is only a minority who can
/ accept classical education and make
the necessary generalizations from 1t
in life.
B. Lamar johnson of Stephens
College said the test of curriculum
course should be whether it meets
the needs of the students taking it.
Miss BERTHE Backus, principal of
Deal Junior High School, declared
that education fails to consider the
desire of the student to find his
niche in the social structure today.
Time, Distance Irrelevant.
Time, distance and space de-
clared Mr.. Wriston, ARE irrelevant.
Julius Caesar is just as dead and
no deader than Woodrow Wilson.
Armageddon is no word coined by
the British, but can be found in
the Bible"
Raymond A. Kent, president OF
the University of Louisville, spoke
from the floor to ask if there was
not some way to measure results
factually rather than through per-
sonal opinion.
/ Frederick II had that idea back
in the 18th century, said Mr.. Whis-
ton. You can pour the same cur
riculum on millions of different
students and expect to get q uni
form result"
After a brief business session,
a luncheon was scheduled at 1890
pm. at the Cosmos Club.
The final session was to feature
addresses by Daniel A. Prescott, au-
thor, on General Education and
the Individual" and Mortimer j.
Adler, associate professor of philos-
ophy of law at the University of
Chicago, on Liberalism and Liberal
Education
Recommend Continued C. c. c.
Yesterday the assembled educa-
tors heard recommendation that
the Civilian Conservation Corps be
continued and made part of a ma
tional plan for the care and edu-
cation OF youth.
The recommendation was made by
Kenneth Holland, associate direc-
tor of the councils American Youth
Commission, on the basis of two
year study of the corps.
At the same time DR.. Robert L.
Sutherland of Bucknel University
reported on a Negro youth study
and Howard M Bell, an associate
director of the commission, dis
cussed an experiment project in
occupational adjustment.
Some advice to private institutions
on financial management was ad-
vanced by George F. Rogalsky.
controller of Cornell University, and
John C. Christensen. controller of
the University of Michigan, spoke
on the financial management Of
publicly supported institutions. He
spoke of Federal intervention in af-
fairs of some land grant colleges as
"a serious matter"
At banquet last night Dean
Herbert E. Hawkes. of Columbia
University pointed out that only
a small part of the college enrollees
were ever intended to become
scholars.
Sir Willmott Lewis, Washington
correspondent for the London
Times, also spoke on education and
democracy. He warned that the
state must exist for the individual
and not the individual for the state.
Education, he indicated, must train
the individual in a democracy to
give by consent what is demanded
under compulsion in totalitarian
state.