Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-02-28
DOROTHY
THOMPSON
Defends
.iticisnis of Business
in School Texts

IN School i exits
(Ths opinions sxprssssd by
Miss Thompson are her own
and not nsesssariiy those Of The
Detroit Timss.)
TIVE excerpts published by The
- New York Times on February
% from Mr.. Ralph Robeys report
on 500 school textbooks. prepared
originally for the National Asso-
citation OF Manufacturers. do not
seem to me to substantiate the
implicit charge that the textbooks
are "derogatory Of the American
form of government" They seem
TO me rather to indicate that there
is still a free, inquiring. critical
mind In this country and among
its textbook writers.
Certainly business practices come
In for good deal OF criticism.
Why shouldn't they? The ques-
ton Is not whether the textbooks
criticize business practices but
whether their criticisms are well
founded and well argued.
think Mr.. Feier's description
of the technique of advertising as
quoted in the Times from his
Elements of Economics" is largely
correct. And with the world in a
full state of revolution il is GER
tainly necessary TO inquire into
the causes and raise the question
of whether we use wealth. money
and credit as productivity for
society as We could.
MANY Of the economic views ex-
ANA pressed in these quoted text
bo1ks are highly conservative,
lpared 10 the social and eco
0hic views OF certain people who
have the ear OF the National
Association of Manufacturers.
And-from the other side
although 1 am no partisan OF
Harold Rugg. | should certainly
prefer to learn social sciences
from him rather than from. for
instance. Mr.. George Sokolsky.
For ! fear that Mr.. George Sokol-
sky's views would. if put into
practice. lead us straight into a
far more revolutionary condition
of affairs than Mr. Riggs ever
will.
These remarks do not. however,
constitute an Endorsement OF the
present status of our education.
] believe that the American form
OF government American law.
business enterprise. the press. the
trades unions-and even column
nists-are all open to criticism
So. too. are the universities and
the textbook writers. Free people
live and grow by continual
evolutionary process.
MY OWN criticism OF our edu-
A'l cation is that we have too
many textbooks. too many second
and third hand ideas. TOO little
rigorous intellectual discipline and
too much information about too
many things wholly outside the
frame of any standards or any
points Of reference.
A generation ago we taught
American history in an oleo-
graphic melodramatic way Every
historical figure was a hero. this
was Gods country and just about
whatever was was right. The re-
action to this has been extreme.
An age of debunking came in,
and the debunkers have sept the
whole stage in the so-ealled social
sciences.
&hese debunkers are as often
que with the truth as the
Morers were before them And
characteristic Of our education is
that criticism is not made in ref
erence TO any principles. and since
IL is too little accompanied by
attention 10 the accumulation Of
human wisdom il leaves the stu
dent in a bleak void. or -inculcateS
in him a know-it-all air of general
skepticism.
I DO not mind that students
L should read Karl Marx--if they
have the intellectual vigor TO do
so. But they don't They read
John Strachey's popularizations of
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