The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1953-01-30
just Among Ourselves
Passing Comment considsrsd or lneensidsrsfs


need of certain cultural books by little Handwriting
ing over the state of information,-or lack of it
among college students. The books are meant for
children and presumably will so pleasngly and
thoroughly fill up the young fry with facts that
when they come to college age they will know
enough to come in out of the rain
The ad quotes an article which appeared "some
time ago" in the New York Times listing the re-
suits of test in American history given to thou
sands oi college freshmen throughout the country"
1t Is unfortunate that the advertiser does not say
Just when this test was given and TO just how MANY
thousands OF freshmen If you setting up fact
or series OF facts, for purposes oi argument the
facts ought to be stated clearly and completely
otherwise you are engaging in piece of special
pleading which is rightly suspect among thinking
people Further you must avoid sweeping yet foggy
phrases such as, Throughout the country"
The man with books to sell says he was aston.
shed and disturbed by the results of the test as re-
ported in the Times. He gives three examples of 'in
credible answers" which struck him with dismay
These examples are. l. More than 30 percent of the
college freshmen who took the test didn't know that
Woodrow Wilson President during the First
World War: 2 Actually ga percent we're unable 10
name the l3 American colonies many listed such
states as Texas and Oregon; 3. One-third of the
pupils did not know who President during our
Civil War
The freshmen we're "all boys and girls with
above average b. CuHds and educaons-and in
college" a deporable situation truly. But the man
who sells books to fill out the yaWning gaps in our
knowledge indicates by his very dismay that there
a serious defect in his own concept of what educa
tonS means. We should write book TO sell TO him
showing him IN an unforgettable manner that edu-
cation and culture do not consist in mere list of
remembered facts.
II education is information LET US shut up all
schools and equip each family with dictionary and
an encyclopedia Certainly there are notable events
that everyone should know and remember Beyond
question there are facts that should be part OF the
equipment of every person who has had elementary
and secondary schooling II is indeed cause for
ehagrin that many young Americans ignorant
of the bare bones of American history But il is
nevertheless true that person might have an ency-
clopedlc knowledge of history-yes. and of mathe-
mates, and of science, still be uneducated and
uncutured
We offer no brief for the college freshman who
thinks that Oregon was one Of the thirteen Amer
lean colonies. Nor, for that matter have we any
defense to offer for the advertiser who calls them,
as this one does, the thirteen original colonies"
Our thirteen colonies we're not original colonies no
other colonies succeeded them. they we're our colo
MES that's all The man who calls them original"
IS as inaccurate, in his way, the man who lists
Texas among them.
Mere accuracy in data that can be found in refer
ence books is hardly to be called education 1t is
not even very fruitful form of information Many
great historian and professor OF history must con
suit the lists to make sure of the date of Nespasians
rule or the year of Napoleons banlshmeni TO Elbs.
Many man with deep and valuable appreciation
of literature is sometimes inaccurate in giving the
exact titles Of books that he knows well. Many
solid citizen Of America who, in his school days,
could name you the states and their capitals and
the location of their capitals beginning with,
Maine, Augusta, on the kennebec River'9 is taken
aback, in later years by the sudden challenge to
name the thirteen colonies
II is fa' more important to have appreciation
of the causes and results OF great war than TO
know names OF generals or even Presidents who
held office when the war was waged II is of inesti-
mably greater value TO know something of the
founding of the American colonies of the reasons
for their establishment and of the manner of co.
lonal life, than TO know their thirteen names
Whether the thousands of college freshmen had
this more important and valuable knowledge, VIC
cannot tell II they lacked It, they could not supply
that lack as they could supply the lack over which
the advertiser mourns. by giving three minutes to
the consulting of history book.
There is no culture, no education, in listed facts
and items of information. Culture and education
bring TO grips with life and what life means
They lie rather the Just Interpretation of facts
than in the listing and remembering of facts
And all facts from every department Of knowledge
and every branch of science must in The mature
and educated mind come to focus upon the mean
ing and purpose Of life itself, for the race and for
the individual man,
That is why there is no true culture or education
without religion For the very meaning of religion is
the orienng and directing of life 20 its true end and
purpose And this means knowledge love, and serv.
ice OF God All the quests and programmes of the
schools all the achievements of he laboratorians
and the researchers must TO have lasting value, fit
into the Great Order of the universe and make that
Order more and more manifest TO mankind,-other.
wise il is fragmentary, frutcss, and futile, And the
the Order is known and valued, the more the
Orderer is recognized and revered,
We need not be too greatly dlsmayed that thou.
sands of college freshmen are but shakly inform
ed about Woodrow Wilson and Lincoln, and the col
onies This ignorance may be quickly dispelled, We
save our dismay for the thousands,-alas not only
freshmen,-who are misinformed about the neees
sary truths that make men free and open to them
the way to eternal life.