The Petal paper. [volume] (Petal, Miss.) 1953-19??, 1959-03-26
mysterious universe.

ucatlOn IN the twentieth century.
1t will see a people who say they
are dedicated to education and
who are the richest in the world
Indifferent to education and un-
willing to pay for it. 1t will see
an educational system that. de-
livers less education per dollar
than any l can think of saying
that all it needs is more money.
The people and the educators are
united only in this: they both
want education without pain,
either intellectual or financial.
History will find it hard to ex-
plain how a nation that is. one, a
nation in which the political sub
divisions have relation to social
or economic life and little to po-
litical life, can entrust its future
to these subdivisions by relegat-
ing education to them. History
will smile sardonically at t he
spectacle of this great country
getting interested, slightly and
temporarily, in education only
because of the technical achieve
ments of Russia, and then being
able to act as a nation only by
assimilating education to the
Cold War ard calling an educa-
ton bill defense act.
We might as we'll make up our
minds to it. If our hopes of de-
mocracy are to be realized, every
citizen of this country is going to
have to be educated to the limit
of his capacity. And l don't mean
trained, amused, exercised, &C.
commodated, or adjusted. I mean
that his intellectual power must
be developed. A good way to start
finding the money that is needed
for education would be to kick
out of it the subjects, the aetivi-
ties, and the people that make
no contribution to the. develop
ment of intellectual power. Such
an operation would produce vast
sums.
suggest that two things might
be done with this money and
with any more that may be. need
ed: first, we should double teach
ers' salaries, not because all the
teachers we have deserve twice
as much as they are getting, but
because we. want to attract the
ablest people into the profession;
and second, we should establish
a national system of scholarships
that makes it possible for every
citizen of this country to be edu-
Gated to the limit of his mental
capacity, regardless of the finan-
cial capacity of his parents.
IF life is learning, and / think
it is, and if our object is to be-
come a community learning to-
gether, education ought to con-
tinue throughout life. Here is the
great educational opportunity
and obligation of the next gem
Grafton. The education of adults
is not only indispensable to the
continuation, expansion, and i'm
proVement. of the dialogue, but
it is also an answer to the Ques-
ton of what we are going to do
with ourselves if we survive. AS
automation advances, as new
sources of energy are applied in
industry, as the hours of labor
decline, we have the chance to
become truly human by using our
new and disturbing leisure to
develop our highest human pow
ers to the utmost Here we can
build on the experience of such
organizations as the Great Books
Foundation, which has succored
tens of thousands of refugees
from television.
This brings me to the media Of
mass communications. If our
hopes Of democracy are to be
realized, the media must supply
full and accurate information on
which the people can base their
judgment ON public affairs, and
they must offer formu for the
discussion Of those affairs. Idoubt
if there are six cities Of any size