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The impressive numbers of our educational apparatus are nonetheless small in comparison with the need. Our schools are already badly overcrowded, understaffed, ill-equipped. Only a year ago, the United States Office of Education estimated that the nation's schools were short 100,000 qualified teachers. Some elementary and high schools and colleges have found it impossible to hire well-qualified teachers in such basic subjects as English, languages, and social sciences; some have even had to drop chemistry, physics and mathematics from their curricular since there were no teachers to teach them.

This problem of under-education threatens to become still more severe in the years ahead. For by then the population bulge of the future will press directly on our already scarce facilities. By 1969, high schools will be de-luged with 50 - 70% more students than they now can barely accommodate; by 1975, our colleges and universities will face at least a doubling and in some cases a tripling of the students who wish higher education.

At the same time that this unprecedented demand will materialize, our supply of teachers is apt to fall even further behind. The number of new school teachers needed in the coming decade is equal to about 50% of all the four year college graduates of every kind in that same period. Since only about 20% of college graduates enter school teaching, the severity of the shortage is apparent. At college levels, the teacher shortage is even more critical. The number of new college teachers needed to 1970 is roughly three times the total number of Ph.D. graduates likely to be turned out in the same period.

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These background statistics indicate the heroic nature of the measures which we will be forced to take to maintain -- much less improve -- the quality of education of this nation. They indicate the need to improve our recruitment and utilization of teachers, to raise the level of financial support of education, and not least to solve the critical issue which lies at the nub of the educational crisis itself: a reconciliation of a new demand for "equality" in terms of universal access to higher education with an enhanced need to promote excellence by devoting greater attention paid to the gifted. Nothing less than an all out attack against the problem from many vantage points will succeed in giving us the educational framework which is indispensable to the achievement of a full utilization and cultivation of our supply of human talents.

We see the lines of this all out attack to take the following form:

## B - Teacher Recruitment

Clearly we need to recruit more teachers, but the problem is also how we can recruit better ones. How shall we interest the ablest young people in America in selecting teaching as their profession?

We must begin by admitting the present low status of teaching as a profession. The task itself is frequently cluttered with trivia, so that the teacher is in fact part custodian, part clerk. The pay is totally inadequate, so that a would-be teacher must realistically resign himself to financial hardship or must seek out the non-teaching administrative ladder for significant salary raises. And not least, the prestige of the teacher is low. Partly

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a consequence of a 19th century stereotype, but even more importantly because of his careless use and low pay the teacher is frequently a figure of ridicule rather than respect. Clearly then any attempt to raise his stature must begin with the reform of the facts of the teaching situation itself.

One immediate handicap is the recruiting mechanism itself. The route to teaching, through the normal school, is rigid, formalistic, and often unattractive to bright minds. Fortunately there has been some renewed interest on the part of liberal arts colleges in assuming once again an active role in the preparation of teachers -- a mission which was once important to them but on which many of them had turned their backs. Another hopeful development has been the emergence of a fifth year of education which leads to a Masters Degree. These programs are designed to provide roadways into school teaching for those who lack the standard undergraduate professional courses, or who do not wish to travel by the standard path.

The important point in these and other recent experiments is the demonstration that there can and should be more than one route into school teaching. It would be wise for state governments to foster the development of all these routes by the judicious use of tax funds and teachers certification regulations rather than to assume that the only way to expand the supply of teachers is by the four year State Teacher Colleges.

## C - Better Utilization of Teachers

Perhaps no profession has suffered such a general neglect of specialized abilities as that of the teacher. Teachers tend to be handled as inter-

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changeable units in an educational assembly line. The best teacher and the poorest in the same school building may teach the same grade and subject, use the same textbook, handle the same number of students, get paid the same salaries and rise in salary at the same speed to the same ceiling. Clearly, if the content of the teaching task is to be made more attractive, this routinization of education will have to be greatly changed. This task must be made as individual, as personal, as creative as can be.

One method of achieving this objective is to eliminate the needless petty tasks which occupy a teacher's time. These include routine reports, such as attendance records, the supervision of recreation, the correction of homework, the grading of tests etc. All together these non-teaching activities may aggregate to a third to a half of a teacher's time. The use of teacher aides may accomplish much in the lightening of this burden. Yet another means of increasing the effective utilization of the teacher is the employment of such devices as television to bring extraordinarily effective teachers into contact with larger numbers of students than they would otherwise face. Such innovations as the teacher aide and television should not be considered merely as stop gap measures to help us surmount the immediate teacher shortage crisis, but as the beginnings of a long overdue revolution in teaching techniques.

## D - Financial Support

Inseparably connected with the problem of the recruitment and better utilization of teachers is their economic reward. Until we pay teachers at

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least as well as our middle echelons of executive' we cannot expect the
profession to attract the full range of talent it needs. The problem however
must be viewed in a wider context than teachers' salaries alone. The point
at issue is the financial support to education itself.

Certainly from an economic point of view the United States is in an
excellent position today to provide financial support to education -- and in
a very bad position to risk providing too little support. Yet our outlays for
education have failed to keep pace with our rising national income.

Against a Gross National Product of $391 billion in 1955, total educa-
tional expenditures in the United States ran just under $14 billion, or 3.6%
of the GNP. This total breaks down as follows:

<table><thead><tr><th></th><th>Billions</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Public Elementary and Secondary</td><td>$9.4</td></tr><tr><td>Private Elementary and Secondary</td><td>1.2</td></tr><tr><td>Public Higher Education</td><td>1.5</td></tr><tr><td>Private Higher Education</td><td>1.9</td></tr><tr><td>Total</td><td>14.0</td></tr></tbody></table>

Since 1930 this relationship of educational expenditures to GNP has
remained relatively constant at about 3.5%. This has meant, of course, a
large increase in total dollars spent on education as national product has risen,
but since enrollments have also risen, a smaller expenditure <u>per pupil</u>. Mean-
time the proportion of national productive effort devoted to other socially
important programs, particularly defense, has risen considerably.

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Even allowing for considerably greater efficiency in the use of educational funds, it would not be unreasonable to assume that 10 years from now our schools and colleges will require at least *double* their present level of financial support to handle our growing student population. In other words, by 1965 the whole educational effort might require something on the order of $28 to $30 billion. It may be conservatively estimated that the Gross National Product by 1965 will be on the order of $525 to $550 billion, or from $135 to $165 billion above the 1955 level (measured in 1955 prices). Thus, 10% of this increment -- somewhere between $13.5 and $16.5 billion -- would be sufficient to double the 1955 level of educational outlay. This would mean, however, that educational expenditures would absorb 5.4% of Gross National Product in contrast with its 3.6% level of the past.

A significant rise of this sort in the proportion of Gross National Product devoted to education would involve a sharp departure from the past pattern. Traditionally, school finances have been borne by local communities but in recent years there has been an increasing shift of the burden of school support to state governments -- from just under 17% in 1930 to over 41% in 1954. The reasons are many -- not the least compelling of which is the fact that sole reliance on local financial capacities alone would result in gross inequalities of educational opportunities.

It now appears that an increasing number of communities and states are rapidly approaching the point of serious difficulty in appropriating further substantial sums for education. Some cities such as New York City have

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pushed real estate taxes to the point of maximum economic feasibility, have adopted sales taxes or similar revenue measures and now are even considering the possibility of local personal income taxes. State governments are becoming increasingly concerned about the effect which higher state taxes may have upon their competitive position with other states in attracting or holding industry. Certain states and communities where economic levels are well below average are clearly not in a position to expand greatly their support for education.

It is basically these considerations that have given rise to the current issue of Federal aid for education. From an economic point of view, (setting aside for the moment the corollary issue of "Federal control" over local schools), there is no question but that the Federal government is in a considerably more favorable position than either state or local governments, to divert a share of the annual increment of national income into education. Moreover, by differential grants the Federal government is in a position to reduce the wide educational inequalities among the children of different states.

The issue of whether Federal aid would involve heavy risk of Federal control of local education is, of course, a very important and complex one. One relevant fact which seems not to be very widely known or understood is that for more than a century, and on an increasing scale, the Federal government has in fact engaged in the financial support of state and local education in a variety of ways, particularly in higher

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education, though also at the school level. Complaints of Federal intrusion upon local autonomy under these previous programs appear to be exceedingly rare, though this, of course, does not mean that the risk is not real. It does suggest, however, as does past experience with Federal aid programs in other fields, that the risk of Federal control in the field of education varies greatly with the particular form which the aid program takes.

There is much room for honest difference of opinion on Federal aid to education. It might be useful however to concentrate our attention on the directions in which Federal education grants should be turned, if they are found necessary.

a. They should supplement state and local efforts rather than substitute for them.

b. They should be utilized to reduce the sharp inequalities of educational opportunity among children of different states.

c. They should preserve local leadership and local autonomy of control over education, leaving each state free to employ the Federal funds in accordance with its own priority needs.

In addition to this cautious use of Federal funds to supplement local education, there are other contributions which the Federal government can make in a different form. One such is the strengthening of the Office of Education which is not presently equipped to give us all the needed factual data about education. A more challenging departure would be the support of technological research into improved educational methods. The establishment of

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merit scholarship programs or loan programs for the encouragement of scholarship in all fields, from talented young people in high school to teachers in mid-career, would be another extremely useful step. And finally a vigorous program of national publicity must alert our nation to the continuing importance of the educational crisis.

## E - Private Higher Education

One of the more important question marks in the financing of education is the future prosperity of private colleges and universities. Due largely to a lack of financial strength their share of total enrollments have already declined to less than 50% of all higher education (and far below this in many states), and if this trend is not offset, their share of total students could readily fall to less than 20% within 15 years. This waning influence is one which we look upon with misgivings and regret.

One encouraging development in recent years has been the dramatic increase of contributions by business firms. While total gifts of this sort are still very small relative to total needs, the trend is sharply upward and represents the tapping of a new and potentially very important source of aid. A second as yet untried development would be the reform of the private college "pricing system." Today, tuition charges frequently represent only 50% or less of actual instructional costs, so that every student automatically receives a large "hidden scholarship" financed out of endowment income, current gifts, and low faculty salaries. Overt scholarships are then

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superimposed upon the "hidden scholarships" for those students who cannot
even afford the "cut rate."

The private colleges might well consider an alternate pricing and
scholarship policy under which tuition would be set at the _full_ cost of instruc-
tion and each student would receive whatever amount of scholarship assist-
ance he needed and would pay whatever proportion of the full tuition he could
afford. This would result in eliminating "hidden" scholarships entirely, put-
ting all student subsidies out in the open, and placing all student charges
on an ability-to-pay basis. No student would be kept out of the college for
financial reasons, none would receive a subsidy if he did not need it, and
not a dollar of alumni gifts or other income would be wasted on hidden sub-
sidies to students whose families could well afford the _real_ cost of a good
college education. The result of such a change of policy in virtually all
private colleges would be to increase total revenues from students, with the
increase available for higher faculty salaries and for scholarship help to
students who really need the help.

Many college administrators agree with the logic of such a policy but
see difficulties in the way of making the transition from present practices to
such radically different ones. If a substantial number of leading colleges
were to announce their intention to move to the new plan in a series of sched-
uled steps, most of these difficulties might be avoided. In any event, the
fact remains that much of the financial plight of private colleges today is

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directly traceable to their pricing policies. Unless and until these policies are substantially revised, their plight is likely to continue.

One other important possibility which the well-established private colleges might profitably explore is that of "spawning" new private colleges. In effect these could be community colleges, tied to existing well-established institutions, from which they would draw their strength, but adapted in plant and perhaps curriculum to the needs of local communities. It should be far easier today to create such new private colleges of excellent quality than 75 or 100 years ago. The nation is far richer, more value is attached to higher education by far more people, and there is an enormous and growing surplus of applicants for high quality, independent colleges. If a new college could have the moral and academic support of well-established colleges, the problem of developing a good faculty and student clientele would be far less than the problems faced by new colleges in the past.

Hopefully such new colleges would not simply be carbon copies of the older ones. One very valuable service which could be provided by these new ventures would be the pioneering of new educational techniques. Drawing on the facilities of their parent institutions, their own buildings could be more functional and less expensive; their utilization of faculty and facilities could be more efficient. It is possible for example that there would be no large-class lectures -- the necessary ones being piped in by closed-circuit television from the parent institutions. Only a working library would be

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needed because the more elaborate library collections of the older colleges
could be shared when special research called for access to rarer documents.
The parent colleges could, for a period of years, supply the nucleus of the
faculty of the new institution who would be given the challenge of an oppor-
tunity to create something new. The "feed-back" effect upon the old col-
leges would undoubtedly be wholesome and substantial.

These various possibilities of expanding the capacity, improving the
quality, and strengthening the financial position of private higher education
would appear to warrant thorough investigation and experimentation. Unless
changes such as these are devised and carried out, there is real danger that
the role and influence of higher private education will progressively decline
in the years ahead.

F - Education and the Cultivation of Excellence

Inherent in the educational problems of our nation is a matter which transcends considerations of teacher recruitment, utilization, or financial support to education as such. It is, in effect, the concrete manifestation of the basic conflict between equality and excellence which we have marked as a fundamental issue of American society.

In our times the issue has arisen because "excellence" has come to
be measured by the formal completion of educational training. We have made
of the receipt of a college degree an accolade of merit, not in terms of the
benefits which it may confer, but in terms of the prestige which it attracts.

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To be "educated" -- that is, to have received a college degree -- is becoming an essential qualification for entry to the opportunities for a productive career, even though that career may not utilize any of the particular kind of education which has been received.

Hence we are insisting that no one shall be disprivileged, or made "unequal", by a lack of higher education. As a result two grave situations are developing. First we are so seriously inundating our limited institutions of higher education that those who are best equipped to benefit from higher study are deprived of the atmosphere, facilities and individual attention they require. Second, by necessarily diluting the content of higher education in an attempt to accommodate everyone, we are deluding the average person that by spending four years on a campus he is thereby an educated man.

This dilemma is not limited to college education alone. It is manifest in the entire educational spectrum. By insisting that "equality" means an exactly similar exposure to education, regardless of the variations in interest and capacity of the student, we are in fact inflicting a subtle but very serious form of inequality upon our nation. We are limiting the development of individual excellence in exchange for a uniformity of external "advantage."

Thus our educational system has evolved into a chronological lock step under which all young people start off together at the age of six (or age five if there is a kindergarten) and march forward one grade per year, to emerge twelve years later with a high school diploma and possibly four years after that

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with a college degree. This chronological grouping of young people often results in the ablest students being exposed to educational programs whose content is too thin and whose pace is too slow to challenge and stretch their superior abilities. The result is to dampen or destroy their native curiosity and their enthusiasm for learning. Poor teaching, unchallenging programs, and rigid academic procedures can waste just as much potential talent as economic, racial and other barriers to equal educational opportunity.

The many causes and forms of inequality of personal educational opportunity must obviously be attacked in a wide variety of ways. Those which stem from an underprivileged environment must be approached by social programs of a kind which we have already mentioned. Those which reflect inadequate financial school strength may have to be remedied by indirect Federal aid. But the core of the problem must be attacked by a change of attitude, and of internal procedures.

A number of possible solutions to this problem are already being attempted. In the public schools of Portland, Oregon, for example, and in a growing number of other school systems, abler students are given a chance to spend part of the day in courses of study well above their chronological grade level. Under the Advanced Placement Program, now sponsored by the College Entrance Examination Board, a rapidly expanding number of secondary schools, both public and private, are offering college-level courses to their best juniors and seniors. Many colleges are prepared to permit such students

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to "leapfrog" freshman college courses and get credit for them. Yet another approach is represented by the experimental Program for Early Admission to College, under which about 1,000 able students have entered twelve different colleges over the last five years *before* completing the last year or two of high school. An evaluation of the first two groups to graduate from college under this experiment shows that, on the whole they have far outperformed their classmates academically, while despite their lower age their record of social and emotional adjustment to college compared favorably to that of students generally. Much more needs to be done to extend such programs and to make our school and college programs richer and more flexible so as to accommodate the needs and abilities of abler students.

The key to the problem lies fundamentally in the recognition that variation, difference, diversity are conducive to the cultivation of excellence but not at all subversive of equality. Hence we would place great importance on the diversification of education. We would like to see many educational patterns, many kinds of colleges, many educational goals in life. We must strive for a full spectrum of educational institutions geared to different types of talent, and gain public acceptance of the view that such differentiation is not undemocratic.

For college education is not the only road for a full and excellent life. Indeed an insistence that all must prepare for their lives by such a common route results in a misdirection and an undercultivation of just those

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talents which are particularly adapted to make a unique and untypical con-
tribution to society. Travel, artistic or business apprenticeships, the culti-
vation of technical skills, home education -- there are an endless number
of ways in which a person may equip himself for the life in which his abili-
ties will permit him to excel.

Hence if there is an answer to the profound dilemma of an excellence-
seeking, equality-bound society it lies in the recognition that excellences
must differ; that any attempt to mold excellence into a single form, to subject
it to a common conditioning and to point it to a common goal is the sure
defeat of excellence and the equally sure victory of its enemy -- mediocrity.
In the realization that differences of life-paths have nothing to do with the
worth of any life path, and in the encouragement of the diversity, uniqueness
and individuation which a truly egalitarian cultivation of excellence must
produce lies the goal for a democratic society.

III

# SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

We were at pains to point out in the beginning of our report that the
problem of the cultivation and utilization of human resources is an inexhaust-
ible one. Complicated by our lack of knowledge about basic motivations, by
our reluctance to interfere in the free formation of life-paths, and by an ethic
which insists on the maximum encouragement of individual effort, we have
made our findings and recommendations in a spirit of diffidence and caution.

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Now, the conclusion of our discussion may help to establish the broad lines of our thought if we recapitulate the major issues and the most important means of progress at our disposal, as we see them.

1. We see our society evolving in the direction of ever-increasing specialization and complexity. This is in itself a hopeful precondition for the cultivation of human capability and achievement, for it opens the doors of opportunity far wider than the society of mass semi-skilled toil from which we are emerging.

2. This drift towards complexity and specialization makes imperative the development of individual achievement at every level of society. We need greater versatility among our basic work force where automation will necessitate an general upgrading of work skills. We need more professional expertise at the middle and upper levels of work to staff our institutions and to master the ever-fragmenting proliferation of knowledge itself. And finally we stand in crucial dependence on the development of breakthrough thinking, of original and creative talent, not only to provide the military and scientific defenses of our nation, but to wrest from the unknown those immense prizes which now seem so close to capture.

3. In this atmosphere of opportunity and need for creative thought, there are hindering factors as well. One of these is the incongruity between the direction of talent by traditional economic stimuli and the priorities of importance which our society now accords to non-economic tasks. A second

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and perhaps even more deepseated hindrance is the growth of an atmosphere
of bureaucratic organization which is perhaps an inescapable consequence
of our complexity itself.

4. Further complicating the problem of maximizing the opportunities
of our society is a change in our motivational structure. Neither want nor
economic ambition exert their accustomed thrust in our present society, and
more circumscribed goals less dynamic motives seems to animate us.

5. We see a solution to this dilemma if we can learn to cultivate
excellence for its own sake -- meaning by this, the enjoyment of work not
alone for its rewards in terms of money and prestige but because of the per-
sonal challenge and satisfaction it offers. In a society of increasing levels
of skill we believe that personal challenges exist in larger number than ever
before, and at the cultivation of excellence therefore becomes a meaningful
social stimulus. We face here, however, one of the profound dilemmas of
a democratic society. For the cultivation of excellence forces us to a re-
consideration of our ideal of equality. So long as equality is considered as
the equal opportunity of every person to cultivate his abilities to the utmost,
there is no conflict with excellence. But when a democratic society insists
that individuality itself is inimical to equality, when it identifies differences
in inherent ability with inequality, then a conflict does indeed arise. The
acceptance of individual difference without confusing *difference* and *worthi-
ness* is the basic value choice which a democratic society must make if it
is to retain its vitality.

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6. Turning to the second section of our report, we begin with a review of our rapidly increasing population, pointing out that the composition of age groups will bring two problems to the fore: a greatly increased pressure on the schools and a sharp growth of our older personnel.

7. How to cope with these problems brings us to the larger question of how to utilize our population to its full advantage. We stress four necessary reforms in regard to the employment of our basic human resources:

A - The full employment of our underprivileged and under-utilized minorities.

B - The better use of our untapped woman power.

C - The rescue of talents now unavailable because of economic handicap.

D - The more intelligent use of our older personnel.

These basic reforms in our labor practices are essential if we are to bring to bear our presently wasted supply of talents and skills.

8. The fuller utilization of our high talent manpower is a more complex task. We urge steps to avoid its under-utilization and hoarding, by means of sharing mechanisms, an avoidance of unnecessary duplication of effort, and by a greater general awareness of the scarcity of talent.

9. The cultivation of our human resources brings us at first to the question of human motivation itself -- a matter of the greatest importance where we are still seriously handicapped by basic ignorance. We urge a full research effort into the vital areas of motivation, character formation and the early recognition of talents of all kinds.

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10. Education naturally occupies our attention as the central resource-
developing mechanism. We are concerned with the problem of teacher recruit-
ment, not alone in quantity but in quality, and emphasize the need to raise the
prestige of the profession by more flexible training and more dignified utiliza-
tion as well as by better pay. This last essential factor may necessitate
Federal aid to education, but we strongly recommend that this must be made
indirectly with the use of funds left entirely to state and local autonomy.

11. We are concerned with the plight of the private colleges and offer
suggestions for their financial strengthening, pointing out as well the role
they can play as originators of new kinds of colleges adapted to community
needs.

12. And finally, we would conclude with an emphasis on the need to diversify education and to break the pattern of uniformity which in the name of education is the enemy of talent.

November 2, 1957

# MEMORANDUM TO DR. KISSINGER

## FROM J.I. COFFEY

**SUBJECT:** Comments on Draft Report of Subpanel V (October 21, 1957).

### SPECIFIC COMMENTS

**Page 4, line 1** -- "...preferences. Thus we can, through adjustment of material incentives and rewards, affect at least in some degree intangible motivations arising from the prestige and the value attached by our society to given tasks and occupations." Reason: to point out more forcefully the nature of desired moves.

**Pages 10 - 11** -- Although the subject of automation is one of which I have no direct knowledge, I would question whether its impact will be as great as this paper seems to suggest. First of all, there are many professions and fields of activity, such as newspaper deliveries, construction of highways, etc., to which its application is limited. Secondly, the cost of automation may inhibit its adoption in any but the largest industries and businesses. Thirdly, while automation admittedly will relieve some individuals of routine drudgery, those who must supervise the machines may still be bored. For example, operating an addressograph is actually a more boring task than that of hand addressing envelopes.

**Pages 13 - 14** -- I suggest that in arguing for the up-grading of human capabilities we must also take into account the complex social and political structure of our times. The demands of citizenship in modern-day America, whether at the community or at the national level, require more perception, broader education and greater interest in political and social problems than was ever the case before. Unless we meet this challenge, our democracy may not measure up to the tasks imposed upon it.

**Page 21** -- I find the use of the term "social capital" puzzling. Normally this is taken as meaning investment in such things as schools, churches, parks, etc., -- and I am sure it is not here used in that sense. Neither is it necessarily true that our accumulations of capital have been or are being invested for the good of society, however that phrase may be interpreted. I suggest a hard look at the whole approach in the last paragraph on this page.

Memorandum to Dr. Kissinger

November 2, 1957

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Page 2

**Page 33** -- The plea on this page falls off considerably from the high level of argumentation which has been so pronounced throughout the rest of Part I. Is it not true that we really must have an adjustment of values which will enable us to cope with the problems of the future? Can we not end with more of a plea for such an advance rather than with a statement that mediocrity in values will produce at least passable results?

**Page 35** -- Although the table on page 35, in conjunction with that on page 9, does indicate something of the problem facing us, I believe it would be useful to have at least a broad reference to quantitative requirements in the labor force. If, for example, the demands of our service industries, of our professions and of other labor-intensive areas continue to rise our problem is, as has been stated here, one of increasing the excellence of the individual and utilizing his talent. If, on the other hand, our projections indicate a labor surplus rather than a labor shortage we are faced with an entirely different range of problems. I do not believe the latter to be true, but I do think that we should explicitly state that we do not anticipate such a development.

**Page 41** -- I suggest that the first two sentences in this paragraph (which I have circled in pencil) be placed at the end in order to emphasize the failure of our society to afford equal opportunity for the development of talent.

**Page 43** -- I suggest that the discussion of woman power be expanded to include both additional obstacles in the way of its use (such as the absence of school lunch programs, school activities which occupy the youngster in the late afternoon or community programs which will keep him out of mischief while mother is at work) and the broader fields in which woman power can and could be utilized. For example, the whole field of social welfare (community activity, hospital care and administration, help for retarded children, etc.) is one which can not only utilize part-time, relatively inexperienced and poorly paid help but one in which motivation is frequently more important than talent or skill. In this connection, the attitudes and practices of the institutions and organizations concerned are frequently barriers to such use and must be radically altered.

**Page 50** -- Although you mention in your discussion of the teaching profession the misuse of teacher talent, I believe this point should be

Memorandum to Dr. Kissinger

November 2, 1957

discussed in connection with the hoarding of high talent manpower. In part, this hoarding is the result of failure to provide adequate technical and administrative assistance to train and educated people -- a point which I shall discuss at greater length in my general comments.

*Page 52* -- Although it is true that we do not know what motivates specific individuals to seek or to shy away from given professions and assignments, we can see some of the general causes, such as relatively low pay, prestige, and opportunity for advancement. For example, the real income of government workers has risen only 14% since 1939 despite the fact that our national income in constant dollars has doubled. The decrease in science teachers in secondary schools from 250,000 to 150,000 over the last decade is a concrete indication of the results of such imbalances. Again, I will touch on this in my general comments but it is something which you might bear in mind here.

*Page 53* -- Is your estimate of teacher requirements over the coming decade based upon maintenance of the same teacher-pupil ratio which now exists? If so, I would suggest that this is incompatible with your statement on page 56 calling for new and improved educational methods. If your estimate does consider changes in systems I think this point should be noted, in order to indicate that we are not simply projecting past trends into the future.

*Page 57* -- I suggest that in your last sentence concerning proportionate increases in socially important programs that you use for comparison some area other than national defense.

*Pages 61 - 62* -- I suggest that your call for maintaining a high ratio of private to public education at the college and graduate level is incompatible with your suggestion that tuition cost in private schools be raised. The result of any such increase (which amounts to a doubling of existing tuition rates) will be a further decrease in the proportion of students attending private schools. It seems to me that we must either accept the fact that attendance at private schools will decline in proportion to the whole or embark upon a program of federal assistance going way beyond the granting of occasional scholarships. This you might like to consider.

Memorandum to Dr. Kissinger

November 2, 1957

Pages 70 - 72 -- I honestly do not consider that the conclusions reflect the general excellence and the impact of your paper; indeed it seems to me they are so innocuous as to detract from the paper as a whole. To take the specific instance which we have just been discussing, recommendation 11 really offers no solution to the plight of the private colleges. If we believe that they should stress excellence at the price of attendance then we should say so. If we judge that their scholarship students should be largely supported by the federal government then we should so recommend. If we consider that the requirement of maintaining a high percentage of our children in private schools is overriding, then we should frankly re- commend federal assistance on a per capita basis, as is now done with the government employees attending public schools in certain areas. I am afraid that if we do not have more to say our conclusions (which are what most people will look for) will really lose us support.

CHILDREN OF

GENERAL COMMENTS

1. I think that this draft is a tremendous improvement over the preceding versions, particularly as far as Part I is concerned. I think that, with relatively minor exceptions, the philosophical basis for a report has been admirably stated.

2. There are however certain areas of importance both to me and to the members of the subpanel which I do not find adequately treated in this present paper. While I shall deal briefly with a number of these, I suggest that more could be obtained from a re-look at several past memoranda and letters, which I am attaching to this memorandum. While I recognize that selectivity is essential, there are some of these points which should undoubtedly be included in your discussion.

3. One particular area of concern relates to care of and utilization of the handicapped, the emotionally disturbed, and those whom age or infirmity renders incapable of full time work. While I have touched upon this in the discussion of woman power, and while there is already some reference to this point in the present draft, I consider that it needs greater emphasis. As is indicated both by the statistics on projected age groups and the text concerning the evidence of emotional ills, this is a problem of crucial importance. Unless greater emphasis is placed on means of caring for and of making maximum use of all the handicapped, on the

Memorandum to Dr. Kissinger

November 2, 1957

necessity for research in gerontology and in the causes and cures of
mental illness, and on programs for utilizing those who are capable of
making part-time contributions to society, I fear that we may be ignoring
the greatest manpower problem of the coming generation.

4. In my memorandum to Hechinger of 19th February and the Ginzberg attached notes of 15th February reference is made to another problem which I do not believe we adequately treat. This is A question of adequate administrative and technical assistance for our leaders and top-flight specialists in all fields. One of the anomalies of our society is the growing gap between the highly trained and skilled manpower elements and the vast majority of the workers. There is no technological "middle class." If we are to make maximum use of our manpower resources we must provide increasing numbers of really capable research assistants, secretaries, social workers, laboratory assistants and what have you. If we do not do this, such additional talent as we do develop will be increasingly bogged down in detail work which does not make the best use of their qualities and will be motivated against the very jobs which we are trying to induce them to take.

5. Finally, I believe that neither our conclusions nor our remedial programs really set forth the kinds of things that can and should be done to alleviate some of our manpower problems. I have already made reference to factors such as the provision of competent middle-grade assistants, to the use of newer educational devices and methods, and to much greater utilization of part-time man and woman power. But more than this is required: someone must take the lead. Why can we not suggest that government take the lead in attracting people to socially desirable occupations by making really substantial increases in pay? Why can we not suggest that the colleges assist in breaking the academic log-jam by completely revamping their systems for teacher selection, evaluation and promotion? Unless some example is set and unless we have something concrete to offer I greatly fear that our efforts will come to nothing.

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