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of the teaching function. We can only hope that the graduate schools
have the courage and flexibility to correct these conditions.

But reform of existing practices in the graduate schools will not
be enough to meet the need. There is need for very substantial expansion
of graduate facilities. It is essential that ample funds be made available
to the graduate schools for construction of new facilities and expansion
or remodeling of old facilities. It is essential, too, that present sources
of funds for universities (state and municipal governments, private donors,
the federal government, and foundations) provide increased funds for the
general operating budgets of the graduate schools.

Aggressive recruitment and sound preparation of teachers will not
be enough. There appears to be little or no likelihood that we can bring
into teaching -- even with good luck -- anything approaching the number
of qualified and gifted teachers we need.

In the light of that hard fact, there are two things we can do:
(a) upgrade teachers now in the system and (b) make better use of the
most gifted teachers we now have. Let us look first at the matter of
upgrading. The teaching profession includes a great many individuals
of less than adequate preparation, and more are entering every year.
Earlier this year, the Educational Policies Commission reported:

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American high schools employed about 5,000 new teachers of mathematics in 1956-1957. For these positions, the institutions in which teachers are educated had graduated some 2,500 persons qualified to teach mathematics, of whom only about 1,700 entered teaching. In 1956-1957, 5,500 new teachers of science were employed by American high schools, although the higher institutions had graduated only 2,600 qualified to teach science. On the whole the best prepared gravitated to the schools which offered the best salaries and best working conditions. The underprepared will doubtless be found in schools which already suffer from other educational deficiencies.

In the same report, the Commission asserts that "in the present school year, well over 80,000 teachers in American public schools have substandard or emergency credentials."

The answer at both college and pre-college levels is provision for the continued education of teachers in the course of their careers. Such continued education will be chiefly summer study, but need not be

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limited to that. Every school and every college should energetically
review the measures it might take to encourage and support such continu-
ing education.

Such continuing education is a firmly established tradition for
elementary and secondary school teachers. But it is not always carried
out at a high level of quality. Those who are engaged in the continuing
education of teachers must raise their sights. At the college level,
continuing education is given lip service but as a matter of practice it
is often neglected. Colleges should provide incentives and other
encouragement for the continuous improvement of the personnel already
in the system.

The second path open to us in view of the limited supply of
teachers is better utilization of superior individuals now in the system.
There will never be enough teachers with the extraordinary human gifts
that make for inspired teaching. We should use them well!

Teachers at the pre-college level tend to be handled as inter-
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

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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. Teaching must be made as individual, as personal, as
creative as can be.

One method of achieving this objective is to eliminate the need-
less petty tasks which occupy a teacher's time. The use of teacher aides
may accomplish much in the lightening of this burden. 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. Films may be similarly useful. And curiously enough, even that
old -fashioned aid to teaching, the textbook, could have vastly increased
usefulness if it were worked over by our best minds.

Such innovations as the teacher aide and television should not
be considered merely as stopgap measures to help surmount the immediate
teacher shortage crisis, but as the beginnings of a long overdue revolu-
tion in teaching techniques. The emergence of teaching techniques
capable of reaching large numbers of students economically (e.g. tele-
vision) has led some observers to fear the emergence of a "mass"
approach to teaching. This is not a necessary consequence. All such

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techniques should be so used as (1) to extend the impact of rarely gifted teachers, or (2) to perform certain teaching tasks that may best be performed by such techniques, so that the teacher may be freed for creative attention to those tasks which can only be accomplished through personal interaction.

It is not important whether one agrees or disagrees with any specific measure in this process. One may take any of several views of the usefulness of television in teaching. It is important to recognize that present patterns of utilization just are not going to work (except perhaps in a few institutions which are sufficiently prosperous to preserve them). It is important to accept the desirability of a rigorous re-appraisal of present patterns and courageous experimentation with new patterns. This must include a candid weighing of essentials and non-essentials in the curriculum: more flexible and imaginative approaches to the problem of class size; and -- at the level of higher education -- the trying out of approaches which place more responsibility on the student for his own education.

Inseparably connected with the problem of the recruitment and better utilization of teachers is their economic reward. More perhaps than any other profession, teaching needs the sort of dedicated men and women to whom pay is not an overriding consideration. But until we pay

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teachers at least as well as our middle echelons of executives we cannot expect the profession to attract the full range of talent it needs. And almost as important as the level of pay itself is the nature of salary and promotional policy. In most school systems today, advancement is routine and depends more on time than on merit; and the top salary is not far enough above the beginning salary. The ambitious can be satisfied only by becoming administrators or leaving teaching altogether.

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## B. Curriculum

Next in importance to teachers is what they teach. Reform of the curriculum is too vast a subject to be dealt with here. But we can identify it as a vital problem and suggest some of its dimensions.

At the pre-college level the gravest problem today is to reach some agreement on priorities in subject matter. We have been on the whole extraordinarily tolerant of any and all innovations in subject matter. In the great "democracy of subject matters" which we allowed to develop, it is only a moderate exaggeration to say that any subject was as important as any other subject. In retreating from these excesses, we need not attack or heap scorn on any specific subject matter. We just need to decide what is more important and what is less important. That may involve some hard decisions, but if we don't try to run away from the problem it need not be either confusing or complex.

Then we need to strengthen greatly the high priority items. Virtually every subject in the school curriculum would profit by a lively reform movement of the sort now going on in mathematics teaching. And certainly every subject in the curriculum would profit by the attention of the best minds in the field. For too long the leading authorities in these fields, accustomed to the rarefied intellectual air of college and university teaching, could not be bothered to concern themselves with how their subject was taught in elementary and secondary school, what kinds of

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courses were designed, or what sorts of textbooks were being written. It has come as a shock to such people to realize, in the past half dozen years, that a poor harvest at the college level might have been prevented by sounder cultivation at earlier levels. This realization is spreading slowly among the college level fields. Upon its continued spread may depend the future of the pre-college curriculum.

The public discussion of science education in recent months has been such as to confuse all but the most clearheaded laymen. The layman can avoid such confusion if he keeps a few basic ideas firmly in mind.

First, the crisis in our science education is not a hysterical invention of the newspapers, or scientists, or the Pentagon, or visitors returning wide-eyed from the U.S.S.R. It is a real crisis.

Second, the U.S.S.R. is not the "cause" of the crisis. The cause of the crisis is our breathtaking movement into a new technological era, and the U.S.S.R. has served as a rude stimulus to awaken us to that reality.

The heart of the matter is that we are moving with breathtaking rapidity toward a new era in man's long struggle to control his environment. We read the portents in every morning's newspaper; but with the practised (and necessary) insensitivity of the newspaper reader, we move quickly to other matters. What the portents say, even to those who are half-willing

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to listen, is that we are slipping rapidly into an age of change beside
which the Industrial Revolution will appear a modest alteration of human
affairs. Nuclear energy, exploration of outer space, revolutionary studies
of brain functioning, important new work on the cell -- all point to changes
in our lives so startling as to test to the utmost our stability and wisdom.

The immediate implications for education may be briefly stated.

We need an ample supply of the *high calibre* scientists, mathematicians and engineers. Quantitative arguments over the shortages in these fields are beside the point here. We do undeniably need a large supply of the best scientists, mathematicians and engineers we can get.

Much has been said about the dangers of overemphasizing science, mathematics, and engineering. Dangers exist, but it is important to be clear as to their exact nature. It is sometimes said that these are not "cultural" subjects and that they must therefore be accepted with caution. This is misleading. Science and mathematics are liberal arts. They are as "cultural" as any subject taught in our schools and colleges. Modern science and mathematics are among the most elevated and inspiring achievements of the human mind and spirit. Engineering -- an "applied" field -- is as cultural as most other applied fields. Business education, which attracts a much higher number of students today, is certainly not a more culturally elevated subject.

A more relevant consideration is whether we want to have
scientists, mathematicians and engineers who know only their own special

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field and are not liberally educated. The answer is unequivocally **no**.
We cannot afford to have men in **any** field who are ignorant of their
heritage, ignorant of the world outside their specialty, and unprepared
for their roles as citizens.

Just as we must insist that every scientist be a broadly educated
man, so we must insist that every educated man or woman be literate in
science. This may in the short run be essential to our survival. In the
long run it is essential to our integrity as a society. It is dangerous,
absurd and unnecessary for a large portion of our most highly educated
people to live in a state of scientific illiteracy.

Attempts to broaden science education traditionally founder on the
rock of mathematics. It is not necessary that this be so. The most far-
sighted mathematics teachers are exploring new ways of teaching the
subject that may re-establish it as the great intellectual experience that
it was considered to be in the times of Plato and Pythagoras.

There have been so many proposals for the improvement of education
in science and mathematics that it may be worthwhile to state very simply
the essential goals.

As with everything else in education, teachers come first. Able
young men and women must be persuaded to prepare for teaching careers
in science and mathematics; institutions concerned with teacher education
must strengthen their programs in these fields and must have fellowships
to attract talent. The profession must be made more attractive through

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higher salaries and better working conditions. Teachers now in the profession must have ample opportunity to upgrade their teaching in summer sessions and extension work; and should have incentives to do so. School systems should retain "consultants" or "coordinators" in science and mathematics whose task is to work with all teachers in the system to improve their teaching. And constant efforts should be made to improve both content and methods of science and mathematics teaching.

Second priority is the attraction of able students. Science teachers in various school systems have already worked out ingenious arrangements with neighboring science laboratories or industries so that scientifically inclined students may learn of career opportunities and expand their horizons. But any effort to interest superior students in science comes best as an integral part of a well-developed guidance effort designed to reach all able youngsters and to serve all fields requiring high talent. At some point in the process, economic obstacles will present themselves for a certain proportion of able youngsters, and these obstacles must be removed. This means college scholarship programs, loan funds and work-study programs.

Finally, there is need for major expansion of facilities for ex-
science teaching. In certain fields, laboratories and teaching equipment
represent a key item of expense.

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The President's program for federal support to education also
contains provision for the strengthening of foreign language teaching.
Coming at a time when all eyes are focussed on science education, this
provision may come as a surprise to the man in the street. But it is no'
surprise to the informed observer of United States foreign policy. At a
time when we are playing for tremendous stakes in every corner of the world,
it is still not uncommon to find United States embassies in which no senior
officer speaks, reads, writes or understands the language of the country
in which he is located.

Unfortunately, there is no firmly rooted tradition of linguistic
study in this country. Even in the years before World War II, when most
Americans thought of themselves as comfortably insulated from the rest
of the world, thoughtful observers were worried about our national incapacity
to speak or understand any language but English. Today, with vast and varied
international responsibilities pressing in on us from all sides, our limitations
of language competence are no longer tolerable.

Foreign languages are studied by less than 15 per cent of American
high school students and not more than 15 per cent of college students. The
languages most widely studied are French and Spanish, but the average
student's exposure to either language is so brief and shallow that he gains
nothing approaching a working command of the language.

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Our language problem deserves immensely more attention than it has ever received from our national leaders, from our educational leaders, from the Department of State, and from informed citizens.
We require nothing less than a vast increase in the range and variety of language skills among Americans.

A great many more Americans should be exposed to *some* foreign language long enough to achieve a modest command of it. Every high school that has any college preparatory functions should offer strong foreign language courses and urge four years of foreign language study for those going on to higher education. This broadened base of individuals familiar with the experience of crossing a language barrier would have many valuable consequences -- not least of which might be a proportionate increase in the number of students prepared to go on to higher levels of language proficiency.

For advanced students field experience is essential. Leading universities should consider the possibility of establishing language summer schools in foreign countries, perhaps in collaboration with foreign universities. The federal government might properly encourage and support such efforts.

The federal government has a particularly clear role in the case of some of the less familiar languages. To mention two or three examples, Mandarin (Northern Chinese) is spoken by some 450 million people (as

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compared with 275 million who speak English), and Hindi is spoken by roughly 150 million, the same number as speak Russian. In the case of every foreign language spoken by a substantial number (ten million, let us say) of people, we need a modest number of Americans who are competent in the language. President Eisenhower has recommended that the federal government support language centers in the universities for the most important of these languages. It would be useful if the universities which established such centers also established (with government help) field stations, perhaps in connection with United States embassies or military bases.

Finally, the Department of State and other agencies functioning overseas should give greatly increased emphasis to language competence. Every official functioning in a foreign context should be expected to know at least one foreign language, and incentive pay, analogous to the tradition of "flying pay" in the Air Force should be provided to those officials who engage in extracurricular language study. Every substantial United States establishment overseas -- whether embassy, military post, or technical assistance establishment -- should recognize its responsibility to provide language teaching facilities for American personnel.

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C. The Uses of Diversity

Another subject which has come prominently to public attention
as a result of proposals for federal support of education is the identifi-
cation of talented students. This is an obvious first step in any program
for the cultivation of diverse talents. In his Oklahoma speech last fall,
President Eisenhower said "We should have . . . a system of nationwide
testing of high school students."

Used with a sound understanding of their strength and limitations,
present testing procedures can contribute to an intelligent program of
talent identification. When large numbers of youngsters are being handled
tests uncover talents which would otherwise go unnoticed. And even when
it is not a question of large numbers, a particular youngster's aptitude may
be such as to defy easy diagnosis and may escape the attention of all but
the keenest of teachers.

But testing procedures unwisely used can do harm. To insure
wise use, a number of considerations must be kept firmly in mind.

First, tests are most effective in measuring academic aptitude and
achievement. There are certain other kinds of aptitude and achievement
that they can measure, but with less assurance. And there are a great
many kinds of talent that must go unmeasured because no adequate

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measuring instruments exist. In short, the tests are effective on a limited front. To put it another way, decisions based on test scores must be made with the awareness that there are still many imponderables in human behavior. We cannot measure the rare qualities of character that are a necessary ingredient of great performance. We cannot measure aspiration. We cannot measure courage and vitality. A generous helping of humility must be the portion of all who make decisions respecting the young.

Second, there should be no "one-shot" testing as a basis for important decisions. A series of scores obtained over years enables teachers to achieve a reliable perspective on the youngster's aptitudes, and minimizes the likelihood of false diagnosis based on results of a single test.

Third, test scores are one important kind of data to be placed alongside other kinds of data. The test score is not to be worshipped as a datum so decisive and unshakable that it alone can be used to settle an individual's fate: it is a useful addition to other data but should not replace them. The promotional efforts of test enthusiasts have been unjustly blamed for producing excessive dependence on test scores; the most powerful influence making for such over-dependence is the willingness of adults to evade their responsibility for

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complex and difficult decisions concerning the child. The test score
should be regarded as an important aid in making -- not a device for
evading -- such decisions.

Fourth, the well-conceived testing program must appraise and
identify human potentialities at every level, in order that young people
at all levels of aptitude and of all kinds of ability may better realize
their potentialities.

Finally, in all decisions based on testing, the individual's free-
dom of choice should be preserved insofar as possible. That he has a
high aptitude score in a certain direction does not mean that he
should necessarily be encouraged to slant his education in that direction.
And within the limits of feasibility, he should not be denied the oppor-
tunity to try out fields in which his tested aptitude appears low. In
short, the tests are to serve the student, and not vice versa.

The simplest way to keep the tests in perspective is to bear in
mind that our most effective mechanism for selecting potential college
material is the educational system itself. It is far from perfect as a
selection mechanism, but it has certain important assets, chief of which
is that observation of performance over a period of time and in a consid-
erable variety of circumstances provides a solid base for judgment. Tests
supplement and strengthen that judgment in important ways. They should
not supplant it.

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The identification of talent should be only one part of a strong guidance program in our schools. Current usage of the word "guidance" in educational circles varies greatly, and it is necessary to specify what we mean by it here. We mean advice concerning the young person's educational problems and concerning the most appropriate course of study for him. As many teachers as possible should be trained to take part in such guidance. As many high schools as possible should have special guidance officers to aid and supplement the teachers where greater technical knowledge is required.

The objective of all such educational guidance should be to make the most of the individual's potentialities. The fact that 30 to 40 per cent of the top quarter of high school graduates fail to go on to college poses precisely the sort of problem with which guidance should concern itself. It is natural that teachers, trained as they are to deal protectively and helpfully toward young people, should find a major portion of their guidance efforts focussed on those who seem most spectacularly in need of help, such as the retarded and the delinquents. But the statistics on talent loss in high school suggest that there are those at the high end of the scale who present just as serious a problem as far as society is concerned. Within the framework of attention to all, guidance should give particular attention to the abler students.

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But the educational system cannot do full justice to every youngster in developing what gifts he may possess until it faces frankly the need to provide different programs for different types and levels of ability. Our educational system has already made far more progress in identifying different levels of talent than in the development of programs for different levels. Adequate attention to individual differences means rejecting a rigid policy of promotion by age; and it means sensible experimentation with various kinds of flexibility in the curriculum to meet the varying needs of young people.

Our educational system has evolved into a chronological lock step under which all young people start off together at a given age and march forward one grade per year. This 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 abilities. The result is to dampen or destroy their native curiosity and their enthusiasm for learning.

A promotional policy rigidly based upon ability would be no more attractive than one rigidly based upon age. Flexibility and due regard for the needs of the individual child will be essential features of any sensible policy.

The most significant outcome of a flexible policy would be a solution to the problem of providing unusually able youngsters with

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rigorous and challenging experiences. A number of possible solutions to this problem are already being attempted. In a number of schools able 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, an 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 to "leapfrog" freshman college courses and get credit for them. 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; and despite their lower age, their social and emotional adjustment to college compare favorably with that of students generally. Aside from these rather novel experiments a good many high schools have long followed the practice of providing different programs for different levels of ability.

Some critics of our high schools have urged that we adopt the European pattern of two entirely separate school systems after approximately

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the sixth grade -- one system college preparatory and the other more vocational in character. But such separation would be unpalatable to most Americans. And in any case separate school systems are unnecessary.

There is no reason why youngsters at all levels of scholastic ability should not play on the same teams, act in the same plays, attend the same dances and share in the same student government. The fact that they attend different sections of the English course, the fact that one is taking physics while his neighbor is taking mechanical arts need not be a conspicuous feature of the school organization. And it is important to note that a student might be in a fast-learning group in mathematics, in a second group for history, and in a third group for French. Students in the fast-learning groups would advance as rapidly as their abilities would allow. For example, in mathematics a student might get as far as advanced calculus.

The argument against two entirely separate school systems need not rule out the possibility that in our larger cities we may develop special schools to meet special purposes (e.g., the famed Bronx High School of Science). Our best guide in such matters is our American habit of varying the rule to fit the circumstances.

The important thing is to rid ourselves of the notion that either a flexible promotion policy or flexible curricular arrangements are undemocratic in spirit. If we are really serious about equality of opportunity, then

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we shall be infinitely serious about individual differences, because what constitutes opportunity for one man is a stone wall for the next man. Individuals differ vastly from one another and differ in innumerable ways. If we are to do justice to the individual, we must seek for him the level and kind of education which will open his eyes, stimulate his mind and unlock his potentialities. The only way to do justice to human potentialities within a framework of equality of opportunity is to deal constructively with each individual at his own level of functioning.

College education, for example, is not the only road to a full and useful life. The individual who honestly believes in the full realization of every man's potentialities finds himself engaged in a two-front war. On the one hand he must fight to make college education more widely available to those who are fitted for it. On the other hand, he must deny that college is the only key to success, happiness and moral integrity.

The key to the adequate handling of individual differences lies in the proper diversification of education. We should seek to develop many educational patterns -- each geared to the particular qualities of the student for whom it is designed. This is not an endorsement of educational chaos, however. Though the educational patterns may differ, the goals remain much the same for all: enabling each youngster to go as far as his aptitude will permit in fundamental knowledge and skills, and

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motivating him to continue his own self-development along similar
lines.

In seeking to stress the many kinds of achievement of which the human is capable, we should encourage people to discriminate among many kinds of abilities. And in doing so we shall be abetted by a natural tendency in human beings to exploit many diverse sources of self-esteem. The sort of capacity measured by the conventional scholastic aptitude test is very important, but instead of putting a more and more monolithic emphasis upon this particular talent, we should encourage all kinds of individuals to run on all kinds of tracks. In this way we can distribute very widely the rewards of self-esteem and self-respect which are the healthiest preventives of leveling reactions and can encourage on the broadest scale the release of energy and positive motivation on the part of the individual which have been the great strength of our society. And we can insist that democracy is not to be conceived as an invitation to share a common mediocrity but a system that allows each to express and live up to the special excellence that is in him.

## D. Financing

All of the problems of the schools lead us back sooner or later to one central problem -- the problem of financing. It is a problem which we

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cannot afford to cope with halfheartedly. Education has always been
essential to the achievement of our political and moral objectives. It
has emerged as a necessary ingredient in our technological and social
advancement. And now -- though further emphasis was hardly necessary
necessary -- events have underscored its value in terms of sheer survival.

It will not be enough to meet this problem grudgingly or with a
little more money. The nation's need for good education is great and
immediate; and good education is expensive. That is a fact which the
American people have never been quite willing to face up to. Good edu-
cation costs money. In order to meet the national need, support for edu-
cation must rise to a completely new level. If the American public is not
prepared for this, then all interested and responsible groups -- political
leaders, business leaders, educators, unions, civic organizations, must
join in a national campaign to prepare them.

But first our national leaders will themselves have to grasp the
true scope of the task. Perhaps the greatest problem facing American
education at all levels is the widely-held view that all it needs is a little
patching here and there, a few more teachers, a few more buildings, a
little more money. Such an approach will be, in the simplest terms,
disastrous. We are moving into the most demanding era in our history.
Events are running away from us. An educational system grudgingly and

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tardily patched to meet the needs of the moment will be chronically out of date. We must build for the future in education as daringly and aggressively as we should build for the future in space technology.

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

| | Billions |
| :--- | ---: |
| Public Elementary and Secondary | $ 9.4 |
| Private Elementary and Secondary | 1.2 |
| Public Higher Education | 1.5 |
| Private Higher Education | 1.9 |
| **Total** | **14.0** |

Since 1930 this relationship of educational expenditures to GNP has remained relatively constant at about 3.5 per cent. This has meant, of course, a large increase in total dollars spent on education as national product has risen, but the increase has not been adequate to outstrip the rise in enrollments. The result is a smaller expenditure per pupil. 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 per cent 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 per cent of Gross National Product in contrast with its 3.6 per cent 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 per cent in 1930 to over 41 per cent in 1954. The reasons are many -- not the least compelling of which is the fact that sole reliance on local financial capacities alone results in gross inequalities of educational opportunities.

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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 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 proposals for federal support to education. These proposals have stimulated widespread public discussion; but there is about much of this discussion a certain air of unreality.

The unreality stems from the fact that much of the debate centers around a doctrinal dispute over the dangers of federal support to education. Over the years -- for it has been a long debate -- while this full-dress discussion has been going on in the front room, so to speak, practical-minded legislators and hard-pressed educators have hammered out

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compromises in the back room. And out of these compromises has come
a tremendous variety of federal programs in education.

No discussion of federal support to education can proceed on a
sensible basis without first recognizing this fact. Federal programs in
education now exist. They exist on a large scale. They take a great
many forms. It is virtually impossible to find a responsible observer who
will predict that these programs are likely to diminish; most observers
predict that they will increase both in scale and variety.

Under the circumstances, it is important for those who are appre-
hensive about the growth of federal support of education to examine the
directions which it takes. There is no chance at all that we can turn back
the clock and eliminate federal support of education. There is a chance
that farsighted and intelligent men may influence the direction of federal
support or the kinds of federal support.

In examining proposals for federal support of education two princi-
ples are of fundamental importance.

The first principle is that the federal government should lend itself
only to those forms of support which strengthen local autonomy and ini-
tiative and should eschew those forms which diminish or obstruct local
initiative. This means that the federal government should not become

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involved in local decisions with respect to personnel, curriculum, or
other matters of educational policy. It means too that even in an extremely
worthy cause such as desegregation, the federal government should not
establish the precedent of interference with local autonomy. There are
many established channels through which the desegregation fight may be
appropriately pressed. If it is allowed to create a precedent of federal
intrusion into local educational policy, the next intrusion might be less
admirable.

The second principle is that wherever possible federal funds
should constitute one source of support among many. Wherever possible,
federal financing should not be the only source of money for a given pro-
gram. State, local and private sources of funds should be used to bal-
ance the federal influence.

Working with these two principles and with a broad understanding
of both governmental and educational functioning, it may be possible to
discriminate intelligently between the kinds of federal support which
may work to the detriment of freedom and diversity and those kinds of
support which hold a minimum of danger in such directions.

Perhaps the most popular form of federal support for education
is the scholarship program. Aside from the fact that scholarships appeal
powerfully to our concern for providing opportunity to young people, it

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is obvious that one of the great attractions of such programs is that they involve a minimum hazard of federal interference. The money goes to the young person, either directly or through a state agency, and he decides which university he wishes to attend. It may be public or private, it may be religious or secular: the thorny problems which arise in connection with direct governmental dealings with certain kinds of institutions simply never present themselves.

But there is a critically important point to be made with respect to federal scholarship programs at the college level. The great popularity and political appeal of such programs makes it necessary to point out that there is no long-run gain in sending more and more youngsters to weaker and weaker institutions: in other words, in the financing of education, scholarships are important but scholarships aren't enough! To be specific, no first-class institution charges tuition covering the full cost of education; a scholarship program which gives the student enough to pay his tuition should provide the college with a supplementary sum to make up the full cost of education.

In thinking about federal programs in education it is important to remember that the government inevitably exercises a certain leadership function in whatever it does. The effect of a government scholarship program, for example, might go far beyond the immediate impact of the

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grants -- which would be limited at best. The fact that the government chose to recognize high talent would have far-reaching consequences in the attitudes of young people. Similarly, a willingness on the part of the government to recognize the hidden costs of college education by granting cost-of-education supplements in connection with scholarships would have a salutary effect in emphasizing the true cost of education.

Another much discussed form of federal aid which involves a minimum of hazard to local initiative or autonomy is the construction of buildings. And the planning of new physical facilities is undeniably a major need in education. In the years immediately ahead, great expansion of physical plant will be required at every level of the educational system. Buildings are not as important as the teachers who teach in them, and teachers' salaries should have first priority on available funds: but buildings will have to be built. Under the circumstances, it is vital that maximum effective use be made of existing facilities. This is particularly important at the level of higher education, where physical plant is often underutilized.

In planning new facilities it is important to avoid the creation of schools or colleges too small to be economical. Half of all our secondary schools have fewer than 175 students. Below a certain minimum of size it is exceedingly difficult for the modern school or college to offer the

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strong diversified program which the times demand. For example, most of the students who are unable today to take a course in physics or chemistry are in very small rural schools. In many cases consolidation of these schools into larger units would be an important step ahead.

New facilities should be planned with imagination and an understanding of the great changes which education has undergone and will continue to undergo. It has often been remarked that the typical new building on a college campus is a half-century behind the typical new factory building in imaginative and economical functional planning. Physical facilities should provide for maximum flexibility in use and should take into account foreseeable changes in educational technique.

Expansion of facilities at the higher educational level should take into account the needs of the area and should explore possible cooperation with neighboring institutions. The sort of regional cooperation represented by the recently developed interstate compacts in the South, the West and New England can be an important aid in this connection.

One of the more important questions in the financing of education is the future prosperity of privately-financed colleges and universities. Their share of total enrollments has already declined to less than 50 per cent of all higher education; and within fifteen years their share of students could readily fall to less than 25 per cent.

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To the extent that this decrease in percentage of students is accompanied by a waning of influence, one must view it with misgivings and regret. Publicly-financed and privately-financed institutions have each made distinctive and essential contributions to the vitality of our higher education. And we have come to recognize that the existence side by side of these alternative patterns of support is a thoroughly healthy thing for all concerned. Here as in so many other aspects of our national life we find that diverse sources of control make for both freedom and vitality in the system.

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 has been sharply upward and represents the tapping of a new and potentially very important source of aid. But obviously funds from this source are dependent to some extent upon the business cycle.

Some have urged that the solution of the problem lies in reform of the private college "pricing system." Today tuition charges frequently represent 50 per cent 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

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

Some have argued that the privately-financed institutions should consider an alternate pricing and scholarship policy under which tuition would be set at the *full* cost of instruction and each student would receive whatever amount of scholarship assistance he needed and would pay whatever proportion of the full tuition he could afford. This would result in eliminating "hidden" scholarships entirely, putting 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 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 subsidies to students whose families could well afford the *real* cost of a good college education. But unfortunately there are substantial difficulties in such a plan.

Unquestionably the solution for the privately-financed institution --
if there is a solution -- lies not in any one clever device but in the simul-
taneous exploration of numerous paths -- both for cutting costs and for
raising money: for example, eliminating unnecessary frills in the
curriculum; sharing facilities with neighboring institutions; dropping
the extravagant notion that every institution must offer a carbon copy of

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# V - THE CONTINUING SEARCH FOR TALENT

## A. The Supply of Human Resources

There has been an increasing realization that a sound approach to the cultivation and utilization of human resources must concern itself with all age levels. The interest in identification and nurture of talent must be extended upward until it covers the whole life span.

It will be useful, then, if we step back from our close preoccupation with the educational system and the early years of life, and look at the whole broad canvas of human resources.

A good way to begin is to examine the American population and some of its pertinent characteristics. For here is our supply of talent as a "resource."

The population of the United States is today over 170 million -- and increasing rapidly. On an average day there is a net rise of 7,400 in the population over the year, a rise of some 2.5 million. This will very likely give us a population of nearly 225,000,000 by 1975.

We can also make some reasonably firm estimates of the age composition of the population in 1975. Everyone who will be twenty or more years old in 1975 has already been born, so we know with accuracy the age composition of the older portion of the population in 1975; and by extending present birth rates we can arrive at estimates for the younger age groups.

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Here are the estimates:

POPULATION OF THE U.S. BY AGE: 1955 AND PROJECTED FOR 1975*

| | 1955 | 1975 | 1955 - 1975 Per Cent Change |
|:---|:---:|:---:|:---:|
| | **(millions)** | | |
| **All ages** | 166.0 | 222.3 | 34 |
| **0 - 4 years** | 19.1 | 25.4 | 33 |
| **5 - 14 years** | 30.5 | 41.9 | 37 |
| **15 - 19 years** | 11.2 | 18.7 | 67 |
| **20 - 24 years** | 10.8 | 19.3 | 79 |
| **25 - 44 years** | 46.9 | 53.2 | 13 |
| **45 - 64 years** | 33.4 | 43.1 | 29 |
| **65 years and over** | 14.1 | 20.7 | 46 |

*Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, p. 25, No. 123, "A" Projections.

As the table shows, the age composition of the population in 1975 will differ markedly from that of the present. Today, as a consequence of the low birth rates of the 20's, we are short on young adults; while the high birth rates of recent years make children plentiful. In 1975 the situation may be radically changed. The recent baby boom will have resulted in an enormous increase in age groups 15 to 24; and as our present middle ages attain the later brackets, there will be a large increase in the age group 65 and over.

This pattern of future population points up two problems. One concerns the flood of young people who will place an immense pressure on educational institutions within the next twenty years. The other involves

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the manpower utilization problem posed by the rapidly expanding older group.

In addition to these changes in age composition, there will be a con-
tinuance of long-term trends in the geographical distribution of population.
We are a moving people -- 20 per cent of us change our address each year,
and there are great slow currents, northward and westward, which describe
the drift of our people. In 1975 California will in all probability be the most
populous state and Nevada no longer the least populous. In certain respects,
these migration trends make us a more homogeneous people. For example,
they tend to diminish regional distinctions. And the Negro will lose, to a
greater extent than he has already, his southern regional character, as a
consequence of his steady migration to northern midwestern and western
cities. There are other signs of increasing homogeneity. Farmers, for
example, are being reduced as a characteristic and recognizable group: not
only are successful farms increasingly "businesslike" in their operation,
but a million of the less successful rural population leave the farms each
year. Thus in some ways we appear to be becoming an ever more <u>national</u>
community in which regional loyalties and sharp regional differences are
diminishing.

Another striking trend is the rise of the great metropolitan areas.
In 1900, the average American lived in the countryside; by 1930, he lived
in a small town of from five to ten thousand population. Today, he lives
in a big city or its satellites; by 1975, he will live in its suburban out-growths.

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Four-fifths of the nation's growth between 1950 and 1955 was concentrated in the urban fringe that rings each of the great cities and extends far in the countryside. Thus in a sense the typical American is on his way back to the country town -- but with the critical difference that he is no longer a rural person. The tempo of his life and his work is typically determined by the great metropolitan areas to which he commutes and toward which he is culturally oriented. In short, we may expect for 1975, a more uniform America -- a nation both less diverse regionally and less diverse in style of living.

## B. Human Resources Inadequately Used

Our traditional concern for the development of the potentialities of the individual and our concern for the effective use of manpower are both flatly incompatible with the wholesale disregard or callous degrading of human talents. Yet this is precisely what we are doing in a number of major areas where basic improvements in manpower utilization are essential.

The first major opportunity for improving the quality of our labor force lies in the fuller use of our underprivileged minorities. Primary among these groups is, of course, the Negro. It is hardly necessary to point out that the Negro has been disadvantaged economically as well as politically and socially in the United States. Yet what has until recently been thought of solely in terms of an abrogation of moral principle now takes on a second meaning in an economy in need of talent. The denial of opportunity to the

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Negro results in the loss of a wealth of potentially creative and skillful manpower. It is tantamount to a 5 per cent crippling of our human resources.

The end of segregation, with all the difficult adjustments it imposes, is of course the first necessary step in the right direction. The migration trends which will distribute the Negro population throughout the nation will undoubtedly contribute to the partial alleviation of Negro manpower misuse. Legislation such as fair employment practices acts will add a necessary stimulus to private reorientation of attitudes. The impact of Negro athletes, teachers, airline hostesses, diplomats, government officials who symbolize the breaking of old patterns will help to accelerate the trend. Yet all these are only first steps. Until the Negro has been offered equal opportunity with the non-Negro to develop and use his individual talents to the utmost, and until he can be encouraged to make the most of his opportunity, we shall have failed in a critical area to achieve our moral and material goals.

**The second opportunity for improving our utilization of talent concerns wasted womanpower.** As a recent report of the National Manpower Council made clear, women are playing an increasingly important role in the American economy; one out of every three workers in our regular labor force of nearly 70 million is a woman. To this already large contributin of womanpower, we can expect a substantial potential increase over the next decades due to the age composition of our population. The average American woman is today

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married before she reaches voting age and has her third and last child at age 26. Thus by her early or mid-thirties her children are in school and she is free for part-time or even full-time work. In the case of college-educated women, not only are they capable of making a significant contribution in various fields, but the opportunity to "put their education to work" would be in many cases be eagerly sought. This availability represents a considerable addition to our supply of talent, and may be particularly useful in augmenting our educational staffs.

However, the availability will go to naught -- despite the eagerness of increasing numbers of women to work -- if we do not take active steps to utilize this "new" resource. In the educational field, for example an insistence upon rigid teaching "requirements" of a formal nature may deprive us of many gifted individuals who could be used to supplement the efforts of the fully trained teacher. Outside the teaching profession the woman is faced with other handicaps of a less formal but more prejudicial nature. There are still relatively few professional fields in which women participate extensively. Many firms still hesitate to use women in executive capacities or to include in executive training programs even those women who expect to remain in employment.

Finally, it is still true that women are typically less well prepared for careers than men. To a degree this reflects the continuance of 19th

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century attitudes toward women; to a degree it reflects a still ambivalent attitude toward "work" on the part of women themselves. Whatever the reason for the inadequate preparation no improvement is likely to occur until there are substantially better opportunities for the gifted woman to find an occupational niche suitable to her capacities. This is a situation which must be remedied if we are not to lose a valuable source of creative effort.

The third major opportunity lies in the alleviation of economic disadvantage. When President Eisenhower asked Congress for legislation to assist the depressed areas of the country, he stressed the need for action on grounds of equity: why should a child born in the backwoods of Tennessee be deprived of opportunities available to children whose parents are fortunate enough to be living in more prosperous regions? But there are additional reasons for Congress to act.

The nation is paying a high price for its depressed areas in terms of the wastage of its human abilities. Children who grow up under conditions which do not stimulate development not only suffer personal deprivation but are all too apt to be social liabilities. During the first year of the Korean conflict the national failure rate on the Armed Forces Qualification Test was 19.2 per cent, but the failure rate for men from nine states where incomes and educational expenditures are relatively low ranged from 34 to 58 per cent. This illustrates the truth that poor education in any one area of the nation

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becomes the serious concern of the whole nation. The fact that there is
extensive movement of population from one part of the country to another
makes the problem even more obviously one of national concern.

Still another area of wasted manpower is represented by our older
workers. This is a problem that the changing age composition of our popula-
tion brings to the fore, but it is not a new problem in our society. The fact
is that in our society the role of the older person is difficult, and perhaps
more for psychological than for material reasons. In our society, the grand-
parent is not a figure of authority as in some cultures, but is relegated to
the periphery of family life.

Part of the problem, of course, is that health and longevity standards
have improved so markedly that the 65 year old has far higher potentialities
than might otherwise have been the case. Neither our houses nor our values
are such as to accommodate the old. They must largely end for themselves.

These facts have had consequences that are not negligible. The
spectre of dependent old age has surely been a powerful influence in the
development of and the stress on pensioned retirement as a goal of American
life. Retirement security in all its various forms has made enormous gains
in recent decades. But as these gains were achieved, the problem unexpec-
tedly shifted in focus. It was not foreseen in the thirties, when our retire-
ment ideas were formulated, that the man facing an economically secure
retirement at 65 would fear boredom as intensely as an earlier generation

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had feared want, or that the enterprise, public or private, which had lost his
services, might find itself not rid of a burden but deprived of a still active
personality.

The truth is that only for a portion of older people has retirement with
economic security become a treasured period of leisure when one can do
"what one always wanted to." For others it is a dreaded break in the texture
and tempo of life, leading to personal dissatisfaction on the one hand, and to
wasted ability on the other.

To a certain extent this is unavoidable: in a highly organized society
there must be compulsory retirement, not only to provide security for the
individual, but to assure a steady turnover of opportunity at the top. Yet the
waste of human talent in the premature retirement of still vigorous people of
65 clearly calls for remedial action. In some instances this action might
take the form of a later retirement age. Or it might involve the extension of
special job opportunities for people over 65. Such opportunities have already
been developed in college teaching; the MCOEX professor retiring from one
campus may be hired on special status by some other college.

A final example of wasted manpower is the under-utilized talent in
many of our great organizations. An imaginative policy for the nurture of
talent would surely include not only continuous efforts to identify talent at
all age levels, but what one might think of as a continuous "salvage" opera-
tion designed to rescue able people -- at whatever age level -- from those

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situations which stifle the full expression of individual potentialities.

Industry has already initiated important efforts in this direction. Such "talent salvage" should become a settled policy of every organization.

Every corporation, union, government agency, military service and professional group should -- in its own best interest -- conduct a never-ending search for talent within its own staff.

The adult education movement could play an enormously significant role as a salvage instrument -- through enabling mature individuals to test their unexplored interests and abilities. In this connection, it might be sensible if we dropped the phrase "I've had an education" from common usage. Education is not something you have had. It is something you keep on having -- if it has any reality at all. You cannot store it in the freezer as you stow away a quarter of beef! A degree is not an education, and the confusion on this point is perhaps the gravest weakness in American thinking about education beyond high school.

The idea of a continuing "talent salvage" is such as to test to the utmost our imagination and ingenuity and wisdom. For part of the problem of rescuing talent is to recognize talent. Any organization (or society) is all too likely to get trapped in its own stereotyped notions of what constitutes talent. In such circumstances a shortage of talent may simply be a shortness of vision.

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The problem posed by the large organization is particularly grave for the most creative kinds of people. The traits commonly associated with a high level of intellectual creativity (e.g., in the best scientists) are not always such as to make for great success or even happiness in a large organization. Since many large organizations today cannot function without such men, a good deal of effort has been expended to resolve this dilemma. Some industrial concerns, particularly those which depend upon a high continuing level of scientific or technological innovation, have learned a great deal about how to attract and hold such individuals. The military, bound by many rigidities in the treatment of its personnel, has learned much less. And labor unions still have much to learn if they are to develop a humane and forward-looking policy concerning the nurture of talent within their ranks.

One consequence of the scarcity of professional skills is the "hoarding of talent" -- a practice visible in a good many areas of government, business and academic life. In its most blatant form hoarding involves the stockpiling of personnel in scarce categories. Thus a number of industrial firms have hired large numbers of engineers for whom they had no immediate need. The offense is not simply against competitors for the same scarce manpower but against the individuals involved.

There are many less obvious or malicious forms of talent hoarding. Is there, for example, the duplication of pools of talent, no one of which

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is fully utilized. Every government department now has its own staff of economists. Scientific personnel is jealously sought by different branches of the Armed Forces and the results of scientific research are not properly shared. Corporations bid indiscriminately for high talent on the campus without careful consideration as to the long-term prospects which they can offer to those talents. Universities, often within the same community, vie with one another for personnel to build up carbon copies of one another's catalogues.

One method of lessening this misuse of talent is to broaden the mechanism for sharing of personnel. Certainly there is little excuse for the absence of such sharing among government agencies. Competitive corporations may be understandably reluctant to share their scientific or technical personnel with one another, but an increased movement of able people back and forth between government and business might be a helpful step. Tours of duty of several years duration in the government might well be recognized by some corporations as a regular stage in a man's career development, and experience in private business would enhance the value of a career civil servant. In academic life the sharing of intellectual talents, along lines already begun by a number of smaller colleges, and an attempt to dovetail rather than duplicate one another's catalogues may yield important benefits. And a healthy traffic between

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the academic world and government is highly desirable.

### C. The Social Ceilings on Individual Performance

But our great industrial, governmental and academic bureaucracies are not the only sources of worry. One of the prime sources of difficulty to anyone interested in the full development of individual talent is the nature of modern society itself. There are powerful forces at work in a complex society to smother talent, to force individuals into unproductive ruts, to trap them in situations which do not permit exercise of the talents they possess.

Of the innumerable changes that have occurred in our social environment, one of the most far-reaching has been the increasing prominence in our lives of *organization*. In every area of activity -- government, business, science, education, military affairs -- activity is typically more formally structured, more bureaucratic, than in the past. That such bureaucratization should occur in a technically and socially complex society is neither surprising nor in itself harmful. Delicately interdependent social mechanisms cannot exist without synchronization and order and it is the purpose of organization to inject continuity, dependability and orderliness into what would otherwise be unmanageable chaos. It is inconceivable that General Motors should

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be run without standard operating procedures or that the Veterans
Administration should attempt to dispense with rules and conduct its
operations on a purely _ad hoc_ basis.

But while the complex organization of modern society has its
necessary functions, it may induce a species of conformity that becomes
a threat to the society's vitality. If the whole elaborate machinery
is to work, people must learn to cooperate, play their part, do what
is expected of them, and do it promptly. The functioning of a modern
city or a modern factory is a miracle of voluntary cooperation that can
only be accomplished by people who have developed a deeply ingrained
habit of playing by the rules, of self-discipline, and of internalized
restraints. The same is true for the less spectacular functions of a
mass society.

In terms of creativeness, the price of all this can be heavy.
Intricately-meshed organization is often a stifling atmosphere for
exercise of individual creativity. In this context of regularity and order,
the temptation is to conform to the habits of thought and behavior of
the group and, therefore, to gear one's personal abilities to an acceptable
common denominator. These conditions yield clear benefits in smoothness
of organizational functioning but are hardly conducive to the kind of
originality and innovative thinking on which society now so importantly
depends.

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In short, the complexity of our social organization presents problems as well as opportunities for the cultivation of human capabilities. It tends to encourage effort -- but often only up to a level of average acceptability. It opens avenues of advance, but these avenues converge on the citadels of routine where the individual pace must conform to fixed traffic patterns. It stimulates self-development but threatens to define its goal as mere competence. Meanwhile the very quality that a modern, complex, highly organized society most requires -- original thought and effort -- is precisely that which it unconsciously discourages.

Let us make no mistake about the alternatives. The notion that we might escape the organizational complexities of modern life is sheer romancing. Walden does not represent a live option for the overwhelming majority of us. The interlocking complexities of a modern, highly organized technological society are an inescapable part of our future: if we are to nourish individual freedom we shall have to learn how to nourish it under these difficult circumstances. If we are to maintain some measure of individual creativity we shall have to learn to preserve it in a context of organization. It is the predicament of Christian, in Pilgrim's Progress, facing the temptations of Vanity Fair.

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"The way to the Celestial City lies just through this town, where this lusty fair is kept; and he that will go to the City and yet not go through this town, must needs go out of the world."

The relevant questions then become: What organizational patterns and practices may be devised which are least destructive of individual initiative and autonomy? How is it that with all our oppressive intricacy of social mechanism, a good many astonishingly free, flexible, creative and independent individuals exist -- some of them in the very heart of the great bureaucracies? How may we best prepare our young people to keep their individuality, initiative, creativity in a highly organized, intricately-meshed society? How may we salvage individuals of talent from the lowered aspirations, the boredom, and the habit of mediocrity so often induced by life in a large and complex organization? How do we shatter the informal "ceilings" placed upon performance in an organizational setting in which order and harmony and predictability are more important than individual achievement?

When we arrive at questions of this profundity, we are no longer simply talking about the cultivation and utilization of talent. We are talking about some of the gravest issues in the future of our society.

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VI - MOTIVATION AND VALUES

We approach the subject of motivation and values with
diffidence. We have little precise knowledge of human motives,
though men have been interested in them for thousands of years.
And it is difficult to deal with the subject of values simply and
briefly, as we must in this context,

But it is not a subject we can avoid. All high performance
takes place in a context of values. Excellent performance is an
amalgam of talent and motive, a product of ability fused with zeal.
Aptitude without aspiration is lifeless and inert.

And that is only part of the story. When ability is brought
to life by aspiration, there remains the further question of the ends
to which these gifts are applied. We do not wish to nurture the man
of great talent and evil purpose. Not only does high performance
take place in a context of values, but if it is to be worth fostering,
the values must be worthy of our allegiance.

Some of our more discerning critics are thoroughly uneasy
about the current aspirations and values of the American people. They
see evidence that security, conformity, and comfort are the idols of
the day; and they fear that our young people have lost youth's immemorial

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fondness for adventure, excitement, far horizons, and the challenge
of the unpredictable.

As evidence the critics point to the extraordinary difficulty
we are having in persuading young people to enter some of the fields
of work which are most vital to our future as a nation. We cannot
fill innumerable important assignments in the overseas activities of
our government. There are not enough able people in basic research.
There are not enough able people in teaching. The difficulty -- the
critics argue -- is that these jobs require a measure of sacrifice or
dedication, and some deviation from the standard formulas of American
life.

The critics are no easier on their adult contemporaries. They
see Americans caught in a deep-rooted habit of conformity, and
dedicated to little more than the acquisition of the consumer goods
which constitute the American Way of Life as pictured by Madison Avenue.

One may wish to apply a slight discount to these alarms and
anxieties. Such self-criticism of our attitudes and ways of life is
something of a national tradition. It is unlikely that we shall ever
improve to the point where our social critics are silenced. But one
would be foolish to discount altogether the penetrating observations made
by so many qualified observers.

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We do not need to decide whether the situation is seriously deplorable or only mildly so. We are much more interested in pointing out that it is possible to identify a posture more constructive than handwriting in connection with the problem.

For one thing we must recognize that the unwillingness of youth to enter certain critical fields is due in part to a rather severe imbalance in our system of incentives: the skills which we need most critically are not those that we reward most highly. We now look to the scientist, the diplomat, the government administrator, the military planner, and the educator for critically important achievements in society. Our scale of rewards still reflects an age when the attraction of talent into these critical fields was not accorded the highest priority of society. If school teachers are not highly paid it is at least in part because society has not yet come to esteem that function sufficiently.

The existence of an older scale of rewards results in deflecting talent away from positions of critical importance.

But the problem cannot be entirely alleviated by the increase of scientific, governmental, or educational pay. Without any question the scale of rewards of these nationally crucial tasks should be improved, but the nonprofit sector of society will never be able to outbid business. Hence if the optimal distribution of our talents is to be approximated,

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we may have to depend on a new *estimation* of certain kinds of work
and on far higher rewards of esteem and prestige in certain critical
fields than now exists. The stereotype of the dowdy and fussy
schoolteacher or the government petty bureaucrat may be as serious
an impediment to our proper development and allocation of talent as
the differentials in pay which -- because they are now severely out
of line -- serve to reinforce and perpetuate the stereotypes themselves.

One hopeful fact on which we may be able to build is that
there appears to be a rising proportion of the population who are
motivated by what one may term the pursuit of excellence. The rise
is perhaps no more than a rise in the proportion of the population
devoted to the professions and to similar careers involving prolonged
training. It is certainly not widespread throughout the population.
But it is worthy of study and reflection.

The whole background of the professional person -- whether
doctor, lawyer, artist, teacher, scientist, clergyman or other --
conduces to such motivation. The pursuit of such callings is conducted
in a strong ethical framework. It involves long and often arduous
preparation. And it involves a powerful commitment to the achievement
of craftsmanship in one's work. The result is -- in these fields -- a
greater dedication to work and a greater self-realization in work than
is true for the population as a whole.

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This is not to say that persons so motivated are unmoved by the
more familiar incentives of wealth or prestige. These incentives are
rarely absent; but they are distinctly less prominent. Nor do we wish
to imply that the pursuit of excellence is solely the property of the
professions. It would be more accurate to say that certain ideals
and standards and values which have characterized the best of the
professions appear to be spreading into a variety of other fields. Indeed,
some observers have argued that every complex and demanding activity
in our society is in process of becoming professionalized.

A wider devotion to the pursuit of excellence as it is obserwable
in the best professional people would be an unqualified good. The
cultivation of excellence would make possible the resolution of some of
our more difficult social paradoxes. The striving for achievement for
its own sake would come as a valuable counterforce to bureaucratic
inertia. The estimation of work in terms of its inner satisfactions would
offset the sometimes distorting effect of economic incentives. The
dedication to self-realization would serve to give a new meaning and
impetus to the ideal of individualism in a world of growing collectivist
complexion.

Those who despise our material progress and fear the growing
complexity of our society must reflect on the fact that it is precisely

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February 26, 1958

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these circumstances that have increased the possibility of such motivations. For the proliferation of new professions and skills is directly traceable to technological advances on the one hand, and the complexity of social organization on the other. Hard and dull toil, and the routine chore are slowly giving way to a new, more exacting, and more imaginative level of work. And those who must still engage in tasks too cramping for the exercise of self-expression have much increased leisure and resources to pursue avocations of a more self-fulfilling variety. The demands of society and the desire of the individual for self-realization are in this particular dimension more compatible than ever before.

The cultivation of excellence, the pursuit of achievement for its own sake is a latent force in any society. Every society has had its fine craftsmen. Now with the changing nature of work needs and the social demand for skill and talent, the opportunity exists to bring that latent force to fuller expression.

And it bears saying that among the many kinds of excellence of which the human is capable, intellectual excellence has come to play a uniquely important role. Intellectual excellence has not always ranked high in the scale of values of Americans generally; but with our rising educational level and increasing prominence of intellectual pursuits,

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there are signs that this evaluation is changing. The desirability of
such a change cannot be too strongly stressed. As we shall have
occasion to note later, a nation only achieves the kind of greatness
it asks for and understands. Only if we value intellectual excellence
shall we have it.

It is clear then, that a substantial part of our task is to insure
that the individual may be exposed to a value context in which great
performance is possible. This is not wholly a problem for philosophers,
though their aid is needed. It is partly a problem of educational
strategy. It is essential, for example, that we enable young people
to see themselves as members of civilization, as participants in one of
the most exciting eras in history. It is essential that we enable them to
see that they are living out in their own lives -- in their own convictions
and fears and tensions -- one of the gravest crises that has ever occurred
in man's relationship to man.

Another matter of educational strategy is to insure that young people
are exposed to sufficient variety and challenge in their lives -- to insure
that they not be placed too early on a deadening treadmill of education,
career preparation and job. Every so often some expert in vocational
psychology predicts that his field will eventually achieve such perfection
that the youngster in early adolescence may be told precisely where his

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February 26, 1958

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abilities lie, and may then be routed unerringly through high school and
college, and into the one perfect job for the rest of his life. It will be
a sad day if they succeed. Certainly for the most talented segment of
our population, we must leave ample room for the sort of lesson one
learns when one goes down a blind alley of one's own choice, for the
sense of adventure involved in doing something unpredictable, for the
zest generated by pursuing one's own inner urge rather than doing what
is sensible.

Still another problem of educational strategy is that of providing
"models" for young people. The life goals of young people are in
some measure determined by the fact that they identify themselves with
admired figures in the adult world. A society is fortunate if the adults
who enjoy the most prominent position in the public eye, who are most
applauded and admired and respected are also the most suitable models
for young people to follow if the society is to meet the challenge of its
own future. It is fair to ask whether our young people can find in our
gallery of national heroes enough models of, let us say, the gifted
scientist, the dedicated foreign service officer, or the inspired teacher.
Such men certainly exist and a few have come into the public eye. But
they are usually crowded pretty well to the back of the stage.

It is a striking fact that a society only (produces) great men in
those fields in which it understands greatness. It is not really surprising

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that the particular society and the particular season in history which
produced a Carnegie should have produced at the same time a number of
others with the same stamp of industrial genius. It is wholly unlikely
that the same time and circumstances would have produced a Jonathan
Edwards or a Cotton Mather. Spain in the sixteenth century produced
Cortez, Pizarro, Balboa, DeSoto, and a dozen more who rank with the
most extraordinary explorer-conquerors who ever strode the pages of
history. It is unthinkable that the same society at the same time would
have produced a Jefferson. The society that produced Jefferson produced
Franklin, Monroe, Benjamin Rush, John Adams, George Wythe and
other philosopher-statesmen of breadth and brilliance. It is less easy
to believe that it could have produced a Mozart, a Bach or a Beethoven.

The kinds of greatness which our society produces over the years
ahead will be the kinds of greatness that we invite. But it cannot be a
contrived invitation. It will have to be securely rooted in currently
held values.

If we ask ourselves what our society invites in the way of high
performance we are led to some curious reflections. We are led to the
conclusion that we may have, to a startling degree, lost the gift for
demanding high performance of ourselves. It is a point worth exploring.

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February 26, 1958

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One thing that is never mentioned by the critics who bemoan our
loss of dedication and high motivation is that our daily life still provides
plentiful examples of individuals who have acted with spirit and
dedication in the service of society's highest values. Such evidence
is most dramatically available, perhaps, in wars, disasters, and in
the day-to-day crises of a busy city and a busy nation. Such circumstances
yield a steady flow of examples of human conduct that even the most
cynical of our critics would applaud. And aside from crises, the
even tenor of daily life offers many additional examples. Everyone
knows a parent, a teacher, a doctor, a friend whose life is a living
denial of the picture which our critics have drawn.

In short, there is no good reason to believe that the American
people are any less capable of devotion or courage or response to
challenge than they ever were. But there is some reason to believe
that American life today is not such as to call forth these qualities
on a wide scale and in their highest form. There is reason to believe
that we have lost some of our talent for evoking these qualities.

The characteristic picture of the citizen-as-consumer has taken
a firm grip on the national imagination; and the consumer is, of course,
a devotedly self-gratifying creature. He must be constantly and
ingeniously served milder cigarettes, softer mattresses, and easier driving

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February 28, 1958

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cars. If his dollars are to continue flowing, he must be endlessly
catered to, soothed, anointed, protected, healed, cajoled, and generally
babied. Add to this the fact that we get on with our national life
through the mediation of representatives, agents, or delegates of
various sorts; and that whether these are congressmen serving their
constituents, corporation executives representing their stockholders,
labor leaders serving union members, or lobbyists representing their
various employers, they are all committed to protecting and nourishing
the interests of those by whose sufferance they hold their posts. It
is their professional role to be selfish for their constituents, to prevent
incursions on the comfort and convenience of their constituents.

We would certainly not wish to have businessmen who cared
nothing for the wishes of the consumer, nor representatives who cared
nothing for the comfort or profit of their constituents. The only point to
be made is that the images of citizen-as-consumer and citizen-as-
constituent may have led us to think of the man in the street as guided
only by his self-gratifying impulses. We may have fallen into the
habit of thinking that the citizen's resources of devotion are slight indeed,
and that to seek to tap these resources would be, if not indecent, then
politically dangerous, or at the very least futile. The result may be a
national habit -- shared by political leaders, teachers, social and

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February 26, 1958

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cultural leaders -- of underrating the capacity of the American people for devotion to anything but the more and more luxurious furnishing of their private worlds.

This cult of easiness is a very inadequate guide to understanding the springs of human action. What most people, young or old, want is not merely security or comfort or luxury -- although they are glad enough to have these. They want meaning in their lives. If their era and their culture and their leaders do not or cannot offer them great meanings, great objectives, great convictions, then they will settle for shallow and trivial meanings. "Our chief want in life," said Emerson, "is someone who will make us do what we can." People who live aimlessly, people who allow the search for meaning in their lives to be satisfied by shoddy and meretricious experiences are simply people who have been stirred by no alternative meanings -- religious meanings, ethical values, ideals of social and civic responsibility, high standards of self-realization.

This is a deficiency for which we all bear a responsibility. It is a failure of home, church, school, government -- a failure of all of us. In the context of the present discussion, there should be a general recognition that cultivation and utilization of human resources occurs in a context of values. Education is not just a mechanical process for

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communication to the young of certain skills and information. It springs
from our most deeply rooted convictions. And if it is to have any
vitality both teachers and students will be infused with the values
which shaped the system.

No inspired and inspiring education can go forward without
powerful undergirding by the deepest values of our society. The students
are there in the first place because generations of Americans have
been profoundly committed to a republican form of government and to
equality of opportunity. They benefit by a tradition of intellectual
freedom because generations of ardent and stubborn men and women
nourished that tradition in Western Civilization. Their education is
based upon the notion of the dignity and worth of the individual because
those values are an inextricable part of our religious and philosophical
heritage. They are preparing themselves for a world in which, as
Thornton Wilder said, "every good and excellent thing ... stands
moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for."
They are preparing themselves for a world which has always been shaped
and always will be shaped by the people who have placed at the
service of their most cherished values a firmness of purpose, discipline,
energy, and devotion.

In our pluralistic society, we would not wish to impose upon
students a rigidly defined set of values. Each student is free to vary

OUTLINE FOR CHAPTER V, SUBPANEL I

MWT 26 Feb.'58

First Draft

0. **Subject:** *Some Problems of Policy Implementation.* A discussion of the main factors and procedures that are involved in achieving the International Objectives at which American Policy is aimed. Suggestions for a methodical approach, including the assessment of particular situations and the coordinated use of our resources (total capability) to produce the *changes* indicated by our Policy. *results*

1. **Policy Objectives and Operational Objectives:**

.1 Declaration of American beliefs (the American consensus) in respect of our international relations as the foundation of principles out of which our policy emerges.

.2 Definition of the term *policy*: (principles, objectives, a program of action).

.3 Breakdown of national policy (in respect of any type of issue) to interpret our *general* intention in terms relevant to *particular* situations; i.e. defining the implications of a national policy in a given case. This discloses our *policy objectives* in that case.

.4 With policy objectives in mind, what specific changes must be produced in conditions as they exist, in order that our policy objectives in a given situation will be reached? These specific effects become *operational objectives* for the agencies or instruments best suited to bringing them about.

.5 *Policy objectives* are the task of our policy-makers, first at the national level, then at the more specialized level of particular situations (regions, countries, types of national interest).

.6 *Operational objectives* are set by joint action of policy-makers and technicians who know the capabilities of their respective instruments.

.7 Operational objectives must be based upon correct assessment of conditions affecting their accomplishment in a given situation.

-2-

(1.7)

## 2. Assessment of situations:

.1 Placing the situation in its global context; is it universal (or a localized or momentary manifestation of a situation that is fundamentally universal), thus requiring treatment on a uniform world-wide basis (e.g. combating Communism, promoting world peace, establishing an international trade pattern, supporting the United Nations), or can the given situation be circumscribed territorially or as to kind and treated as a special case according to its own peculiar circumstances (e.g. aiding a given country in an economic crisis)?

This appraisal will help to avoid erratic actions where a world-wide pattern must be maintained, while still permitting expedient actions (without global implications) to meet the needs of particular situations. It will help also to define the policy objectives in the given situation by indicating the necessity of adherence to an over-riding policy, or permitting an ad hoc policy objective appropriate to the particular case.

.2 Assessing "third party" interests (i.e. of other foreign powers) that are active in the same situation; whether supporting, opposing or neutral in respect of our own; their magnitude (present or potential) as factors with which we must deal; and the ways in which they can be supported or opposed by means available to us.

.3 Assessing the situation from the standpoint of the country (region, institutions, people) directly involved: What are the factors with which we must deal? In what way do they affect the situation? With what magnitude? How can they be affected by means available to us? From this latter point of view can these factors be classified as:

.31 Deeply rooted cultural, traditional or religious; i.e. not readily susceptible to outside influence (more likely to resent than accept it) except through relatively slow processes of social change.

.32 Emotional or psychological (as distinguished from reasoned or calculated), hence susceptible to psychologic stimuli (propaganda, rabble-rousing), and responsive to familiar leadership (head of family, village, tribe, religion, State); more likely to resent than to accept conflicting influences unless overwhelmingly strong.

.33 Reasoned or calculated (as distinguished from emotional or psychological), hence susceptible to other more persuasive reasoning (argument or demonstration) and to inducements of superior attraction.

(2.33)

-3-

.34 What groups (racial, religious, economic, political, intellectual, social etc.) can be identified as being subject mainly to any of the foregoing kinds of factors? What conspicuous leaders?

.4 On the basis of the preceding assessments, what requirements (policy objectives) are critical (i.e. must be achieved before subsequent ones can follow), and in what sequence will others become critical? What makes them critical?

.41 Urgency of action to avoid an adverse development?

.42 Essential prerequisite to a following action?

.43 A definite commitment on our part?

.44 To allow time for completion in anticipation of a future necessity?

.5 What limitations can be foreseen on the kind or scope of the effects that we hope to produce, or on the rate at which they can be produced? Are these limitations subject to modification by us, and if so, how? Is the modification of any such limitation critical to a given objective (to its ultimate attainment or to the degree or rate of its attainment)? Classify limitations as suggested below:

.51 Imposed by an over-riding policy of our own.

.52 Imposed by our available capabilities.

.53 Imposed by "third party" interests or activities. (2.2)

.54 Imposed by economic factors.

.55 Imposed by technical factors.

.56 Imposed by deficiencies in skills or experience.

.57 Imposed by social or cultural factors.

.6 What minimum ("threshold") accomplishment is essential, short of which no significant (enduring, determinative) effect will result?

(2.6)

3. Means through which our capabilities can be exerted: What agencies and instruments are available to us for achieving our International Objectives? What kinds of effects is each best suited to produce -- in what circumstances and against what opposing factors? Of what secondary effects is it capable in various circumstances (psychological effects of economic actions, political effects of military actions, etc.)? What degree of expertness is required to make it effective (special knowledge, skill, experience)? What is its total availability? What are the main dangers in its use? What are the most likely causes of its failure?

.311 Instruments under the direct control of our Government.

.311 **Political:** Represented generally by the forces of diplomacy, treaties, pacts, high-level conferences, high-level declarations of national position or intention concerning conspicuous issues abroad, secret or person-to-person agreements with political leaders in other countries.

.312 **Strategic:** Essentially military measures, including the supply of military materials, military training missions, military establishments abroad, disposition of our own military forces, preparedness for defense or offense.

.313 **Economic:** Grants or loans of money, material or commodities; disposal of surplus commodities; trade agreements; guarantees, tax inducements or other measures to promote (or protect) private American investment abroad.

.314 **Technical:** Technical aid programs to promote the application of the specialized techniques which have been developed in the United States and are needed in other countries, not limited to the physical sciences but including managerial and administrative methods in business and government.

.315 **Psychological:** Publicity and propaganda activities aimed at influencing the popular attitude abroad, toward us or toward others, or in respect of particular issues. The media include the Press and other publications, radio, cinema, and direct personal contacts. It should be noted that almost every instrument we employ will produce some psychological effect in addition to its nominal functional effect.

.316 **Cultural and Social:** Social welfare, public health and educational programs; exchange scholarships; teacher training, nurse training, demonstration centers, visitor interchanges.

(3.338)

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4. Program of action: Consists of all operational objectives, coordinated as to inter-dependence and relative priority, and adjusted to our capabilities (as provided or authorized).

.1 Based upon our International Objectives as interpreted in relation to particular situations (i.e. in terms of policy objectives). This interpretation is the function of the President and the Secretary of State.

.2 Formulated by agencies at various levels of the Executive Branch, working jointly with specialists in each type of operational agency involved, taking into account the assessments of current and foreseeable situations abroad and a knowledge of our instruments and their capabilities, and coordinated according to critical requirements, other priorities, interdependence, and limiting conditions.

.3 Assurance of effective and consistent execution in unforeseeable situations (emergency, changing, long-range) provided by establishing criteria which will guide decisions and actions in such cases.

.4 Authorization by Congress (where required) as means of:

.41 Insuring that the International Objectives upon which the program is based conform to the "American Concensus".

.42 That the program (as authorized) is within our capabilities (or of those authorized for the purpose).

.43 That the criteria according to which all decisions and actions are to be taken are adequate and acceptable.

.44 Providing funds and taking other necessary legislative action.

.5 Necessary liaison established with related international organizations and with private institutions having a potential capacity to serve our International Objectives.

.6 Directives issued, as necessary, for execution of program.

.7 Actual performance checked by independent audit, with periodic (or special) reports on accomplishment in relation to policy objectives and authorizations.

(4.7)

-7-

5. Reasons for suggesting a methodical approach to problems of policy implementation:

.1 Assists in the coordination of related activities among the many government and private agencies concerned in attaining our International Objectives, by providing a general pattern according to which both the analysis of policy problems and the employment of national resources can be guided.

.2 While not necessarily fitting any -- much less all -- cases in detail, a methodical procedure is likely to invite attention to factors that might otherwise be overlooked, particularly in an unfamiliar field, or that might be wrongly assessed as to importance. Merely to outline a systematic procedure, even though it may not fit a particular case, is likely to suggest an orderly procedure that will fit that case.

.3 Many decisions and authorizations, particularly at high levels, necessarily are based upon generalized facts or judgements, and upon the presumption that acts taken as a result of those decisions or in response to events that are still in the future, will conform to the intentions of the higher authority. Such presumptions must have a basis. Otherwise they might be construed as an abdication of responsibility. Hence the emphasis in the Outline submitted here upon the criteria of effective action. Lacking acceptable criteria a high-level authorizing agency (e.g. the Congress) or executive agency (e.g. the Secretary of State), to safeguard its responsibility, may have no choice but to impose damaging restrictions upon what is done under the authorization, or to insist upon maintaining highly centralized control over actions that could better be left to subordinates. The knowledge that subordinate judgment and action will be determined by competent procedure supports the presumption referred to.

.4 In many cases a systematic "scanning" of a policy-problem situation, following an outline carefully prepared in advance, will quickly focus attention upon its critical aspects and expedite both decision and action.

.5 Deliberate analysis of an hypothetical "model" exhibiting typical aspects of foreign policy problems (i.e. such an analysis as must precede the description of a methodical approach to such problems) is certain to emphasize the need for more effective collaboration between scholars, researchers and other experts in the social science field, and the "practitioners" in our policy-implementing agencies who lack this specialized knowledge.

END

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NOTES ON ITEM 2.5 (Limiting conditions).

In some cases a limit on the effects we can produce (or upon
our effort to produce it) is fixed by a definite "cut-off" (e.g. time,
allotment of funds or some physical factor such as meagerness of a
natural resource within a particular country). In such cases the
consequences of the limitation can readily be seen.

In many other cases, however, the condition which may limit
our achievement at a given time will be the current level of a trend
which limits the rate of our achievement to that of its own advance.

Typically, in a newly developing country, more than one such
trend line will be involved, and successively one after another
may define the "ceiling" within which certain of our expectations
must be kept.

Thus in programming economic development in a given country,
the rates at which it is practicable to provide capital, produce raw
materials, build power systems, provide transportation, develop
essential auxiliary services, open new markets, change consumer habits,
introduce legislative reforms, train semi-skilled, skilled and
supervisory labor, improve managerial techniques, bring about the
necessary migrations of labor and do many other things which at some
stage will be critical to the success of our effort, all represent
trends, most of which can be accelerated as a part of our program,
but which at any given time define the "envelope" within which our
efforts will be fruitful.

Efforts which blindly penetrate this envelope of limiting
conditions will in most cases merely end with an ostensible or
"artificial" achievement which will collapse as soon as its external
support is withdrawn.

The collapse of Ataturk's and Rezashah's "industrialization"
programs are examples. Iran's dangerously similar program (Seven
Year Plan) may become another. Turkey's over-rapid industrialization
(factories ahead of essential power supply, maintenance and super-
visory labor, managerial capacity, consumer purchasing power, tax
reforms, etc.) is another such case. In Egypt the exodus of British
and French technicians and managers has produced a retrogressive
trend in that important sector, and Nasser's own exportation of
school teachers (for propaganda purposes) has seriously retarded
the development of the only source from which replacements can be
drawn for training. Secondary school training is essential for
skilled and supervisory labor, the lack of which is now evident in
Egypt, and the rate at which it can be developed has no relation to
the "per cent of Gross National Product" which some economists take
as a criterion for the rate of capital investment.

Where sociological factors are involved the maximum rate of
change may be very much lower than where the factors are solely technical,
and disregard of this fact may result in producing a gap between social or
cultural advancement and technical advancement that will make the
Communist pattern of centralized direction appear to be the only
hope of the country.

-9-

NOTES ON ITEM 4.3 (Program criteria)

In a sense this entire Chapter, as outlined here, is concerned
with the *criteria* of effective use of our national capability toward
the realization of our International Objectives.

In a more restricted sense the criteria by which a particular
operational objective can be appraised for inclusion in our program
of action can be illustrated by the following test questions:

(a) Should such an action be proposed, be taken at all?

To be answered in terms of the policy objectives

(b) Which it is intended to serve.

(b) Should it be done *now*?

To be answered in terms of critical requirements,
other priorities and (perhaps) limiting conditions.

(c) Should it be done *in this way*?

To be answered in terms of alternatives, with regard
to capabilities, limiting conditions and secondary
effects, and the particular circumstances surrounding
the operation.

These are the tests (*mutatis mutandis*) by which private American
corporation management judges actions proposed to accomplish the
commercial objectives upon which the survival of the corporation
depends. That American private corporations *have* survived and pros-
pered under conditions as exacting as those under which our Inter-
national Objectives must be achieved, gives pertinence to the
suggestion that similar criteria be adopted in the subject case.

Criteria for testing (guiding) policy objectives might better
be spelled-out as questions that will disclose:

(a) Conformity with broader policy (International Objectives).

(b) Assessment of relevant factors (Section 2. of Outline)

(c) Priority