We are honored to welcome you.

We very much appreciate your being here, and we would be delighted to have you proceed in your own way.

STATEMENT OF DR. LEE A. DuBRIDGE, PRESIDENT OF CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Dr. DUBRIDGE. Thank you very much, Senator Hill. I am afraid you have given your listeners the idea that I may have something important to say, whereas I am only going to ramble on about a few ideas which I think most educators and most scientists have about the problems of education which we face here in the United States, and this is for general background information as you have requested. I regard it not as an honor to you, but an honor to me to be here and to present to this committee some of these general problems of education in the United States.

I appear here, I assure you, however, with a great sense of humility and responsibility because no one person can know really very much about the educational system of this country. It is too vast, too varied, too rapidly changing to be encompassed by any single mind, certainly by mine. The problems of education are too complex to be solved by simple sweeping generalizations or pat slogans or panaceas.

CAUTION IN CHANGING EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

At the same time, while our educational system is a vast one and a relatively strong one, it is also a very sensitive one. It can be seriously damaged by ill-considered actions, by well-meaning but uninformed attacks, by irresponsible or hastily conceived reforms.

Financially, our educational system is big business. Yet it cannot be judged or governed by the laws and standards of the factory or the market place. Its purpose is not to produce either products or profits, but to improve men's minds. And as we are all aware, the mind of man is a subtle and complex thing. It is not always even possible to determine whether a particular experience has improved or debased it. It may be many years before the full effects of a childhood incident will take effect.

For these reasons I urge that the Members of Congress and the American people approach the task of improving or changing our educational system with extreme care and caution, and with an especially deep sense of responsibility. Our system faces difficult problems; it has deplorable weaknesses and has urgent needs. But let us approach these tasks with the type of care which a watchmaker gives to a delicate and valuable watch, rather than use the methods suitable for a wrecked locomotive or a damaged battleship.

I have said that the American educational system is a great system. I want to underline that fact. As we discuss its faults and weaknesses, its problems and needs, we must never forget that we are talking about the most magnificent system of education ever developed by any people at any time in any place. For 300 years the people of this country have been building an educational system adapted to the needs of the country, and to the hopes, aspirations, and talents of its people.

Never before in history has a nation ever dreamed of, much less nearly achieved, the ideal of education for every boy and girl up to the limits of his talents and ambition, and without regard to social, racial, or economic status. If our achievement is not yet complete, if our attainments are not yet perfect, we must still be conscious of the fact that we have hitched our wagon to a star, and if we have not yet reached the stars, we have still gone far beyond what any other people have gone, bar none.

And so again, I repeat, we must approach our task of improving our educational system still further with a deep humility, with a realization that we are dealing with something which is already great and fine and precious; a system which, in its best aspects, at least, has not been surpassed in the world.

Nevertheless, we must at the same time recognize that an educational system, no matter how fine, is not like a monument, a great Taj Mahal, which, once built, is perfect and unchangeable for all time. Our educational system, like our Nation, is great, not because it is fixed and immutable, but because it is flexible; because it can change to meet the needs of changing times. Every generation, every decade, every year, brings new problems. And while certain basic principles remain unchanged, our educational system, like our whole country, must adapt itself to changing needs.

THE AGE OF SPACE-THE SOVIET CHALLENGE

In recent months the American people have been forced to recognize that the problems they will face in the second half of the 20th century are very different from the problems they have ever faced before, for the age of space has dawned. And with this new age there has dawned also a great new challenge to our Nation, a new challenge to its leadership, to its ideals, to its way of life. For the past 100 years we have had every reason to believe that our American system of politics, of economics, of education, could easily make us superior to all other countries. Today we are faced with another nation which challenges our superiority; another nation which asserts that it has a better system of government, of economics, of social organization, of education. The U.S. S. R. presents us today not only with a challenge of military supremacy, but also with the challenge of technological, and scientific, and intellectual supremacy as well.

One hundred years ago of course the United States did not aspire to world leadership; 10 years ago world leadership had apparently been thrust upon us; today, when our world leadership is a vital necessity to maintain the existence of the democratic system, that leadership is seriously challenged by a dictatorial power. We must, therefore, obviously, examine every aspect of our national life to make certain that our sources of strength are secure.

It is not that sputnik alone has forced us into this position. The rising threat of the Soviet power has been visible for many years. But sputnik has served as a dramatic symbol of the Russian danger. We can indeed be very thankful that sputnik has awakened the American people to their dangers and to their opportunities before it is too late.

THE STRENGTH OF NATIONS

Now the strength of our Nation, and the strength of the Soviet Union, depends on many things. It depends on our national resources; it depends on our industrial productivity; it depends on our military preparedness; it depends on the courage, determination, and spiritual strength in our country of 170 million people. Our strength also depends on how intelligently we employ all of these spiritual and material resources. And the national intelligence of a democracy clearly depends on having millions of well-educated people.

Our intellectual resources, in other words, are the key to our future, and so it is imperative that they not be neglected.

I do not believe we are actually neglecting our intellectual resources, but I do believe we could develop and utilize them far more adequately than we are now doing. And to do this we must first examine our school system.

What does it take, then, to have a strong, virile, dynamic educational system that is adequate for our needs? Basically, a school system consists of three elements: students, teachers, and facilities. I would like to discuss these three elements in turn.

MOTIVATION OF STUDENTS

As to the students, the young people of any country enter the schoolroom already equipped with certain characteristics, two sets of characteristics, with first: the genetic characteristic with which they were born, and second: the environmental characteristics which they have acquired at home and through association with friends, family, and other people.

These genetic and environmental characteristics which the child possesses impose certain limitations upon what the school can do, but also provide certain opportunities and challenges to the school.

The school, for example, cannot change the natural intellectual capacities with which a person is born. But it can, and indeed it must, assist each individual to discover, to develop and to use these natural capacities to their fullest. To this end the student must acquire a desire to attain intellectual development and eventually intellectual competence. But this desire can be developed only through joint efforts of the school and the home.

We all know that a student with a desire to learn can go much further than a smarter student who has no such desire. The school, then, must provide both the full opportunity for the intellectual development of every student and it must also cooperate with the home and the community to encourage the zeal for learning.

Again we note that while the school keeps its doors open to all students as long as their talents and ambitions require, it is the task of the community to see that the opportunity to enter those doors is open to all, that no student who desires and can profit by educational opportunity should be denied such opportunity for social, racial, or economic reasons.

NATIONAL DEFENSE DEMANDS WELL-EDUCATED CITIZENS

The prime responsibility of bringing the student to the school rests of course on the local community but it is also true that the minds of our people constitute a critical national asset. Hence, the Federal

Government cannot remain indifferent to the strength of the educational system and to the free access to it by all able students. That, of course, is the basic reason why we are here today.

The needs of national defense and of national welfare demand a well educated citizenry.

Now, by and large, the local communities have done a stupendous job in bringing educational opportunities to all students, mostly up through the 12th grade at least and encouraging all students to utilize these opportunities. However, it is of utmost importance that every community go much further than it has in instilling the desire for learning in its young people and in encouraging them to strive for and take pride in intellectual excellence. When a community gives more acclaim to its star football players than to its star students, then it is not doing its share to encourage the development of the Nation's intellectual resources.

In summary, the prime task of the community is to discover and encourage the students of high intellectual talents; to see to it that opportunity to develop those talents to the fullest extent is never denied; and to encourage and reward intellectual achievement.

LOW TEACHERS' SALARY SYMBOL OF LOW REGARD

As to the teacher, the key to effectiveness of any school system lies of course in the teaching staff. And it is in this area that we face our sharpest challenge and our most critical and difficult problems. An effective teacher must be able to do many things:

One, he or she must know the subject matter he teaches, and in the more advanced grades this knowledge must be deep and extensive; 2, he must be able to make the subject interesting and challenging; 3, he must be able to recognize and encourage special talent, special interest, special curiosity, on the part of students; 4, he must be an effective friend and counselor to students and especially to those who are unusually gifted and ambitious.

Teaching is clearly one of the most important, most challenging and most difficult and demanding tasks in a modern society. Yet we pay schoolteachers less than laborers, clerks, or salesmen. As a result, let us face it, we have not attracted, by and large, the smartest of our young people in recent years, into the teaching profession at the elementary and high school levels. It is true that teaching has other attractions besides the monetary one. But, unfortunately, the low salaries are but a symbol of the low regard in which the teacher is held by the community. And no smart boy or girl likes to select a career which is not held in high esteem by his friends, his colleagues, his neighbors.

The prospective schoolteacher, also, soon learns that the salary he will earn will depend not on how well he teaches, but only on how long he has taught. There is, in other words, no merit system in the salary scales of our public schools.

This I regard as a disgraceful situation which has grown up, and it has done much to attract into the profession the slow and the lazy and to repel the able and the ambitious. One of the most important things we could do is to find a way of helping and persuading State and local governments to recognize and reward in a substantial way the good teacher. The merit system works well in our colleges and universities; it can be made to work in our public schools as well.

PHYSICAL FACILITIES

Facilities: Finally, of course, our schools and colleges need adequate facilities to do their job. Classrooms, laboratories and teaching equipment are essential to the educational process. Though it is the direct personal relation between teacher and pupil that is the essence of education, still the physical facilities to make this relation possible and effective are equally necessary. I will not say any more about this subject except to underline it.

So the great challenge to America is to improve the quality of our educational system from top to bottom. We must attract better teachers, must encourage and reward better teachers and must stimulate the student to strive for intellectual excellence and to use his talents and abilities to the fullest. This Nation cannot afford the wastage of unused intellectual talent, no matter where it should be found.

What shall we do about it?

So far, I have been talking about general principles with which most everyone agrees. But how do we as a nation, and how do you as representatives of the Federal Government, do something about this situation?

KIND OF LEGISLATION NEEDED

I think it is obvious from what I have said that the total job of raising the qualitative level of excellence in our educational system cannot be achieved solely by legislation; cannot be achieved solely by money at either the local, State or National levels. But because the problem cannot totally be solved by legislation or by money is no excuse for doing nothing.

The various pieces of legislation which come before this Congress will, each and every one, be opposed by some people because they do not solve the whole problem, or because they do not touch at all some phase of it. No legislation can do everything. But some legislation can do some things. So the question we must ask about every proposal is simply this: Does this contribute, at least in some modest but effective way, to increasing in some respect the qualitative level of our education? Does it offer, for example, a stimulus to student, to teacher, to parent, to citizen to do a somewhat better job of education?

Most of us are opposed to Federal control of our schools, colleges, and universities. Yet all of us are aware of the fact that the excellence of our educational system is of vital importance to national welfare and national defense. Hence, it is of vital concern to the Federal Government.

STIMULATING QUALITATIVE IMPROVEMENT

Therefore, it seems to me that it is essential that the Federal Government take a lead in stimulating qualitative improvement in our educational system to the end that more intelligent decisions shall be made by the electorate; that more farsighted leadership will be exhibited by political, professional, and business leaders; and that