DR. LAURENCE A. SNYDER I have the privilege of presenting Dr. Laurence Snyder, geneticist and dean of the Graduate School of the University of Oklahoma. I regret to say that on Monday of this week Oklahoma's loss was Hawaii's gain. They did not acquire statehood, but got the next best thing in procuring Dr. Snyder as president of the University of Hawaii. He will become president of the university on July 1. Dr. Snyder was born in New York and educated at Rutgers and Harvard. He began his academic career in 1924 as instructor of zoology at North Carolina State. He went to Ohio State as associate professor in 1930 and was chairman of the department of zoology and entomology there from 1942 to 1947. He has been dean of the University of Oklahoma's graduate school since that time. The list of lectureships he has held at famous American universities is almost endless. I suppose it was the year he taught at the University of Hawaii under the Carnegie grant in 1956 that lost him to us in Oklahoma and gained for him this new opportunity. He has been president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is now chairman of the board of that famous organization. I am sure that the committee will find his views of great interest. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the privilege of allowing me to present this distinguished scholar. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Senator Monroney. Doctor, we will be very happy to have you proceed in your own way. STATEMENT OF HON. LAURENCE H. SNYDER, CHAIRMAN OF BOARD OF DIRECTORS, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AND DEAN OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL, UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA; ACCOMPANIED BY DAEL WOLFLE, EXECUTIVE OFFICER; JOHN MAYOR, DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION: PAUL E. KLOPSTEG, PRESIDENT-ELECT, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE Mr. SNYDER. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Senator Monroney. May I introduce to you first the people I have with me. Dr. Dael Wolfle, the executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Paul E. Klopsteg, president-elect of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. John Mayor, director of education. With your permission I will have them with me. The CHAIRMAN. Good. We will be glad to have all of you gentlemen with us. We welcome you all. Mr. SNYDER. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, as a representative of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, I welcome the opportunity to discuss with you some of the problems of improving science and education in the United States. These problems have long been of concern to this committee. They have long been of concern to my association also. As two rather widely separated examples, I might cite the fact that the presidential address of one of my predecessors a century ago was one of the first public statements of the need for a national academy of sciences, a proclamation that President Lincoln heeded a few years later in establishing the National Academy, and that a decade ago the American Association for the Advancement of Science prepared the material on science education that was included in the report of the President's Scientific Research Board in 1947, the report that is usually known as the Steelman Committee report. PRIMARY REQUIREMENT: IMPROVEMENT OF QUALITY Three years ago the association greatly increased its attention to the problems of improving education in science and mathematics. This we did because we agree completely with the authors of both S. 3163 and S. 3187 that the primary requirement in education today is to improve the quality of education, especially education in science and mathematics. We need more and better school buildings. We need to pay our teachers more adequate salaries. We need to overcome the handicaps that prevent some bright students from attending college. But, above all, we need to offer education of higher quality to the students who will be the teachers, the statesmen, the scientists, and the leaders in business and other fields of tomorrow. Let me explain why we put such stress on quality. There are two reasons: HUNDREDFOLD INCREASE IN HIGH-SCHOOL POPULATION The first lies within the educational system. During the past threequarters of a century, the population of the United States has increased threefold. During those same years the population of our high schools has increased a hundred fold. The Nation's teachers have done an excellent and devoted job of meeting this rapidly expanding load, but note what we ask them to do: We want them to take care of practically every child in the land from the age of 5 or 6 to the age of 16 or older. We want them to help the retarded and handicapped child, to serve the needs of the average, and to develop the talents of the gifted. Seventy-five years ago most of the students who graduated from high school went on to graduate from college. It was appropriate then for the high schools to concentrate on preparing their students for college. in Now, under the weight of a majority of students who will not, and many cases should not, go to college, the high schools can no longer concentrate on college preparation. In the course of these changes, some of the virtues of intellectual rigor, of preparation for more advanced work, and of high-quality education for the students of highest ability have been submerged under the burden of other claims on educational facilities and teachers' time. In science and mathematics, the problem has been particularly acute because industry and Government have been able to outbid the schools in recruiting college graduates with training in science and mathematics. Consequently, there have been some special difficulties in securing an adequate number of well-trained teachers of science and mathematics, and instruction in those vital subjects has suffered more than in other fields. THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION The second reason for our emphasis on the importance of improving the quality of education comes from within science itself. Less than 15 years ago the first atomic bomb was exploded. During these 15 years man has learned of the tremendous potentialities of nuclear energy and has witnessed a number of other dramatic technological developments. Atomic fission and fusion; satellites and space exploration are important in themselves, but in a larger sense they are merely symbols of a scientific revolution that we are entering. We are on the verge of vastly greater power over the forces of nature than we have ever held in the past. The evidence is already dramatically evident: Compare the power of atomic fusion with the power of TNT, or the speed and range of Explorer with the speed and range of an airplane. Throughout the sciences discovery is accelerating. Astronomy, astrophysics, geology, and geophysics are greatly expanding our knowledge of the world, and of the universe. Chemistry is creating new marvels. In genetics, in pharmacology, in biochemistry, in neurophysiology, we are conducting experiments that were inconceivable 5 or 10 years ago. We are getting close enough to some of the secrets of living matter so that scientists of all fields understand, and many agree with Vannevar Bush's statement last month that if he were starting his career now he would be a biologist. NO ESCAPING THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION We may be frightened or gladdened by this scientific revolution and its consequences. But like it or not, we cannot escape; we cannot stop the rush of scientific developments of which I speak. The discoveries are being made in this country, in England and Europe, in the Soviet Union, and soon we will have to add China and other countries to this list. We cannot hide from this scientific revolution. There is no place to hide. The only conceivable thing we can do is to prepare ourselves as intelligently as we can to take full advantage of the rush of future developments. To do this we must maintain our own scientific status with respect to the rest of the world and we must improve the quality of our educational system so that our citizens of tomorrow will be able to contribute to and realize the benefits of this scientific revolution. BROADER UNDERSTANDING OF SCIENCE In this improvement of education, one of the goals is to educate future scientists. But of at least equal importance is to educate our future statesmen, lawyers, business leaders, and men and women of other professions so that they will have a better understanding of science and will be better prepared to deal wisely with the benefits, the problems, and the dangers of rapid scientific advance. This point I want to emphasize as objectively and as powerfully as I can. As an indication of the importance we attach to it, next month, here in Washington, the American Association for the Advancement of Science will hold a special conference of leading scientists from all parts of the country and from all fields of science. The background of that conference is the realization on the part of scientists of the urgency of preparing ourselves for the revolutionary developments ahead. The purpose of the conference is to consider the actions we should take now to strengthen science and education in the United States. CENTRAL POSITION OF AAAS The American Association for the Advancement of Science is a particularly appropriate organization to hold such a meeting because of its central position among the scientific organizations of the country. In our 110 years we have fostered the development of many of the leading scientific societies of the United States, and those societiesas well as others that have been established independently-are our close friends and formal affiliates. The AAAS has, therefore, not only its own individual members, who number about 55,000 men and women from all fields of science, but also has 279 affiliated societies that cover all fields of science. No one pretends to speak for all of the scientists of the country-some of whom are rather complete individualists-but our conference next month will come as close to doing that as an association can. I hope that you will forgive me for taking so long to get to the specific provisions of the legislation now before you. I have taken that time for two reasons: To tell you how vitally important it is in the judgment of scientists to improve the quality of education, and to explain the background of our own thinking concerning the several provisions of the bills under consideration. SCIENCE, MATH, AND LANGUAGE CONSULTANTS We consider the provisions for improving teaching and education to be the most important feature of the legislative proposals being considered in these hearings. We take particular interest in the proposed arrangements for the employment of science and mathematics supervisors in S. 3163, and science, mathematics, and language consultants in S. 3187. Two years ago we installed science and mathematics consultants in the geographic areas around the University of Nebraska, the University of Oregon, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Texas. In each place there is a science consultant and a mathematics consultant. Each is an experienced and expert teacher. Each has a telephone and an automobile, and each spends most of his time in working, on an individual basis, with approximately 50 less experienced teachers in his region. He helps them with teaching problems, with subject matter problems, and with the problems of increasing their own competence and knowledge. This system works. Both teachers and superintendents testify to its effectiveness. We are convinced that adding a good consultant to 50 classroom teachers contributes much more to the improvement of teaching than does the addition of 1 more classroom teacher. We are pleased that a grant from the Carnegie Corp. enabled us to try out this system of science and mathematics consultants, and pleased to have the value of such consultants recognized in the two bills. PREFERENCE FOR TITLE "CONSULTANT" As between S. 3163 and S. 3187, there is one aspect in which we prefer the latter. That is the matter of title; "consultant" describes the function better than does "supervisor," for a major benefit of the consultant's work comes from getting out and consulting with classroom teachers, on the job, in their own classes, with their individual problems. Titles do not always accurately describe functions, but we are a little afraid that supervisors may spend too much time in the State capitol making rules and keeping records and answering correspondence. This brings up a related point. In the four States where we established consultants, we did so with full cooperation of the State departments of education, but the State university, and not the State department of education, is the consultant's home base. STATE UNIVERSITY AS BASE FOR CONSULTANTS There are two important advantages in this arrangement. First, the consultant is in close touch with his scientific colleagues on the campus, and is, therefore, a more up-to-date and better scientific representative to the teachers he serves than he would be without those regular campus contacts. Second, he helps to bring about liaison between school and college. He works with high school teachers, but he works under the direction of a committee of university scientists and educators. This arrangement brings scientists and educators closer together on the campus and brings both closer to high school problems, and this is all to the good. There is nothing in either S. 3163 or S. 3187 that would prevent the kind of relation I have described. Neither is there anything to encourage it. It is probably inappropriate to spell out any particular plan, but I hope that the States will be encouraged to base their science, mathematics, and language consultants in the appropriate subject-matter department at a university wherever that arrangement is possible. FUNCTION OF CONSULTANTS The CHAIRMAN. If I may interrupt you there, Doctor, in other words, you take the consultant out of the educational bookkeeping. accounting, and statistical part of the work, and put him in a position that will cause people to understand just what his job is, so that he can really go out in the field and be a consultant; is that not right? Mr. SNYDER. Yes, sir; that is our view. Senator SMITH. You would base him at the university so that he had that springboard in dealing with the high school teachers? |