SCIENCE AND EDUCATION FOR NATIONAL DEFENSE

MONDAY, MARCH 3, 1958

UNITED STATES SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE,

Washington, D. C.

The committee met at 10:10 a. m., pursuant to recess, in the Old Supreme Court Chamber of the Capitol, Senator Lister Hill (chairman) presiding.

Present: Senators Hill (presiding), Yarborough, Goldwater, and Allott.

Committee staff members present: Stewart E. McClure, chief clerk; Roy E. James, assistant chief clerk; John S. Forsythe, general counsel; William G. Reidy and Michael J. Bernstein, professional staff members.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will kindly come to order.

We are happy to have with us this morning a representative of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, Dr. Paul Elicker, the executive secretary, accompanied by Dr. Ellsworth Tompkins, associate secretary of the National Association of Secondary School Principals.

Will you gentlemen come around and have seats, please?

Doctor, as I say, we are glad to have you. You may now proceed in your own way.

STATEMENT OF DR. PAUL ELICKER, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS, ACCOMPANIED BY ELLSWORTH TOMPKINS, ASSOCIATE SECRETARY, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECONDARY SCHOOL PRINCIPALS

Mr. ELICKER. I am Paul E. Elicker, executive secretary of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, a department of the National Education Association, a teacher and administrator in public and private secondary schools for 44 years, and a member of many survey teams of many secondary schools; assistant principal and principal of secondary schools in three Eastern States and, last, principal of the Newton High School, Newton, Mass., a senior high school of the comprehensive type of 3,000 students and 114 teachers.

I am now executive secretary of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, a professional organization of 20,000 members, with 62 State associations of school administrators, embracing all States, including several Negro associations in the Southern States and several of our possessions. Contained in the secondary schools of

these 20,000 secondary school administrators is 92 percent of the 8 million boys and girls now enrolled in our secondary schools.

We should probably increase that to 9 million if we include more than the grades 9 to 12.

MAKING EDUCATION THE SCAPEGOAT

American secondary education has had many critics publicly vocal and ready to appear in headlines in our press and in our magazines, especially since sputniks were set into orbits previous to the time when our own Explorer was launched into outer space. Many well-intentioned persons have tried to make education the scapegoat for the shortage of well-trained personnel, especially scientists.

Much of this criticism has been good for education because it has served to impress upon many responsible citizens the importance and the great potentialities of public education for the total citizenry as an assurance for the preservation and betterment of our American democracy and our high standard of living and as a greater assurance through education of the realization of lasting world peace.

This public criticism has had an appreciable and stimulating effect on many citizens so that they will undoubtedly take their rightful share of the responsibility for supporting and improving their educational systems wherever needed. The aim of our program of education is to serve the American people and the Nation so that there will be an even greater realization of the full fruits of its effective operation for its citizens.

SOME CRITICISM HARMFUL

Some criticism, however, has been harmful in undermining the faith and confidence that citizens generally have in education. Much of this kind of criticism has come from prominent personages and well-meaning persons, usually from the ranks of higher education, who have had little, if any, experience in the day-to-day administration of elementary or secondary education, and who are associated in education with a highly selected group of American youth presently enrolled in many of our colleges that are becoming more restrictive and more selective in their admission of students.

In brief, these critics of elementary and secondary education have had little or no experience in administering a program of education to the other two-thirds of our youth population so that they may become productive members of our society, develop an intelligent loyalty to the principles of our democracy, become effective participants in our American way of life, and develop through education, skills and abilities commensurate with their inherent potentialities and aptitudes.

HALF-TRUTHS AND PREJUDICES

Then, too, the most vocal critics of American public education have given many half-truths to the full facts and have so misinterpreted the facts to support their personal convictions and prejudices. Many of their prescriptions for the improvement of education are evolved from unfair, unsound, and impractical generalizations.

Let's look at American education more positively than do the kinds of persons to whom I have just referred.

Both quantitatively and qualitatively, the American system of education is the best system in the world and as evidence we quote our national standard of living level as compared to living levels in other countries. As people become more widely educated, they exert more ingenuity and resourcefulness in improving their living level and more demanding in its acquirement.

EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL

As a nation, we are now well nigh attaining the realization of the dream of our forefathers as expressed by an early pioneer leader in education, Horace Mann, "*** educational opportunity for all. ***" Today, nearly 90 percent of our total youth group 14-18 years of age are in school. Many remain in school beyond the compulsory school age. In 1920, about a generation ago, we had only 32 percent of this youth group in school. In fact, more and more youth are remaining in high school until they have completed the regular term through grade 12. No other nation has such a percentage of its youth in school. Quantitatively, we excel all other nations by a wide margin.

Naturally, our great growth in school population has not only brought to the schools more youth but more problems in providing the proper type of education for this growing army of youth. Many youth in this day cannot profit by the traditional education program in the schools in 1920, or earlier. Their interests, aptitudes, and capacities for learning are not comparable to a selected group of youth of the twenties who were largely college bound. All had one common possibility, however, each one would in time become a voting citizen and a member of our society.

PRIMARY PURPOSES OF EDUCATION

So the development of the meaning, the opportunity, and the responsibility of American citizenship, development of respect for the dignity of man, and the sense of belonging are the primary purposes of education for all youth. Now, apparently, many relegate these primary purposes of education of youth to a lower place through the advancement of the place of mathematics and science in our national life.

Qualitatively and quantitatively, we can make rightful claims. One of the most scientific measures of our improvement in elementary and secondary education is the study of Prof. John Warren Tilton, of Yale University, in his report of the relative level of education of the millions of men and women in World War I and in World War II as substantiated through the general classification tests of millions in the Armed Forces. In World War I, the amount of schooling was equivalent to school grade 6.8. In World War II, it was 10.5 or a gain in the 25-year period of 3.7 grades, nearly 4 full grades. More servicemen were better educated in World War II and the Korean war than in World War I.

AMERICANS IN ENGLISH SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Frequently, we hear that England's secondary schools are superior to ours and that they are devoid of the "frills" that "water down" the American system. Is there any reliable evidence or is this just mere opinion?

I visited those schools and I have had some experiences.

For 9 years, from 1947 to 1956, the National Association of Secondary School Principals was the American agency for the Kinsmen Scholarship Trust, of London, England, for selecting American secondary school youth to attend for 1 year a high-ranking private school in England, such as Rugby, Magdalen College School, Dulwich College School, St. George's School, Tonbridge School, and others of equally high scholastic standing and reputation. From 8 to 12 boys and girls were selected from our public high schools each year. They were not necessarily our superior students, just typical of the good all around youth who were the normal college-bound type of youth.

All of them not only made the adjustment from a public day school in America to life in a high standard academic type of private boarding school in England-and that is quite an adjustment to make—but they "held their own" scholastically with their English schoolmates. In fact, a few lead their respective classes in these English schools. There were no failures and several had superior records. Although only a small group of about 100 students from all sections of our country were selected over a 9-year period, their total records are definite evidence of matching and, in some cases, excelling the academic records of the British secondary school.

RHODES SCHOLARS' RECORDS

Then, let me quote briefly the record of the American Rhodes scholars who are the products of our American system of elementary, secondary, and higher education. These American youth are in compeition with other Rhodes scholars from other countries and with scholars from England at Oxford University. The Oxford record of the American Rhodes scholars is impressive and outstanding to say the least.

Our college preparatory examination record is equally impressive. Today, we are giving the type of basic education in English, mathematics, science, social studies, and foreign languages that is superior to that given 25-30 years ago. More youth are meeting these standards through examinations at MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Vassar, Wellesley, and Bryn Mawr, and other colleges that use the examinations for determining admission. These and other colleges have from 3 to 5 times as many good candidates for admission as they can accept. A large number of boys and girls that cannot be accepted because of limited physical facilities in these colleges would have qualified for admission 10 to 20 years ago without any difficulty.

You may rightfully ask some questions, but I would like to put in the record here that I was a member of the examining board for the college entrance board in mathematics 25 years ago, and I also know what the character of the examinations is today in that subject as

well as others.

More and more of these applicants who are not accepted now and would have been accepted 20 or 30 years ago are products of our public secondary schools.

PUBLIC SCHOOL GRADUATES SUPERIOR

It should also be noted that the college entrance examination board results of our public-school graduates have been consistently higher than our private-school graduates, and their scholastic records in these colleges are maintained at a higher level as shown by a larger percentage of elections to Phi Beta Kappa in the colleges. If, in the opinion of the critics of public secondary education, it is poor, inadequate, wasteful, and anti-intellectual then education in the independent schools, that costs the citizen 4 or 5 times as much per student, is even worse as judged by the ratings on the entrance examinations.

In our earnest and persistent endeavors to provide the best education for all types of youth now in our comprehensive public secondary schools, we are aware of the weaknesses and the inadequacies in our program. Time does not permit my enumeration of them. Previous testimony on specific weaknesses has been presented to you.

ACTION TO OVERCOME WEAKNESSES

Allow me to state only two examples to you of positive action that the educational profession has been engaged in to overcome these weaknesses and to meet the most critical inadequacies. During the entire year, the National Education Association has been studying the special educational needs of the academically talented students in our secondary schools. A national 3-day conference of selected leaders in education was held in early February to consider this problem and to formulate the next steps in providing the right kind of education for more of our talented youth.

Another professional effort was made by the National Association of Secondary-School Principals in holding 2 national conferences involving 2,000 educational leaders on the kind and the amount of mathematics and science needed in this modern scientific age for all youth, the academically talented and all others in junior and senior high schools. Other professional action and interest on the improvement of education is quite in evidence in many parts of the country.

I repeat again, the American system of education, encompassing all its people as it does, is the best educational system in the world. However, leaders in the profession know it can be improved and know it should be improved, if the American people will continue to support and demand a better quality of education.

BARRIERS TO PROGRESS

However, the best made plans of "mice and men" can go awry because of formidable barriers in the way of progress and solution of our most critical problems in education.

In summary, let me enumerate some of these.

First, more capable young people must be interested in entering the teaching profession. More scholarships will help.

Senator ALLOTT. Could I interrupt you there?