Correspondence
WILLGOOSE, CARL E. & BEACH, LINDA & FINGER, SEYMOUR M. & ARBAIZA, NORMAN D.
CORRESPONDENCE
Who's shortsighted?
Wolfeboro, N.H.
To the Editors: It appears to me that David R. Carlin, Jr., knows little about the intricate business of education as he sets forth his somewhat...
...Yet power is still concentrated in China's Communist party, and big industry is, and is likely to remain, a major factor in its economy...
...CORRESPONDENCE Who's shortsighted...
...Constitution and democracy had taken root among the American people long before they were written into law...
...And most educational administrators - influenced by the views of their citizenry and the broad needs of the wider community - know where they are going...
...It is an excellent article combining expertise, knowledge, keen analysis, and common sense...
...Oxford allows that it may appear in other dictionaries, but whether it does or not, it is certainly a word of great ugli...
...China does not have the kind of cultural and historical background to which Jefferson and his compatriots were heirs...
...To the Editors: I read with great interest Sudhir Sen's article, "Development Under Siege...
...Where does Carlin come up with such an idea...
...The three Commonweal writers describe forces for human growth-femin-ism, complete education, and full citizenry - and the countervailing institutions that impede them...
...True, Chinese Marxism has become more flexible in allowing more scope for private initiative, the operation of market forces, and some decentralization...
...Of course, Dr...
...China's culture and traditions are not Jeffersonian...
...I think the mystique of such terms, and indeed the sixties themselves, reflects an innate human drive for liberation and empowerment from debilitating societal attitudes and norms...
...This calls for basic administrative skills coupled with a full understanding of where the education of youth should be headed...
...So, when Carlin says that these administrators are no more than trained "managerial technicians,'' and"have no satisfactory vision of what their product should be like,'' he is unfortunately demonstrating a viewpoint based on superficial study and observation...
...I do, however, take issue with one sentence: "In my own mind, China is now well set on a long march towards Jeffersonian democracy based on small farms and small business enterprises...
...CARL E. WILLGOOSE An unsettling issue Northampton, Mass...
...I am sure we would both be happy to see China develop into a more prosperous and free society in the context of its own history and traditions...
...In the articles by Karen Sue Smith (on Women-Church), David Carlin, Jr...
...ness, and seems part of a modern trend to write everything as if preparing a cable to be sent at a very high cost per word...
...Carl Rogers, a leading humanistic psychologist, coined the term "fully functioning person" during the sixties when the human potential movement was developing...
...Though Mr...
...LINDA BEACH Jefferson & China New York, N.Y...
...To the Editors: Is there really such a word as ethicist ["Dominion Over the Earth,'' by Gabriel Moran, December 4...
...November 20...
...Like that of any other administrator in foundations, industries, and institutions, the educator must keep his organization on a sound footing while advancing the immediate aims and long-term objectives of the system...
...Sloatsburg, N.Y...
...to the Editors: While much of modern literature seems based on the unspoken resolve to avoid social realities, especially if unsettling, the November 6 issue of . Commonweal contains at least three pieces which challenge this norm...
...Obviously, achieving one's full potential is an all-encompassing and far-reaching goal, but it is hardly something so devastating as to turn one's stomach...
...Indeed, it is a goal that philosophers have supported for centuries...
...Carlin is hardly enamored of the phrase "full potential," finding it too individualistic to describe genuine human development, I think it touches upon the powerful, but unspoken, theme of all three works...
...NORMAN D. ARBAIZA...
...Sen writes of a "long march," and great change could occur over centuries...
...It is about time somebody deflated the concept set forth by Carlin that "top administrators, are themselves not normally very well educated...
...The latter inherited the results of centuries of gradual evolution of individual rights and restraints on rulers in England...
...Here he severely downgrades the overall educational objective of developing the student's full potential, and reports that his "stomach turns" every time he hears "full potential" mentioned...
...on schools) and Abigail McCarthy (on television), one finds thoughtful analyses of our American predicament...
...SEYMOUR M. FINGER What's in a name...
...Perhaps what we urgently require, and are tentatively forging, is our own version of liberation theology...
...To the Editors: It appears to me that David R. Carlin, Jr., knows little about the intricate business of education as he sets forth his somewhat warped views in "A Shortsighted Vision'' [November 6...
...that may be a bit better...
...consequently, the concepts of the U.S...
Vol. 115 • February 1988 • No. 4
