War Brings Educational Dilemma
Thayer, Vivian T.
War Brings Educational Dilemma By Vivian T. Thayer THE war baa profoundly affected American life, but nowhere are ita revolutionary influence* more evident than in education. The war ia rapidly...
...2) A selected group may receive additional education or training for a period not to exceed three years, this group to be selected on the basis of exceptional ability and skill, and on a state quota plan...
...They constitute the most critical problem in postwar America...
...State lines no longer constitute the normal and natural boundary lines for the effective administration of education on behalf of young people between the ages of 17 and 26...
...He has e—tribute*1 articles ea wartime edacaUoa to Mmrmmra and to loading edeca-tienal periodical...
...They sre convinced, crises in our economic and our social life rsn be met through government intervention, and they suspect that unemployment and poverty do not have to be...
...Indeed, in the last months of its existence th* National Youth Administration was preparing some 30,000 young persons each month for defense work as its contribution toward a critical ahortage of workers...
...Also, individuals will be assisted in receiving credit for courses taken in off-duty educational programs and for certain types of specialised training in the service...
...Nor do these figures include the large number of children Illegally employed...
...J HmmmU be clear, for example, that there ere area* . j^gemeraUf accepted principles will, have to "-J^ueatioBBi suW*trt ever wide areas, even to *T^mi ef running counter to local prejudices and * ^Ktion...
...TllE returning Veteran will probably receive fairly adequate treatment...
...In industry they have tasted the fruits of steady work and what tolerable wages can buy...
...But what of the demobilized worker...
...It waa also ready to predict (wo will net say bop*, fully but certainly with lift)* appreciation of th* need* of young people in war time) that "schools, parks, and playgrounds, child welfare, health protection . , . may be found to be luxuries which tbe ordinary community can no longer afford...
...From industry and the armed services alike we shsll one day receive in civilian life large numbers of young people who have volunteered to meet the war emergency prior to the completion of their elementary and secondary schooling...
...4) Provision is made for counsel and advice to veterans while in service and thereafter with respect to their continued education...
...This Commission sampled conditions in every section of the country— rural and urban alike...
...The National Youth Administration recognised this fact in its administrative organization...
...When the trainees depart, 200 students will remain, 100 on a full-time, basis, th* remainder part-time...
...Young persons were blocked and frustrated...
...Of these 750,000 were 14 and 15—one of every six of this age in th* total population—and 2,000,000 were 16 and 17—two out of every Ave of these ages...
...Surely at a time whan the United .Sgpjaie considering seriously seme form of inter-2J.«»atrol ever postwar education in Germany, ¦J*2J w »void • res urge nee of Nasi doctrines of ySji— and aggression, the people of the United j»^niH thought to their own principles of . MM)„„my and unrestricted freedom of instruction...
...Child labor Is on the increase and the protection of children that child labor laws have slowly built up is no longer effective...
...That of the smaller colleges, particularly men'* colleges, which do not participate in the training program is far worse...
...The recent decision of the Army to reduce the numbers in its specialised training program avom 146,000 to 35,000 has fallen like a bombshell upon colleges and universities that have retained their physical structure and a skeleton teaching staff intact solely by means of this assistance...
...Judge Jacob Paokeo and ether* will fellow...
...It is rather to search »at ways and means in which associated action ran lerve needs without enslaving people in the process...
...Brieflly staled, these plsns are as follows: (1) New Institutes of Applied Arts and Sciences are proposed...
...Both groups, those in the national service and in national industry, have responded to their country's call st s time of grave national danger...
...We can ill afford to forget the serious situation confronting the youth of this country prior to the outbreak of the war...
...and $75 per month rf married, with $10 additional for each dependent child...
...Then followed the injunction that th* National Youth Administration should conclude its program by January 1, 1944, despite th* fsct that upon the declaration of war this agency concentrated upon the training <>f young people for work in defense indusries...
...This would indeed have closed all institutions ef higher learning but for the Army and Navy Specialised Training programs...
...Studies of the American Youth Commission revealed a steady trend in the direction of the exclusion of young people from business snd industry below the age of twenty...
...Government was 7...
...Barred in large numbers from the professions and the vocations, they were beating their wings hopelessly against s veritable cage of economic despair...
...3) For this purpose the government will provide individuals allowances of $50 per month for board, lodging, and other living expenses if single...
...They Are eager to establish their own homes and they know that in order to do so they must have work and some assurance of future advancement...
...I*HERE ia grave danger that peace will find our institutions of higher learning bereft of teaching personnel, their faculties scattered and no trained substitutes to replace them...
...The Institutes would thus assist the non-college bound student as well as the returning veteran and war worker...
...means of local initiative and the traditional policy of states' rights in education or albng lines charted by the N.YA...
...Competent judges who examined at first-hand the work of th* N.YA...
...Aiding and abetting this principle has been the fear of a central government and the power it might exercise over men's minds...
...The war has thus transformed the status of our young people...
...Had the N.Y.A...
...It will exclude all who do not fall within the lucky quota...
...These returned to th* colleges large numbers of young men for restricted types of training...
...I refer to young persons who were out-of-school and past the sge of compulsory school attendance...
...With jaf communications on the one hand and a con-ef interdependence that enables citizens to fuucSft* fruitfully in the lives of others, a more inti-MtT relationship between a government and ita people i^, nvivrd...
...a model for meeting the specisl problems of a group for whom schools had previously made no provision...
...The fact that one state, New York, is planning ambitiously to cope with tbe educational problems of postwar youth should not blind us to the general lack of postwar provision for the young veteran snd the young worker in our war industries...
...I. Bill of Rights," more technically known as the Servicemen's Act of 1944, contains the following provisions for the education of veterans: (1) All members of the armed forces who have been honorably discharged from service shall be eligible to receive training at an approved educational institution for a period of one year, provided their education was interrupted by the war or they require a refresher or retraining course...
...Just as industry has attracted boys and girls from 14 to 17 who would otherwise be in school, so have the Army and Navy opened their iauks to volunteers of 17 years and up...
...The Institutes are intended to combine technical training with general education...
...i^S a matter of fact, neither a centralised system of education, administered solely from Washington, nor an irresponsible type of state and local education (even with opportunities financially equalised) is adapted to contemporary conditions of American life...
...Other article* by Ordway Teed, Bernard C. Linee-maan, Rebecca Klaxons...
...Secondly, the numbers involved will be less in this new program (at most no more than 100,000) and the period ef training anticipated will vary from but 9 months to 6 months...
...Tke experience of the past few years in some of our itate governments as well as in Axis countries reveal ttagtious reversions to personal and arbitrary au-tkirity...
...It is estimated that these schools could accommodate as many as 200,000 pre-employment students annually...
...Surely this is a national problem of first magnitude...
...ThIS brings us face to face with the hobgoblin of federal control of education...
...At the same time, should it not stimulate a marshalling of opportunities for youth that today lie fallow in the barren soil of a backward and unenlightened state or locality...
...Were the Federal Government to encourage the organization of educational services for youth on a regional basis under broad general directives addressed to regional boards (composed in part of state educational officials from the states involved and in part of laymen possessed of public vision), a unique combination of federal and regional administration might emerge...
...Johns" which areawad wide comment...
...But whether we meet the needs of young persons between the ages of 17 and 24 through federal machinery, or the much slower method of state action, we should recognize the critical nature of the problem they pose for our future...
...For example, an organisation called the Citizens' Emergency Committee on Non-Defense Expenditures was quick to seise upon the fact of war to urge the elimination of government services to youth and the unfortunate...
...For example, the Children's Bureau reports that not only are more young persons entering labor's ranks, but this increase is greater within the age-rang* of 14 and* 15 than it is within that of 16 to 17...
...extcrnsl, often an arbitrary agency uncon|tl wjth the vital concerns of the governed...
...What is being done to cope with it...
...and our economy-minded friends who so eagerly used the war as an excuse to snuff out the Nstionsl Youth Administration may discover to their sorrow that they who tow the wind shall reap the whirlwind...
...Enrollments in secondary schools sre falling rapidly...
...in its counselling and guidance services, its resident centers ami ita production work shops, ssw in the N.Y.A...
...In October of 1943 there were 2,750,000 children at work...
...In th* first place, these seventeen-year-olds will not enroll, as many would have done, as civilian freshmen In oider to secure what general education they can prior to entering the Army...
...The pressing needs of war have required a telescoping of professional and technical curricula, such as medicine, dentistry, engineering...
...For we must bear in mind that our graduate snd professional schools are also depleted with the result that the preparation of young people for all of the learned professions in virtually at a standstill...
...For example, the "G...
...Recently we ran two articles by Prefaaser Sidney Hook •a "BaHybee at St...
...Moreover, tuition and fees will b* paid to the institution by the government, up to the amount of $500 per year...
...2) It is proposed also (with the hope of federal aid) to continue in "reverse gear" the vocational schools that have been conducting war training course...
...Similarly, loss than throe weeks following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Joint Committee of Congress on Reduction of Non-Essential Federal Expenditures reported "there is no room for non-essentials in a government stripped for action," and suggested the early liquidation of the Civilian Conservation Corps and the National Youth Administration...
...But just as the principle of state sovereignty operates in politics to retard legislation designed to alleviate general social and economic conditions, so in education it now stands in the wsy of an impartial and objective study of the most effective means for serving the youth of the entire nation...
...Young people wish to stand on their own feet to control their own lives...
...Consequently, freshman classes next fall will be depleted still further...
...Instead we hear educators and politicians slike assuring us piously that we must not "repeat the mistake of the Civilian Conservation Corps and the National Youth Administration...
...The new status of youth is a second revolulionsry change affecting education...
...Thus far, nothing...
...From these studies two facts stood out: (1) jobs held by youth were not of the type or character they woull willingly choose...
...Witness the general alarm over the prospect that indispensable men below 26 will no longer receive deferment in industry...
...His problems are being thoroughly studied and both Congress and the State Legislatures sre esger to confront him with generous programs for his retraining, when necessary, or for the continuation of sn interrupted education...
...In the Army they have become accustomed to good food, clothing, shelter, and fairly generous provision for study or play snd recreation in their leisure hours...
...It is evident that we are building up a huge army of young persona who may well constitute a blocked and frustrsted" group following the war...
...Generous as these provisions are (and to them we should add preferred status in civil service appointments, unemployed insurance, discharge pay, etc...
...With a prominent educator as chairman, it recommended early in 1942 not only the discontinuance of the Food Stamp Plan for people on relief but also youth agencies such as the Civilian Conservation Corp* and the National Youth Administration...
...It thus recognized the need for close coordination between locality, region, and nation...
...5) An administrative agency ia to be set up charged with the responsibility for carrying out these plans in cooperation with the armed forces and the several states...
...Consequently it lodgV genuine responsibility for local adaptation and variation in its regional directors with the help of advisory boards, and it organized regional supervisory districts that often cut across state lines...
...FORTUNATELY, the situation in New York State is less serious than elsewhere, since steps sre being taken to realise plans formulated some months ago by the State Board of Regents...
...These will provide a two-year course for studenta who are graduates of high school, or for others who have attained the age of 18 years, on a regular and a short-term and part-time basis...
...All avenues of advancement are open to them...
...Liberal arts education unrelated to the war effort ia on the way to extinction...
...Ajp traditional fear of a central government and, M» apaoepnonee, the determination to prohibit the f,Oasi Government from participation in education, —^0f from a conception of the state no longer 1. to s modern democracy...
...Interstate or regional organization of this character would insure freedom from federal "domination" at the same time that it promoted educational planning and eoopei at tea between localities and states that are new only too prone to dwell in aotf-oswjentoi fcackwiinettil Indeed, ihe mere existence of such an over-nil administrative organisation in regions where common needs overflow state lines might stimulate creative planning after the pattern of joint projects already engaged in by a number of states (notably the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey) outside the field of education...
...Th* highly fractionated operations in which they engage in war industries will have no carry-over value for peacetime occupations...
...Indeed, worse than nothing, since the machinery painfully developed prior to the war to serve unemployed youth waa abandoned under the cloak of the war emergency...
...Nor ia the state quota plan for extending the education of s limited and selected group of capable veterans necessarily the wisest method to follow...
...Then followed the drafting of eighteen-year-elds...
...Thayer In on* of a series to The New Loader dealing with BdocaUoa and Tooth...
...Today young persons are in demand...
...This article by Dr...
...This is the predicament in which the larger institutions And themselves...
...The work offered necessarily emphasises technical courses snd the few general courses that the Navy more generously than the Army has permitted to supplement the specialised instruction by no means utilizes faculties to the full...
...Fear of ^juiir t as such derives from an age in which pveansscat signified rule, not service...
...But the remedy is not to pulverise the rela-tiasa that bind men together...
...What plans do we have to meet the novel conditions of peace...
...What are we contemplating for the boys and girls who entered industry at 14 to 17...
...How many comprise this group, no one knows...
...These institutions began to languish when conscription wsa first introduced...
...The war ia rapidly extinguishing liberal education in our colleges and graduate schools...
...Should peace come without intelligent plan or provision for an open toad upon which they can travel hopefully, there will be no peace...
...In October, 1042," he states, "its enrollment in all divisions wss 1,482...
...The Civilian Conservation Corps was very soon liquidated...
...VIVIAN T. THAYER ia loorati—*1 director of the Ethical (altars Schools aad one of the aatiea'a leading pregreasive —locator...
...been continued as aaskele-ton organisation with an eye to its postwar functions, we might confront th* problems of demobilized youth with an easier mind than ia now possible...
...This may include elementary, secondary, or higher education of a general or technical character...
...The future of these young persons constitutes a national problem and Americans must decide whether we are to seek its solutions by...
...Nor will the subsequent decision to substitute the training of selected seventeen year-olds for the older groups remedy the situation...
...In short, the opportunities for youth, by and large, were confined to blind alley occupations...
...Congress waa both willing and able to whittle down the social agencies established under the New Deal Administration...
...3) It is proposed to increase the number am) the amount of the scholarship grants to students for attendance upon higher education from about 3,800 at $100 each, as at present, to 12,000 at $350 each...
...4) A state-wide counseling and guidance service is recommended that would provide more adequate vocational counseling to high-school youth, for adults as well as for youth, clinical service, and cooperative relations with both federal and state employment services...
...We thus face the postwar problems of youth without any present assurance that their, needs will be met by the Federal Government...
...In the field ef education, this suggests a careful determination of those areas in which federal participation, beyond the mere payment of bills, can safely be encouraged and those areas in which initiative and variation should be lodged exclusively within localities and states...
...Since the days of our founding fathers the dogma of local autonomy has flourished in education no less vigorously than the dictum of states' rights in the political field...
...we should observe that this legislation neglects the special problems of the very young veteran, the boy who volunteered at 17, One year of assured schooling will not offset hi* deficiencies...
...It is an open question whether the colleges can continue to operate with less than a Shadow of their former programs on this basis...
...We can visualise their plight from a statement of Benjamin Fine regarding the problem Niagara College now faces...
...Indeed, strenuous efforts are being made to envelop in a myth of failure Ike splendid services of both the Civilian Conservation Corps and the National Youth Administration...
...This is the age when youth demands adult status...
...It dates from ( asssed of arbitrary restraint and regulation ante-asang the creation through democratic means of rviaeaan devices for ministering sensitively to men's (JseVtunately it is true that some governments in to Mn-ntieth century have revived ancient tyrannies...
...But only in a limited sense can we say that specialised training for military service has kept our colleges intact...
...and (2) the wages paid were pitifully small and lacking in future assurance...
...They are untrained and uneducated, but they will not slip back willingly into the ranks of school children...
...How can we safeguard them from being cast upon the industrial scrap-heap...
...But there is an ominous note in these winds of change...
...Our government is now identical with .,„,»ri»n- It is the organised expression, the vehicle, „f s people's will, designed to realise cooperatively ,„<i» seat cannot be realised in isolation...
...Here we have the germs of an administrative organization for education that seems to avoid both the evils of an exclusively state and local administration and a federal control insensitive to local peculiarities and needs...
...Nowhere does there exist mi present adequate provision for young people at this very critical age who are neither in school nor unemployed...
Vol. 27 • June 1944 • No. 26
