EDUCATION FOR WHAT?

...The new edition of Albert Jay Nock's The Theory of Education in the United States uncovers the second attitude, one of a crotchety, sententious, wordy, and academic concern for sorting out people who are "educable" and making them over by the kind of education which Nock himself received...

...The two attitudes have created their own theories of education...

...I suspect that what Mr...

...The bankruptcy of this philosophy of education is revealed when Nock finally writes that education can only be reformed by a return to the Great Tradition—and at the same time insists bitterly that society is now incapable of recognizing this means of salvation...

...302 pp...

...According to Nock, our educational system is a failure because Americans have a "fantastic and impracticable idea of equality" (i.e, they believe people are equal), they have a "fantastic and impractical idea of democracy," and they overrate the importance of literacy for good voting and good government...

...Reviewed by Harold Taylor THERE are two general ways of dealing with people...

...In the education of Guerard as a humanist, the impact of society was muffled by the literacy and philosophical wrappings which surrounded him...

...We can take them as they are and hope that some of the things we find wrong with them either do not matter or can be improved...

...This has meant that Guerard's approach to politics and social science is that of a literary man, and that his humanism, although broad enough to include religion, politics, science, and art, is not a philosophy for social use...

...Guerard's book is an effort to apply the lessons of his own education of others, and presents an amiable, civilized, and conventional set of views about the higher learning...

...This comes as a surprise to most of us who are interested in discovering and developing the forces of intellect and of character which lie within Americans, since most of the best research seems to indicate that intellect and character are fairly well distributed throughout the human race, and that there is a lot more of it around than people used to think...

...He believes that humanistic studies, which include the understanding and use of science and the scientific spirit, are the only means of developing men to their full capacity...

...It is a philosophy for the academy, where its content of tolerance, good will, rationality, and aesthetic value can be exploited...

...II Guerard, however, after a lifetime as a teacher in U. S. universities, suggests that the possibilities of American education are enormous, and that the liberal values to be found in the study of history, literature, science, the arts, and society can make a vital contribution to the progress of democracy...

...He points out the dangers and vices of nationalism, his own greatest hatred, with some clues for overcoming nationalism through education in literature, history, and political philosophy...

...Guerard says, simply, that the first aim of education is to develop men...

...Guerard's contribution as a teacher is to show us how education can be related to the task of liberalizing human thought...

...Or we can condemn those who do not meet the standards we set for them, and deplore the ignorance, stupidity, and sinfulness of the whole human race, mindful of the exceptions provided by people like ourselves...

...We can be happy that there are teachers like him who have devoted a lifetime to teaching, writing, and thinking about serious questions without being too solemn about it...

...This has led Americans to assume that everybody should be educated, when, as a matter of fact, only a few are educable, and we have thus diluted the Great Tradition of classical learning by mixing training and vocational courses with the genuine "formative" subjects...

...Guerard's own education has led him to a philosophy of humanism, or, to put it another way, has confirmed in him the attitudes and beliefs which he had developed by the age of 20...

...He believes there are many different ways, some more fruitful than others, of developing them...

...Nock goes on to say, that "the vast majority of mankind have neither the force of intellect to apprehend the processes of education, nor the force of character to make an educational discipline prevail in their lives...

...Albert Guerard's Education of a Humanist shows him to be a man of the first type, who is mellow about people and hopeful about their weaknesses and ignorance...

...Nock really means is that very few people around the world take kindly to the study of Latin, Greek, and the Western classical curriculum...

...He recommends the study of a foreign language, preferably French, in order to encourage internationalism and to counter American provincialism...

...The truth is, Mr...

...His deepest interest in life has been literature, the play of ideas, and the enjoyment of good writing and good thinking...