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PLANNED EDUCATION
By FRANK SINGISER
OST mothers and fathers of American school children do not realize it, but something of a battle royal is now going on among the educators of the United States. It concerns the manner in which our young men and women are being educated — and the kind of steps that should be taken to bring our educational system up to date.
Colleges are being charged with hanging on to antiquated admission requirements — requirements which are forcing high schools and other secondary schools to teach certain subjects so that their students may enter colleges. The high schools, on the other hand, are being accused of failing to take responsibility for deciding which students should go to college and which, instead, should be given technical training for particular trades.
The President of Harvard University, Dr. James Conant, believes that it is time we realize that not all children have the scholastic aptitude for a college course. He thinks we should recognize that some children should go to college and others should go to schools which give them a thorough training in trades at which they later will have to make their living.
This is a subject loaded with dynamite — but one which directly concerns America's future. Parents arc fortunate when a child shows a preference for some particular professioh or trade while still at an early age. But this is not always the case; in fact, more often than not, the opposite is true. If you doubt this, look at the large number of young persons entering college with no idea in the world of what profession or trade they intend to pursue after their graduation. Too many
young persons "just happen" to drift into a particular line of business — either because they obtained their first jobs in that line of business, or because they thought it might be interesting work. They do not realize at the time how easy it is to become a square peg in a round hole — and when they reach the age where they do realize it, it is often too late to do anything about it.
At first glance, the solution seeras very simple. Why not have the high schools decide which students should take the regular college courses and which should go to the technical schools that teach the trades in which those students have shown an aptitude? Under such a plan, a record would be kept of the child's inclinations from the day he first entered elementary school. And then, before graduation from high school, certain especially appointed educators would assign the students to the various colleges and technical schools.
But that is where the problem first starts. How would you handle the many cases where the parents would disagree with the school's choice? And how about the opposition of those who insist that it is the right of the parents to chart the courses of their children — and not the right of the State? And what about the young person whose own preference might run contrary to the results of the aptitude tests?
No, it is a problem which lacks an easy solution. But it is a problem that many feel must be solved. And it cannot be solved unless the educators themselves can agree on what should be done, and how it should be done.