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European academic education is very good, very tough—and very limited. Only 20% of European youths are chosen for pre-university schools (most go to work at 14), while 89.2% of American 14-to 17-year-olds are in school. And to import European education would mean changing child labor laws and compulsory attendance (despite union opposition), persuading over 1,000 independent liberal arts colleges (unknown in Europe) to close in favor of graduate universities, abolishing local school boards and setting up federal control. In sum: impossible.
In fact, the elite system is not entirely satisfactory to Europeans. Britain and France already are broadening their education toward the U.S. pattern. A modern industrial nation needs more than a few brains; it has to uplift talent at every level. It cannot afford technological un-employables—spiritually, politically or economically.
No Loafing. Is quality in quantity possible under the U.S. system? To practical-minded James Conant, the question is whether a high school can 1) give all students a citizen-worthy general education,
2) give the majority marketable skills,
3) give the "academically talented" (the top 15-20%) work to challenge them. "If the answer were clearly in the negative," he says, "then a radical change in the structure of American public secondary education would be in order."
One change is in order. A basic Conant premise: high schools with graduating classes of less than 100 cannot function properly. They cannot afford qualified teachers tor advanced physics, math, foreign languages. One-third of all high school students attend such small schools —17,000 of the total 21,000 U.S. high schools. If the total were cut to about 12,600 schools, reckons Conant, all would be big enough to hire good teachers.
In 1957 Conant was not sure whether a high school of any size could do the job. On a $350,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, he set out to find the "best" comprehensive high schools in the country. His divining rod was a list of stiff standards, assembled after long brooding ("My dogmatism. You don't have to take it"), and his own disarming manner. "This is James Conant," he introduced himself to principals. "I don't know if you've heard of me. I used to work at Harvard."
Conant felt that every student should spend half the regular English course learning to write; he should turn out at least one theme a week. All should have at least one year of science, math, American history. And to keep the school cohesive yet challenging, all should be "grouped" according to ability—subject by subject, not by divisive IQ "tracks." One exception: all should take a course together in U.S. problems. For the job-bound as well as the college-bound, elective courses should include everything from plumbing to twelfth-grade physics.