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With Dewey's world so demonstrably in tatters, one might think the educationists would run up the white flag. Far from it. Entrenched in public school administrations, they defend with the adhesiveness of a band of brothers every article of their gobbledygook canons. In Holland, Mich, the Christian' High School, a respected institution of impeccable academic standards, has recently been denied accreditation by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools because it refused to dilute its academic standards with shop and cooking courses. A sample of the canons by which such schools are judged: "Is the control and atmosphere of the individual's rooms and classes based upon teacher authority or group self-control and group-defined standards? To what extent are opportunities provided for children to develop moral and spiritual values through the process of direct experience in working with each other . . .?"
We cannot expect to cure such lopsided standards just by giving teachers the pay they deserve, building the schools we need, and ordering up more science courses. [But] a few important steps can be taken by state and local authorities. Most of our state teachers' colleges should be abolished as such and converted into liberal-arts colleges, with subordinate education departments. There must also be some drastic upgrading of curriculum requirements.
But most of all, we need to do some thinking about the true ends of education. The worthwhile innovations in method brought by Dewey's educationists should be kept. But their exclusive devotion to techniques and group adjustment should never again be allowed to hide the fact that American education exists first of all to educate the individual in a body of learning, with a tradition and purpose behind it.