The Texas Standard, Volume 22, Number 1, January-February 1948 Page: 5
19 p. : ill. ; 29 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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T E X A S STANDARD —
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Who Shell Be Educated?
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By JOHN DALE RUSSELL
Director, Division of Higher Education
The policies followed in the United
States in determining who shall be edu-
cated and how far they shall be educated
need careful examination. Every State
now has an attendance law requiring chil-
dren to be in school until at least age
16. This indicates a public policy of ex-
pecting all young people to take advant-
age of the opportunity for the normal
period of elementary education and about
half of the high school. Education at the
advanced levels is considered highly desir-
able, both for the individual and for
society as a whole. Most Americans would
agree that the security and the welfare
of the country are promoted by increasing
the number who are given all the educa-
tion they are capable of receiving. But
among those who want further education,
especially those who wish to continue
beyond high-school graduation, certain
groups are singled out for this special
privilege.
There is, first of all, a selective pro-
cedure that limits college attendance to
those considered by college faculties to
be qualified for the kind of instruction
the faculties want to maintain. This selec-
tion seems often to be exercised in an
arbitrary manner with reference to the
requirements of subjects that must have
been studied previously, quality of prev-
ious achievement, and kinds of instruction
to be given at the higher level. This selec-
tivity in higher education is in sharp con-
trast to the principles followed in the pre-
ceding levels of the school system, where
the decision as to what shall be taught
does not rest with the teaching staff, and
where the decision as to who is qualified
for the next step in the educational ladder
rests with those who have given the in-
struction in the preceding grade rather
than with those who are to give the in-
struction in the next level.
Among those who meet the qualifica-
tions laid down by the faculty for college
attendance, further selection occurs on
the basis of economic ability. Most insti-
tutions of higher education charge fees
that are high enough to bar attendance
by students from families with low in-
come. A few from the low income brack-
ets, if particularly well qualified for the
kind of studies college faculties think
important, may receive scholarship aid.
The amount of such aid from institutional
sources, however, is infinitesimal com-
pared with the number of well-qualified
young people who do not have enough
money to go to college. Many careful
studies have shown that half or more of
the most capable high-school graduates
do not continue their education, and that
lack of funds is the most important cause
of their inability to enter college.
Young people fortunate enough to live
in the vicinity of a college or university
may have opportunities for higher edu-
cation beyond those normally available to
others in similar economic circumstances.
Investigations show conclusively that the
percentage of young people attending col-
lege is much greater for an area within
a few miles of an institution than for
areas that are outside commuting distance.
The Federal Government has recently
added another special group to those for
whom education beyond the compulsory
school age is made economically possible.
Public Laws 16 and 346, the so-called
"GI bill of rights," have extended educa-
tional benefits to all properly qualified
veterans of World War II. The subsidies
to veterans are sufficient to permit almost
any capable student, regardless of eco-
nomic circumstances, to continue his edu-
cation for the period to which his mili-
tary service has entitled him.
The foregoing facts suggest that large
groups of young people are denied the op-
portunity for continued schooling. Among
those excluded are the following:
1. Those with talents of a type that
college faculties do not wish to serve,
or whose abilities in the judgment of col-
lege faculties are not high enough for
the level of instruction that the faculty
wishes to maintain, or who have not com-
pleted some secondary school subjects
required for college entrance. In many
cases the failure to meet entrance qualifi-
cations is due, not to any lack of native
ability on the part of the student, but to
poor facilities in the elementary and sec-
ondary schools attended.
2. Those without money enough to
pay the costs which a student must bear.
The level of financial ability required
for college attendance increases sharply
for those outside commuting distance from
a college or university.
3. Those who are qualified for further
schooling but for whom institutional facil-
ities are inadequate. For example, the
Negroes of the Southern States, in gen-
eral, do not have the same opportunities
for higher education as are offered to
white students. Medical schools annually
turn away several times as many well-
qualified applicants as their limited facil-
ities permit them to accept. Because of
restrictions now imposed on nonresidents,
well-qualified students frequently find it
impossible to enter upon preparation in
many specialized professional fields when
their home States maintain no facilities) in
such fields. Institutional policies which
discriminate against certain students on
the basis of race and religion may limit
the number from those groups which
obtain opportunity for continued educa-
tion, even though they may be well-quali-
fied scholastically for continued educa-
tion.
QUESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION
If education in the United States is
to be extended on a democratic basis,
certain of the Dolicies now followed must
be reconsidered. Attention should be given
to the following questions:
1. What extensions should be made in
the range of talents served by education
beyond the compulsory school age?
2. How can the traditional right of
college faculties set standards and qualifi-
cations for entrance and continuation in
college best be reconciled with the need
of a democratic society for the extended
education of an increasing percentage of
its young people?
3. How can opportunities for advanced
education best be made available to all
qualified young people without regard to
their economic status or their place of
residence?
4. How can institutional facilities for
all types of higher education be pro-
vided, in adequate volume and in satis-
factory geographical distribution, to meet
the needs of society and the desires of
those who want the preparation for life
afforded in such institutions? — School
Life. December, 1947.
THE PRIVATE COLLEGE
(Continued from Page 4)
high heat on its campus, and men of un-
compromising character and courageous
action go forth from its portals.
This simple historic faith and exper-
ience may be extended more fully to the
high plane of sensitive response to the
hungers of the mind and soul, thus achieve
the fundamental conditions for the highest
in education.
Obviously, the three areas of learning
on which I have made brief comment are
not new fields in education. However, they
are pertinent references to the unique
potentialities of the Christian college.
They are indispensable to human survival
in a scientific world. And the college that
is bold to live and serve in that faith
will contribute to the extension of the
frontiers of higher learning and establish
its right to everlatsing life. *
FIVE
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Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Colored Teachers State Association of Texas. The Texas Standard, Volume 22, Number 1, January-February 1948, periodical, January 1948; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth193747/m1/5/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Prairie View A&M University.