IN A TIME OF DISINTERESTED AND 'UNILLUSIONED' STUDENTS
A NOTED EDUCATOR RE-EXAMINES THE VALUE AND MEANING OF
A Liberal Education

By hAROLD TAYLOR
THERE ARE MANY ways of
thinking and talking about the
present generation, and I think
there are more people talking
about them than there are mem-
bers of the younger generation.
This is all to the good, provided
the talk is based on understanding
and direct acquaintance with the
young people being talked about.
This is not often the case, and the
cliches - security-minded, con-
formist, silent, beat, tired - fall
like rain on the heads of the
young.
But it is true that each genera-
tion has its own truth, its particu-
lar reality, its private world, and
its own way of looking at life. If
educators and parents are to help
the young, and if education is to
be effective, it must begin with an
understanding of these truths. We
seed to listen to the young as we
listen to music, sympathetically,
expectantly, appreciating the in-
dividual sounds and recognizing
the total intention of the music.
THERE IS, in fact, a new atti-
tude in the present generation
of Western youth. Having been
brought up in the Western world
to have no illusions, the present
generation is not so much disillu-
sioned, since it had none to start
with, but unillusioned. It accepts
the world as it finds it, having
been taught to do so.
This can have one of two effects.
As in the case of the angry young
men of England celebrated by
John Osborne, it can have the
effect of creating a tough-minded
minority who attack the com-
placency and the closed-in quality
of the life around them.
Or, as in the case of American
writers and students, who aren't
mad at anyone, it may involve a
movement away from internal
issues of politics, social conditions
or controversy, into analytical
thinking and introspection.
WE NOW HAVE in the American
colleges the first generation
of understood children brought up
by understanding parents. Being
understood by parents puts a spe-
cial kind of burden on the child-
the burden of personal decision.
In the absence of a strong line of aski
of parental authority, the child word,t
has little to rebel against, and in more t
a world in which he is not ordered swer?T
around but told to choose his way,
he may stifle in an atmosphere of0R,C
kindly over-all approval. den
In such a liberal atmosphere of point ic
acceptance and freedom from re- ermen
striction, young people often feel school.
a deep emotional fatigue from interest
continually being forced to make time fo
their own decisions before they few an
have had enough experience to In so
feel able to do so. of stud
In the previous generation, what downs
children needed was a release from sponsib
the constrictions of authority laid run for
down by tradition, academic con- an ord
vention, parental rights and social dent li
custom. They received such release. automa
But having received it, and having to have
also received a higher degree of perienc
self-understanding combined with ministr
a higher degree of tolerance for Havi
deviations in all human behavior, spirito
they now wish to be relieved of given t
some of the burden of self-respon- it work
sibility, and even of the burden ministe
of self-understanding.
As a result we often find college THEN
students bored by discussion, tired mo

ng questions.G
they will say.
han I do, what
Tell me.
ON THE other
ts will say -VW
nso much stude
1t? We had all i
Let's get on t
Ing things. I+
r making rules
d bicycle permi
me colleges the
lent governmen
simply because
le students dor
office. They w
erly arrangeme
e which workei
tically. They w
some one other
ed students d
ation of studen
ng been imbue
of liberalism, h
heir freedom, th
s well, but is a1
r<
E ARE other
dern liberalism

"a student . . . is granted the priceless advantage of looking
openly at the world to discover its secrets."
Give us the chological dimension. Here is one been taught to do so by their means of translating idealism into
You know of them, stated by a young man parents, do not choose the bigger productive action.
is the an- who seems to me to have come issues, the difficult way, the higher
close to defining a large segment ideal, and are absorbed in what THE REAL question now be.
hand, stu- of his age: has been called a "fun morality" comes, not what is wrong with
That isth "We are the generation of the in a period of high prosperity. this generation or what is wrong
at self-gov- third eye," he says, "the eye with liberalism, since the question
that in high of self-consciousness, the eye ANOTHER STUDENT, among of what is wrong is less important
o the more of self-criticism - The char- those at Princeton who have than the question of what is true.
don't have acteristic fear of our genera- been said to be the unsilent gen- The real question is, given the
about cur- tion is our horror of finding eration, states a common ideal character of this generation, what
ssion. ourselves ludicrous." for young and old alike when he kind of education can we as par-
machinery The person who acts sincerely, says: ents and teachers provide in order
it has run boldly, enthusiastically, can be "Success for me would mean to do what always must be done
many re- brought down in full flight by a a job that I could leave after in every age-raise the level of
not wish to sneer or a cynical smile, and in a eight hours and that would human ideals and the level of
rould prefer negative time like ours, it is wiser provide for self - fulfillment human achievement. This is the
nt of stu- for the young not to risk their within a framework of in- primary task of education and in
d fairly and self-confidence by a show of public conspicuous luxury." this country, at this point in its
ould prefer enthusiasm or idealism. Now surely this is ,a modest material success and prosperity,
'than inex- I believe that this may be an- demand and surely this is much we hear constantly of the values
o the ad- other effect of "understanding" less a demand than the young of college in raising ones income.
it affairs. by the older generation. Being should be making. It works out over a life-time,
A with the sensitive to the psychological im- We and they can ask much more I believe, to around $100,000 more
iaving been plications of behavior, parents and than this. But we have not asked for a B.A. degree than is possible
ey find that their children have become ac- much more than this of ourselves, without one. But if there are any
bore to ad- customed to thinking of strong and therefore our- children, having in this audience who are advising
action or assertion as some form been understood rather than in- students to go on to the Ph.D. or
of aggression, or ego gratification, spired, have not learned to look any higher degree, I wish to re-
effects of and have tended to create a degree beyond the limits of their present mind you that real income falls
in its psy- of self-consciousness in personal lives. sharply after the completion of
relations which makes every action This is not because this genera- the B.A.
a subject for discussion rather tion is less idealistic than its pre-
College than an occasion for delight, decessors. In my judgement it is EMPHASIS on the personal ad-
okesmen praise or blame. Thus we get a more talented, better educated, vantages of a college education
country monotone of feeling, with no one better able to handle its problems, has distracted many people from
the Hey. risking the larger emotions of joy, and genuinely concerned with hu- thinking of the true values of
in Noy- anger, dramatic action, and pre- man values. It has been taught to higher learning and the real mis-
in No- ferring the gentler pleasures of recognize the advantages of ma- sion of the student.
omitted approval and adaptation. terial and personal security, it A student is not a professional
losophy. The level of ideal is thereby has been taught the meaning of athlete, although many univer-
lowered, and the young, having liberal democracy, but not the (continued on Next Page)
Page Nine

Harold Taylor is president of Sarah Lawrence
and one of the most provocative and articulate sp
for liberal education and academic freedom in the
today. The article printed here is part of a speech, t
awrd Keniston Lecture, delivered at the University
vember. The first part of the address, which has been
here, was devoted to a discussion of liberalism as a phi
SATURDAY, JANUARY 17