Liberal Arts?
(Continued from Preceding Page) 'WTHERE ARE WE then in the
coveries except by individual ef- YY Ysearch for achieving liberal-
ism? What is the future of liberal-
fort, and life in the college of ism and the liberal ar
liberal arts must be organized in If what has- been said about ...
such a way that the student is liberalism has any truth in it, one
continually thrust into situations answer is clear. The essence of the 9
from which he must extricate him- liberal movement lies in its con-
self by his own efforts. cern for human values as against
I would like to say that learn- material, political and money -
ing does not thrive in the situa- values.
tion in which the students are on We who are teachers must teach -
one side facing a set of require- passionately the faith we hold in
ments, all the way from examina- the possibilities of man. There are
tions and grades based on them to enough who tell us of the faults
required texts, lectures and par- of man, his inconstancy,.his weak-
titular subjects, with the faculty ness, his indecision, his ignorance.
on the other, waiting with their That side is already adequately {.
criticisms to catch the man who handled.
hasn't done his work, or who We must say to all who will
hasn't read the right book, or who listen that this is not an ordinary
doesn't say what he is supposed period in American history. It is
to. the first time in the history of
In that situation, the intelli- civilization that one country has
gence and animal cunning of the ever had the chance of leading
student are used to beat the system the whole world in creative and
rather than to learn, and teaching democratic experiments in social
becomes a series of tiny punitive planning. It is the first time in
actions which keep the student history that any country has had
constantly on his guard. He is the means, both in material wealth
then unable to let himself go in and in social structure to give to
the enjoyment of reading which every child born an opportunity
he wants to do, reading which for education up to the height of
moves him into new insight or I his powers..
captures him as he reads, or tells It is the first time that any
him something which he wants to country has had the economic
know and needs to know in order strength to wipe out entirely the
to accomplish something important slums, and with them the bad
to him, human relations, the juvenile de-
Most good students can beat1 linquencY and the evils of sub-
any system the educators put in urban and urban congestion It
front of them, and the best stu-' is the first time that it has been
dent, the one we used to admire possible for the entire resources of
when I was in college, was the man Western culture-its music, poetry,
who could beat the system with no drama, literature, ballet, art ob- t e e
apparent effort, who was so clever jects-to be brought to a whole e Studentlies to a worl f scovery
at it and showed so much style population through television, mo- where nothing is yet completely settled."
and grace under stress, that no tion pictures, radio and the mass
one would have believed that he magazines.
had ever opened a book, attended .:. ........... .....
a class or listened to a word that WE IN AMERICA are at the be-
was said. ginning of what amounts to a
It is therefore very Important, cultural revolution made possible;
In my judgement, to change the by science and education, moving r F" sion
system so that it is one which you in an incredibly short time from F $shio $
cannot beat, because there is education and culture for the few
nothing to beat except oneself, a to universal education and a high
system which does not align the level of mass culture for a total T or your
forces in opposite camps, but population.y
which joins together the teacher With the flood of new talent
and the student in a common en- which will be forthcoming from ll nSouthern
deavor to gain some insight into the millions more who will be in ,
truth and knowledge. our schools and colleges, with the #* a ti
R°Vacation
thousands of new writers, artists,
architects, planners, builders, com-
posers, playwrights, and scientists,
we are now approaching a time
when the achievements of the
American past can be seen to be
just the beginning of a magnificant
new era in American culture.
But we could lose the revolution
easily by failing to recognize the
content of our own tradition. Our
tradition is not conservatism, or
middle of the roadism, or modera-
tion. It is individualism, liberalism,
humanitarian democracy, and it is-
progressive, stemming from John
Locke, John Stuart Mill, Tom
Paine, Walt Whitman, William
Lloyd Garrison, Woodrow Wilson,
William James, John Dewey. There
are challenges within our tradi-
tion which face us now. They
center in the challenge to the
American mind to express itself
in new forms.
IT WILL BE CLEAR, I imagine,
that I am among those who
believe that we are entering a new
era which is full of promise for
creative change and for the ex-
pansion of new frontiers.
It will also be clear that I hold
the view that the educated man,
the intellectual in action, has a
central part to play in the de-
velopment of original ideas and
the solution of social problems
and we should teach these things
in the colleges.
It remains only for me to say
that as you reflect, as Pericles
once implored of his fellow citizens
in Athens on what your country
has the power to be, that you do
as he asks, Reflect that her glory
has been built not be the security
minded, not by men in giay flan-
nel suits, but by men and women
who used knowledge as a guide to
action and by men and women
who knew their duty and had the
courage to do it. This is the ulti-
mate message of liberalism.
- -.-
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Page Eleven