zyxw Quality and Equality in Education d W. A. C. STEWART I educational controversies arise from the changing emphases we place on each of the three factorspupil, teacher, knowledge. The progressive movement has been supposed to stress the child and his psychological make-up. The teachers colleges have been supposed to emphasize the teacher and his technique of presentation. The liberal arts colleges and the universities have been supposed to underline knowledge, content, subject matter, standard. Teachers worth their salt have to try to preserve the three factors in relationship and tension. In addition they should know what social and philosophical pressures are moulding educational practice, particularly just now. This should be the concern not only of teachers but of all interested in education. Mr. Conant has told us in his recent study of the high school in American society that he was struck by the fact that many of the schools did not concern themselves with the intellectually able pupil. Dr. Gardner, president of the Carnegie Corporation wrote the same sort of thing in the recent report which he edited, The Pursuit of Excellence. I n February 1958 the N.E.A. had as a conference subject, “The Education of the Academically Talented.,, Most of the leading papers and magazines have carried articles on the subject in the last six months. Sputniks are not a principal cause of this uneasinessLL A OUR they are a symptom. Keeping up with Communism is only a part of the anxiety. The headlong speed with which we are moving into a new phase of our understanding of the meaning of the word “en~ironment~~ is nearer the heart of the matter. But beyond these is the fact that equality is now established and stable as an aim for education in theory and practice in the United States. T h e time has come for a revaluation because equality never has been enough in itself as an ideal for a great nation. There is a staggering statistic in Dr. Gardner’s report which needs examination. T h e population of the United States between 1870 and 1955 has increased fourfold. The high school population during that time has increased eightyfold. During these 85 years the United States has had to discharge two immense tasks through its educational system. First to preserve the principles of political equality promised in the precepts of Jefferson and Jackson and second, to undertake a vast programme of basic education. In the second task the schools have had to present a programme to children whose cultural background has been in Europe and other parts of the world. Language teaching has presented (and in some cases still presents) a major problem and a deliberate consciousness of belonging to America has had to be built up. In addition the independence of education under the different States has led to a paradox that anything said zyxwvut zyxwv zyxwvu zyxw zyxw 287 - 288 THE EDUCATIONAL FORUM about American education, whether good or bad, is bound to be true somewhere. But basically the political history and organization of the United States has had a profound influence on the staple intellectual food provided by the American high school. There is an apparent paradox in the fact that the United States has arisen out of a political revolt against various forms of feudalism, aristocracy and tyranny in other parts of the world and that one of the basic problems of the immense influx of racial groups has been a necessity to construct means of insuring conformity and tradition. So equality has produced on the one hand a “progressive” emphasis on the individual child and on the other a curriculum which ensures that everybody is treated the same. However, the days of first and second generation Americans in huge national quotas from elsewhere in the world are over. The paradox of indoctrination and individualism is exposed. The positive use of the educational system for basic education has now become in many places the negative belief that nobody should have a different preparation from anybody else because this leads to inequality and ultimately to “an intellectual Clite,” and this is where the educational crux of the belief in equality is to be found. England in her education started off with a recognition of inequality which was rooted in a certain kind of class structure now undergoing radical change. The grammar school, with its high standard of scholarship at the top, has been the hinge on which the rest of [March the system has turned. England started by educating the few (the case is quite different in Scotland) and has had to learn how to educate the many. Since the Education Act of 1944 on average only 15% of the age group at 11 is judged intelligent enough to take the grammar school course-Mr. Conant and Dr. Gardner judge that about 15% may be regarded as academically talented in the U.S.A. About 5% of the age group in England are in technical schools and about 80% in what is called the secondary modern school. English secondary modern schools correspond to American high schools with the top 20%~ according to intellect, cut off. There is much variety and experimentation in this branch of English secondary education and one way to make equality in English education more real is to do everything, by excellence of building, equipment, and staffing to raise the status of the secondary modern school. However, despite much that has been done, and progress made, sociological research shows that the grammar schools are still preferred by the great majority of parents in all income groups for their children. There is a strong movement in favor of the comprehensive school in England. The Labor Party supports it, and so do others for non-political reasons. There are several of these schools already in existence. The comprehensive school is like the American high scllool but with an important difference. All that the grammar school has achieved in quality has to be preserved in the equality of the comprehensive school. There zy zyxwvu 19591 THE EDUCATIONAL F O R U M is a variety of courses for each agegroup, according to its ability, ranging from grammar school type requirements to courses for backward children. Oxford and Cambridge gave the same conservative, minority lead to other English universities, most of which were founded in the 19th century, and the result is that there is a high and closely comparable standard in all the universities of the United Kingdom. At first glance about 3% of the age-group in England go to university as compared with 18% in the U.S.A. But this figure for England does not include any technical colleges of high reputation which are in the university class in the U.S.A. Nor do the English include nursing, physiotherapy, journalism or as a rule librarianship or accounting in university courses. English teacher training colleges do not award degrees. So the figure of 3% of university students needs much correction for valid comparison-I should judge 12% or higher would not be far wrong. And England will increase its university population by another 50% (from 80,000 to 120,000 or more) in the next decade. Mr. Conant, Dr. Gardner and all the others insisting on the importance of quality in education and appropriate treatment of the academically talented emphasize that there is in many places in the United States a danger of confusing equality of opportunity with identity of opportunity. I n many places of course this is already recognized-for example the high intellectual excellence of some private schools like Exeter, Andover, Kent, the special requirements of zyx 289 schools in various States like the Bronx School of Science, the academic selectivity of Harvard, Yale, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore and Reed College. Yet the backbone of the United States system of education is the high school and in various places experiments have been tried by arranging additional subjects, by enriching existing courses, by acceleration in the school and in the university to deal with the needs of the academically talented. If the National Education Association and many books and articles published in recent months are to be believed, the dominant pattern in the American high school is still of common courses according to yearly grades and where more stringent alternative courses are offered as options the free choice open to many pupils enables them to reject the kind of work which has been arranged for their special needs. The matter can be summed up by relating it to the policy of counselling, to the freedom of choice of the parent, to the freedom of choice of the pupil, to the requirements of examinations and to the policy for admission to universities. In the United States the problem seems to be how to encourage intellectual excellence while maintaining equality (and this has to do with lessons of character which the school has to undertake so that high ability carries with it a corresponding sense of responsibility). I n England the problem seems to be the reverse. England started with a minority education both in the grammar school and the university, a quality education, and her problem is to extend the zyxwvu zyxw zyxwvu zyx 290 zyxwvutsrq THE EDUCATIONAL FORUM application and the principle of equality in education. England and the U.S.A. must both do these things not only to justify themselves as nations, but because, as Dr. Gardner says, their concern for human excellence is a reflection of their democratic belief in the over-riding dignity of man. MARCH K. STEVENSON SHAFFER March, the in-between Of winter’s browns and springtime’s greens. The laborer with sturdy hands Who breaks the frozen ice clad bands Of winter’s prison on the earth. March, the bringer of new birth. March, that blustering son Who undergirds and is at one With springtime’s hopes and pleasant plans; Who stirs the sleeping lazy land, Who shakes the trees and prods the hills And whispers “Soon” to the daffodils.