Page -2
The Daily Nebraskan
Wednesday, April 20, 1960
Editorial Comment:
Service Station Akin
To U.S, University?
'Has higher education in the United
States taken on aspects of a coyntry club,
housing project and vocational high
school?
The answer to the above question' is
yes, according to Dr. Robert Hutchins,
former president of the University of Chi
cago, writing in the May edition of Mc
Call's magazine. '
Hutchins goes on to say that "the uni
.versity in America is not a community of
scholars, but an enormous agglomerate
service station, where one" can be born, go
to kindergarten, lower school and high
school, meet the girl friend and get mar
ried; where one canget religious solace
or psychiatric help; where one learns to
turn out a newspaper, to do bookkeeping,
to cook. No wonder the universities have
been hiring generals to run this domain.".
Why so many and so often bizarre
courses of study offered in the average
American college catalog?
Pressure is the reason, Hutchins says
pressure of interested groups "seeking to
gain some special advantage for them
selves and their children."
And the triviality, frivolity and irrele
vance -of American education must be
blamed on those responsible for the man
agement of " it, Hutchins claims. "They
have decided that it is in the interest of
their institutions to be trivial, frivolous
and irrelevant."
Why? Because they want to make the
college attractive to large quantities of
students and to interested money donors.
Almost every American college or uni
versity is seeking to raise enormous sums.
And by being different, perhaps by taking
on an "intellectual" or "odd" academic
conduct, it will undoubtedly raise the im
pression in the mind of the student or do
nor that, as Hutchins puts it, "the stu
dents are radical, even subversive, and
probably do not bathe very often."
Donors will shy away.
' Hutchins says he "has little doubt that
our colleges and universities need nlore
money . . . Certainly the maximum sal
aries to university professors, now about
$1,5,000 a year, ought to be doubled if we
are to attract able men into teaching and
research. But if they are to teach frivolous,
trivial, irrelevant subjects, what good is
it to attract them?"
Hutchins then presents a supposition.
What if a college or university did decide
to devote itself to true education and
nothing else. And he gives as his defini
tion of true education that which "is the
improvement of men through helping them
learn to think for themselves."
Hence the limitation of departments,
professional schools and courses to those
with some intellectual content, and the
retirement of professors who were incap
able of, or uninterested in, taxing part in
such work would make possible a splendid
salary level for those who remain.
Perhaps part of the trouble with Ameri
can universities is that they have taken on
the . jobs that other institutions can or
ought to do.
Sir Edward Boyle, 73ritian's Parlia
mentary Secretary to the Minister of Ed
ucation, remarked recently: "Girls can
learn to make coffee at home."
Can the educational system take on the
responsibilities of the family and the
church. The answer obviously is no. The
attempts probably will only weaken the
family and church.
Can the system accept the job of build
ing physiques, inculcating social graces,
training job holders and consumers, teach
ing people how to play games, and at the
same time exert intellectual leadership?
The answer again must be no.
Why? As Hutchins puts it "The rea
son is that an institution is held together
by a vision of an end. If it has no clear
vision of a definite end, it must fall apart;
it must fail."
Is it necessary for the University of Ne
braska to offer such courses as "Costume
Selection," "Elementary Clothing Con
struction,1" "Marriage and Home Relation
ships," "Body Conditioning and Weight
Training," "Square and Social Dance,"
"Camp Leadership," and the many, many
others of the same general nature?
If so, we may have to, as the French
critic Ernest Renan said, expiate our er
ror "... by intellectual mediocrity, vul
garity of manners, superficial spirit, fail
ure in general intelligence."
Hutchins says nothing is more striking
than the absence of connection between the
basic problems in America and the educa
tional program of America.
Our real needs are to discover how to
make democracy work, how to survive in
the nuclear age, and what to do with our
selves if we do survive.
Hutchins ends his arguments with this
enlightened outlook:
"A system of accomodation cannot help
us meet these needs. If we are to meet
them, we shall have to dedicate our col
leges and universities to the production
of disciplined intelligence, and to that
alone."
Staff Comment:
A Leftist's View
By Sandi Looker
University official type people must have As a specific example of this, Follett
had a busy vacation approving budgets, mentions a recently published manual of
accepting research and training grants, ap- rhetorical practice, "A Dictionary of Con
pointing a dean and administrators, ac- temporary American Usage."
. cepting resignations and alL The authors of this volume are supposed
Wish they had been too r to be authors of prestige and influence,
busy to formally approve r" "V 0ne is a professor of English at a uni-
the request for retirement J M versity and the other is a writing consult-
made by Dr. Lane Lan- jk ant in the Department of Health, Educa-
in !
.. . , - all impression that acceptable usages are
retirement on several oc- ' i . " ..
casion. Now U hasrea?y ; a! breatU "
happened and it's too bad. .,''' '
The University is losing Sandi Tbose wbo accept and aPP usaes
an inspiring instructor. . recommended and condoned in the diction
Anyone who has escaped from this iiv wm come out shaking and writing an
stitution without having taken a course American English represented by this
from Dr. Lancaster has missed a great scattering:
educational experience. "I can't imagine it being him;" "each
carried their own pack;" "not one of them
Just before vacation I had the oppor- ernS;" "nobody was killed, were
tunity to hear a discussion on British for- ' Who are you looking for?" These
eign policy led by the editor of the Man- ? but few examples of sloppy English
Chester Guardian. The ' discussion itself mZ tolerated by and popularized by
was quite impressive equally impressive 80me semanticists.
was the manner in which the Englishman Follett says its time we had a philoso-
spoke. . Pny of usaSe grounded in the steadfast
Each thought was most carefully con- conviction that the best is not too good to
ftracted into an artful sentence. ' aspire to.
This leads up to an article I read in The Language changes being accepted
Atlantic Monthly not too long ago. En- , "show the length to which we can carry
titled "Grammar Is Obsolete," author conformism and the terror of being
Wilson Follett expresses indignation at the noticeable in a society that is daft with
slipshod usage of English in the United democracy and sick with sin," he re
States, marks.
Linguistic scholarship, he says, once an
encouragement to the most exacting defini- The West Coast just isn't what it used to
tions and standards of workmanship has be. A senior in NROTC will verify this,
for some time been dedicating itself to the I'm sure. He put that location as one of
abolition of standards. the three choices of places he would pre-
"The new rhetoric evolved under its fer to go following graduation,
auspices is an organized assumption that His orders have arrived and he got the
language good enough for anybody is ' good West Coast Kodiak, Alaska. Tough break,
enough for everybody," he comments. Bears are okay, though. Nice and cuddly.
Daily Nebraskan
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Zlr-icr: AssswisSci CeUeslate Press, lata- "ttSST i tj .
Representative: National AdTtrtUln 8ty- EHMr r toual nkn
PibMsbed at: Room 20, gtudeitf Cotoa na ram
Triepttone RE 1-7631, ext. 4225, 4226, 4227 , w shHihrrl
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' IZATSl I DONT kNOW tOHV
Daily Nebraskan Letterips
No'Upslips'
To the Editor:
An Open Letter to the Di
vision of Student Affairs:
Dear Bureaucrats:
I received your message
during Easter vacation. My
little brother called me on
the phone and said, "Hey,
Mel, you got a downslip!"
Later, I looked aUit and
none of the items were
checked, so how do I know
whether it was my health,
or attitude, or whatever
that put me down? j
Frankly your note didn't
tell anything that I didn't
already know. So why do
yon send out downslips?
You never praise me for the
courses where I should get
upslips. 1
But seriously, here's my
big gripe: I am now almost
22 years old and you sent
a copy to my Dad. He took
me over, his knee and pad
dled me til I cried. Then he
said:
"Son, you know how
much it hurts me deep in
side when we get down
slips." I said, "Yes, Daddy,
I know. It . hurts me,too."
Then he said, "You gon
na promise to study hard
er?" "Yes, Daddy,"
"You gonna polish that
ofd prof's apple?"
"Yes, Daddy."
So, I would appreciate it
if you bureaucrats (I mean
you Student Affairs peo
ple) would please not send
any more downslips to Dad
dy, because it disturbs him
terribly and I'm too old to
be decently spanked.
P. s. If you Student
Affairs people are really
concerned about my prog
ress in that course (Rus
sian History),' I wish you'd wouldn't understand that
help me understand a vi- either.
cious paperback assigned. Sincerely, Your Pen-Pal
But I've got a hunch you Melyvn "Buck ' tameperry
. . . Forget it
By Dick Stuckey v
Now that everybody's (
back, what they gonna do?
Huh just study more I'll
bet! Classes start Monday
so they all come back to
go-to'em. My gosh what
a bunch of sissys!
Education! What a big
joke! Ho Ho! Intellectuals,
pooohh! You big sissys!
Zoology and algebra and
conjunctions and Verbs and
stuff nobody ever heard of!
What good's that stuff ever
gonna do you, huh, what
good's that stuff ever gon
na do you?
Now that the learned
have spoken, we will turn
to literature in a most ver
satile turning this most ver
satile morning or day or
whatever. And the litera
ture we will turn to will be
the most versatile litera
ture turned to yet Tl bet.
Being Mother Goose's lit
erature for children of all ,
ages the Stone Age, the
Rock Age, the Insurance
Age, the Sex Age, the War
Age, the Horse Age, the
Cow Age, and the Banana
Soup Age and this Age,
the Age of Symbolism.
And so to Mother Goose
and the Symbolism which
is there in her rhymes I'll
bet.
We shall start with the
classic, Little Bo Peep:
"Little Bo Peep has lost
her sheep,
And doesn't know where
to find them . ."
Enuff for a minute. Now
you see, the loss: which
Peep has encountered re
fers, not to the sheep, but
to something which Peep
has no mortal course to re
gain. Like she should have
listened to mother, and not
the Goose one.
And Peep v obviously
knows where to find her
loss, but only may make it
up to her morality. There
is a literary fallacy in the
metaphor here though, !
namely that the analogy
would lead to a look in the ,
barn for the loss, and Bo
Peep baby, not the barn, j
huntuh!
So you see, the loss is
permanent, unless you're
really serious about this re
incarnation bit, and even
then there is a possibility
that one returns as a form
of amoeba or something. -v
And now to the next:
"Mary had a little lamb, its
fleece was white as snow,
And everywhere that Mary
went, She carried with her
a variable rehostat."
There has been some con
troversy about this last line,
but it is generally accept
ed that whatever Mary
carried with her, It served
a psychological defense me
chanism which Mary had
formed within herself, pos
sibly for something she had
lost.
And now: "Humpty
Dumpty sat on a wall, had
a fall, etc., and all -the
King's horses couldn't (or
Wouldn't) put Humpty ' to
gether again."
This refers to the fall of
Rome and the apathetic
feeling of the horses in the
Empire after the end.
There is a theory, however,
that one horse, Melville
Knnapp, formed the League
Designated for the Rebuild
ing of a Bigger and Better
Rome, but Melville got beat I
out in the Rome Agricul
tural College IFC elections,
so he lost interest.
One more: "There was
an old lady who lived in a
shoe, who had so many
children she didn't know
what to do . . ." Enuff
again. Now here, the shoe
is directly symbolic and im
portant, but so is my enroll
ment, so goodbye, Goose
fans.
SO' ''r'-yj. I
ate '.r.7ffr.i&.-'?-toJimlk afflllaaMBWfclaiiaT ((
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On Campus
tvith
(Author of "I Wm a Teen-age Dwarf", "TU Many
Love of Dotne UtUts", etc.)
COLLEGE: THE FOE OF EDUCATION
In your quest for a college degree, are you becoming a narrow
specialist, or are you being educated in the broad, classical
sense of the word? This question is being asked today by many
serious people including my barber, my podiatrist, and my
little dog Spot and it would be well to seek an answer.
Let us examine our souls. Are we becoming expeite only in
the confined area of our majors, or does our knowledge rang
far and wide? Do we, for example, know who fought in the
battle of Salami?, or Kant's epistemology, or Planck's constant,
or the voyage of the Beagk, or Palesthna's cantatas, or what
Wordsworth- was doing ten miles above Tin tern Abbey?
If we do not, we are turning, alas, into specialists. What,
then, can we do to escape this strait jacket, to broaden our
vistas, lengthen our horizons, to become, in short, educated?
Well sir, the first thing we must do is throw away our curricula.
Tomorrow,' instead of going to the same old classes, let us try
something new. Let us think of college, not aa a rigid discipline,
but as a kind of vast smorgasbord, with all kinds of tempting
intellectual tidbits to sample and savor. Let us dive in. Let
our pent-up appetites roam and snatch where they will.
.Wwvaaa
lef as wtttitie on? &sfc.
We will start the day with a stimulating seminar in IlittiU
artifacts. Then we will go over to marine biology and spend a
happy hour with the mollu&ks. Then we will open our pores by
drilling with the ROTC for a spell. Then we'll go over to journal
ism and scramble a font of Bodoni. Then we'll go to the' medical
school and palpate a few spleens. Then well go to horn
economics and have lunch. ,
And between classes well smoke Marlboro Cigarettes. This,
let me emphasize, is not an added fillip to the broadening of our
education ; it is an euenlial. To learn to live richly and well is
an important part of education, and Marlboros are an important
part of living richly and well. Do you think flavor went out
when filters came in? Well, ha-ha, the joke is on you. Marlboro,
with its Selectrate filter, delivers flavor in full measure, flavor
without stint or compromise, flavor that wrinkled care derides,
flavor holding both its sides. This triumph of the tobacconist's
art comes to you in soft pack or flip-top box and can be lighted
with match, lighter, candle, Welsbach mantle, or by rubbing
two small Indians together.
When we have embarked on this new regimen or, more, ac
curately, lack of regimen we will soon be studded with culture
like a ham with cloves. When strangers accost us on the street
and say, "What was Wordsworth doing ten miles above Tintern
Abbey?" we will no longer slink away in silent abashment. W
reply loud and clear:
"As any truly educated person knows, Wordsworth, Shelley,
and Keats used to go the Wkldicombe Fair every year for the
poetry-writing contest and three-legged races, both t ' which
they enjoyed wildly. Well sir, imagine their chagrin when they
arrived at the Fair in 1776 and learned that Oliver Cromwell,
jittery because Guy Fawkes had just invented the spinning
jenny, had canceled all public gatherings, including the Widdi
combe Fair and Iiverpool. Shelley was so upset that he
drowned himself in the Bay of Naples, Keats went to London
and became Samuel Johnson, and Wordsworth ran blindly into
the foreet until he collapsed in a heap ten miles above Tintern
Abbey. There he lay for several years, sobbing and kicking his
little fat legs. At length, jjeace returned to him. He composed
himself and, noticing for" the first time the beauty of the forest
around him, he wrote Joyce Kilmer's immortal frees . . . And
that, smartypants, is what Wordsworth was doing ten miles
above Tintern Abbey." e imo m., mm
' '..
Foeti and peatanti alike know that If you like mildnes but
you don't like filter, you can't do better than, Marlboro'!
communion cigarette Philip Morri.
