| Show lion's Review of This review reprinted from the New York Times Book John W. Gardner has found a crack in our democratic philosophy that is widening into a On the one hand we are we believe that everyone should have a chance to fulfill himself and to go as fast and as far as he let the best man On the other hand we are we distrust aristocracies of any whether of or even we dislike people who are and those who make us feel These two attitudes tend to cancel each other A high-school principal will arrange special classes for brighter students only to be faced with this recent solemn school system in which one child may fail while another succeeds is undemocratic and un Let a college raise its standards and its entrance requirements and it will get indignant letters from alumni to the effect that it is becoming an egghead with teams that win no The worker who achieves 50 per cent more in an hour than others may be warned by his union that his unnecessary energy is pacing his slower fellows out of a The local if he happens to be an educated learns that there are some things it will pay him to deliberately slovenly the studied fumble and the calculated inelegance have achieved the status of minor art Perhaps no people believe so in education as but let some Carol Kennicott come up with ideas that set her and a disapproving buzz runs the length of Main To Gardner all this is It forces upon us the question whether democracy may not after all be the enemy of It was brought into existence in order to free men for such will be raked from the said it seems hardly to have occurred to him that his beloved democracy might level the geniuses down rather than level the masses But these masses have found ways unknown to him of bringing their tastes into Through the box office they fix the quality of screen and through the newsstand they tell editors what to seek and therefore writers what to supply through their as to records and they set the goals of countless The noble enterprise of making everyone literate has as its monument a mountain of pulps and Quantity smothers Is the disease beyond It is Gardner but not and his book is a plea-a well informed and eloquent plea-for action while yet there is For a democratic disease the only radical cure is a democratic which means in this case a general change of must face the fact that there are a good many things in our character and in our national life which are inimical to standards the desire for a fast the American fondness for short reluctance to criticize name only a if these attitudes can destroy the opposite attitudes can raise and maintain feelings spread from parents to children by quick a recent visit to says wife asked a Dutchwoman why children and adults in that country showed such an extraordinary high incidence of language expect it of the woman said think it Excellence will grow only in a social soil in which it is thought really In these matters we get what we cannot worship frivolity and expect young people to scorn We cannot score the life of the mind and expect our young people to honor What does excellence Certainly not just the ability to come out on top in academic Granted that a Yale or Princeton Phi Beta Kappa is much worth there is no reason why a boy should measure himself by that glittering yardstick or why other institutions should ape the Ivy What we or ought to from the boy is his own kind of excellent plumber is infinitely more admirable than an incompetent The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold What we should insist on from what we should make the base of our own is whatever the work may The business of as Gardner calls of making the most of one's native capital in one's own and the public interest should be a and a lifelong to which formal schooling is only a Gardner is much concerned about the things that block recognition of excellence in A curiously important one is the resentment of the the measures designed to assist the gifted youngster are such as to arouse hostility in those who are not gifted their there is certain to be a How is this to be There are various just is that of we or classes in which the boy who is helpless in Latin but skillful with his hands can be helped to find Another point of prudence is the avoiding of labels which identify some children as first-class citizens and others as best system is that advocated by James B. in which students are grouped according to performance in each specific A pupil might be in the top group in one subject and not in This suggestion is symbolic of Gardner's whole When confronted with the Either education for all or the special education of the he both or We cannot afford to sacrifice To be education for all is a giddy no nation has ever achieved none has even attempted it on the heroic American Yet we are coming amazingly near to and we are committed to going Must we sacrifice quality in doing we cannot do that no less than any other form of must foster excellence if it is to And what we must we If we courageously meet the dilemma head we can show the world the way in If we accept either horn we shall certainly go down to |
