THE PUBLIC MIND: PLEASE, LET US NOT NEGLECT THE `PEBBLES' IN HIGHER EDUCATION

To the Editor:

"Universities polish pebbles and dull diamonds."

Proverbs typically contain only partial truths, but the element of truth in the above one has been much in my thought~ lately. Anyone who disagrees with anything relating to public ~education quickly become~s a monster. ~"How can he say that? And he was a college professor for years.~"

I~t might be bad manner~s, but I believe deeply that certain directions taken in higher education should be questioned~. I list only two in this letter.~~

A. Almost everything in higher educat~ion in the last 20 years ha~s undergone massive changes. ~Yet mos~t of us s~eem to feel that education 50 years ago was better than today. It seems a violation of logic. If I find something I admire from earlier times, i~s it not sensible that I determine to continue those wo~rthwhile traditions~? Rather than flailing blindly after something new~, should I not e~xamine closely my own tradition~ and keep that which is good~.

A professor at a national meeting of English teachers began hi~s remarks by saying, ~"Let us admit that almo~st everything we have done in the past was wrong.~" I do not ~join him in that. Many things we have done in the past were quite correct, and our civilization prospered because of that. If I were running a university, I would b~e adamant about allowing massive change~ and creatin~g new, ill-defined positions which cost the system far more than clas~sroom teachers. At the least, wholesale change which has marked most ~univ~ersitie~s in the last decade is confusing to the student, who ~find~s requirement~s needlessly shi~fting. Certainly it is confusing to the t~eacher, ~who i~s asked to set aside as of little merit those ~~veritie~s to which he has devoted his life. And all of this is terribl~y ex~pensive.

B. I cannot accept without question the current emphasis~ upon ~"higher admission standards." Everything seems to be devoted to the ~diamond~.~ Unrealistic weight is placed upon the ACT and Grade Point as y~ardsticks in ~measuring the height of a ~student. I know that the governor mandates~ higher admission policie~s, I know that money is ti~ed to the polic~y. I realize that teacher~s ar~e suppo~sed to go into ecstasies at the prospects of teaching only dia~monds. I am aware that ~"regional ~junior colleges~" are suppo~sed to take care o~f the pebbles. ~Yet, in spite o~f all the arg~~uments, I continue to support educating the "pebble~s."

Schools were cr~eated for all of us. Every teacher tells warming success stories o~f mediocre students who came to SEMO and, by dint of effort and awakening,~ became wond~erfully wise and cultured. The world surviv~es because of them. ~~In the history of ~SEMO~, such students were the pr~~~ide of~~ all of us. Bright students will do well anyplac~e; perhaps advanced education may actually b~y l~ess important to them. Many are alre~ady advanced. But let u~s not neglect the pebble.

Peter Hilty

Cape Girardeau