ALVIN JOHNSON CALLS REPORT "SERVICE FOR U.S. EDUCATION"

Following is the comment on the General Education Report received yesterday from Alvin Johnson, Director of The New School for Social Research in New York City. Known chiefly for his interest in adult education and for his so-called "University in Exile" at the New School, Johnson is an independent thinker not associated with any of the "schools" of educational thought in America today.

"It is rarely the case that a work prepared by a committee, even a committee composed of distinguished scholars, takes its place among the best organized, most illuminating books in its field. A remarkable exception is the Report of the Harvard Committee on General Education. This book ranks with the most important American contributions to the literature of education. Indeed, I know of no work on education that is equally provocative of serious thought, equally wise, and particularly, equally interesting.

"While the focus of the study is the problem of Harvard College, the Committee never lost sight of the fact that college education at Harvard is an integral part of college education in the United States, and this in turn is an integral part of American education from the kindergarten to the Ph.D. and the professional colleges. It would have been impossible to cover this vast field comprehensively. But the evidence of the text shows that its authors possessed collectively so wide a range of knowledge that they have been able to dip into the vast reservoir of educational experience and bring out exactly the material most useful to their central purpose.

Cites Understanding of Social Dynamics

"Nor did the Committee ever lose sight of the fact that all present day education lives in the context of ages of education. Still more important is their pervasive understanding of the dynamics of social and economic life and the constant pressure upon education to adapt itself to social economic changes that in the aggregate compose a revolution.

"No serious educator can afford to neglect this study. Many educators may disagree with the conclusions of the Committee, but no one can find fault with their setting of the problems of education. I personally do not like their emphasis upon "tradition." If one chooses to be etymological and to cover by "tradition" whatever has been handed down from earlier ages, good. But I like to distinguish between the Golden Rule and Euclid on the one hand and such items as Cabinet responsibility on the other. The first two are discoveries of something of absolute and universal value. The last is a device belated in its formulation and likely to cumber the earth long after it has ceased to be useful.

"We have become very relativistic in the last two generations. Future educational historians will find in this book, sober and thoughtful as it is, more relativity than carries easily.

"But it is a great book and a great service Harvard has performed for American education.