Professor Afraid Russians Leading U.S. in Education

Phillipe E. LeCorbeiller, professor of Applied Physics, believes that Russia will take over world leadership in education if colleges must continue to perform the secondary school task of teaching intellectual rudiments.

"Colleges," LeCorbeiller said, "cannot build on the assumption that entering freshmen have a certain level of knowledge, because the majority of them do not. At Harvard, we get a crop of young intelligent people in the freshman year, but we lose one or two years in giving them elementary training," he said.

No Questions Asked

Citing a tendency on the part of many high schools to give students an "academic joyride," LeCorbeiller added that "it is more pleasant for us to be liberal as regards our teen-agers, but can we afford such educational freedom when we are competing with a nation centered on scientific and technical development?

"The Soviet is openly building up its military and industrial potential. It doesn't bother to ask youngsters what they like. They take mathematics, chemistry, and foreign languages, and no questions are asked," he said.