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We shall not see a Sholom Aleichem or his world again. The unique
conjuncture of events in which he produced his art cannot in any sense
be duplicated. It is of course a temptation to speculate on what Tevye
would say of this modern world of ours. But then, as the incomparable
Tevye would also say-of such things it is perhaps better not to speak
at all.
IRVING
HowE
THE FIRST AND LAST QUESTION
EDUCATION FoR MoDERN MAN.
By Sidney Hook. Dial Press.
$2.75.
N
oT ONLY
is Sidney Hook a great teacher, but, as this book shows,
he is not infatuated with his own powers to the familiar extreme
where his own kind of teaching becomes the basis for a theory of edu–
cation. The easy successes of the classroom which corrupt so many teach–
ers have not made him forget that there are more serious and more
difficult tasks than winning the adulation of students. Hence there is
throughout this book a powerful critical sense about education, a free
and self-scrutinizing intelligence rare in a profession that tempts human
beings to be petty tyrants, epigrammatic or jocose Thespians, or preten–
tious egotists who identify mastery in the lecture hall or at the faculty
meeting with genuine mastery of a subject.
It must be said, however, that Hook comes to the brink of the first
question about education, its relationship to the society which has brought
it into being, and then answers this question in a way which leaves the
brink as dangerous as ever.
The question occurs in two forms. To those who say that good edu–
cation can only exist in a good society, Hook's answer is that this results
in "educational defeatism," since the conclusion is that "no change in
education is possible without changing society." Furthermore, Hook
maintains that although education cannot transform society, nonetheless
in a democratic society "it can do much, for good or evil, in influencing
social policy," chiefly by developing critical attitudes of thought and
professing democratic ideals. But as an answer, this is merely exhortation,
however wholesome.
The question occurs again when Hook declares that "the funda–
mental social problem of our
culture- fundamental in that it conditions
a satisfactory solution of all other important problems
[my italics] -is
to defend and extend our democratic heritage of rights and freedoms in
a democratic society which can provide security for all." Here Hook shifts
his attention to the problem of how a planned economy can be prevented
from destroying political democracy. His answer is that courage and in-
