SIDNEY HOOK
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of all the syllabi I have seen, I would say that the Syllabus for Struc–
tured Liberal Education, modified to include an analysis of central
concepts of science and scientific method as well as references to
other cultures, could very well serve as a paradigm course for all stu–
dents. But there is no need to make that choice now. What is neces–
sary is to curb the great divergence among the different eight (some
envisage ten) tracks that will try to implement the mandated
changes. Otherwise, the upshot may well be a series of unrelated
courses so different from each other that the whole notion of a com–
mon unitary educational experience will be defeated. This has hap–
pened before, and unless the engaged faculty keeps before it the
ideals of a liberal arts education, it may happen again.
• • •
The basic educational or philosophical issue raised by
reflections on curriculum building involves a larger question than
the particular required course of study at Stanford or Boston Uni–
versities or anywhere else.
It
is whether we are to develop informed
men and women capable of continuing their own education, with
open minds, free of zealotry, aware of the challenges to their own
first principles and yet confident in the validity of their own reflec–
tive choices, prepared to defend the principles of a free and liberal
civilization against enemies from any quarter, and with the imagina–
tive capacity to see the human being even in the enemy. Those so
educated, in a world of tension and conflict, are more likely to adopt
the policy of live and help live with others, and, failing that, the
policy of live and let live.
The schools and universities are not the only educational agen–
cies in society. In addition to the home, our economic, political, and
cultural organizations have a pervasive educational influence, too.
Unless they also reflect the basic values of democracy as a way of
life, schools and universities cannot have much influence beyond
their own precincts. Our hope should be that a proper educational
experience will develop citizens with the knowledge, skills, and
values required for intelligent action. This is in no way a defense of
the status quo, because, as John Dewey used to say, literally in a
world of change, there is no status quo. The influence of the past for
good or bad is always present.
It
is the task of creative intelligence to
use what is valid in the past and present to face and, it is to be
hoped, determine the future.
