EDUCATION BEYOND POLITICS
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our society, the lowering of standards, crime, punishment, drug abuse,
etc. By pushing blame and guilt up and down the ladder it is possible to
avoid
all
action. But ultimately the buck stops at the university level: that
is where we have the choice of doing remedial work, of failing those
who can't make the grade - whatever we determine that grade to be -
or of lowering standards in order to fool ourselves. And only when some
of us teach abroad and notice the inordinately higher levels of knowl–
edge attained by the average university student, or when we read the
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) report on the subject,
are we forced to confront how watered-down our curricula have be–
come. (I am not talking of some of the pockets of excellence in specific
programs.)
Now that presidential campaigning has begun in earnest, more than
ever, it seems to me, the state of education is highlighted as a central
topic - if not of substance then of rhetoric and promises: whether or not
to funnel student aid to good students or avoid linking such aid to per–
formance; whether or not to award scholarships in line with minority
status; whether or not to take money away from science linked to de–
fense expenditures; whether to support or oppose the use of federal funds
for fetal-tissue research. All of these loaded issues, though played out pri–
marily at the university levels, address voters all along the political spec–
trum; and as the political campaign heats up, all of education is bound
to become an ever larger political football in what I might call the
macro arena.
If, in fact, substantive policies to reverse the unfailing trend toward
mediocrity should ensue from these politically-fueled polemics, such
policies inevitably will be implemented by more layers of administrators.
Even if successful, these at best will have a trickle-down effect. And it will
take time
to
change what happens in all of our schools, in what I might
call the micro arena. There, entrenched bureaucrats have tenure, are
difficult to influence and even more difficult to dislodge. Nevertheless,
some things are happening: programs to raise the level of literacy by such
groups as the Literacy Volunteers of America, Inc. are functioning - al–
though these prove what many deny, that, for instance, in New Jersey,
800,000 Americans can't read; NEH-supported programs are in place and
help improve teachers' knowledge and performance; outreach efforts of
all
sorts tty to raise the level of expectation for American students - to
lift them in order to compete with their counterparts in France, Japan,
Gemlany, and elsewhere. It behooves us to encourage such programs.
1would like us to address how we could help accelerate such efforts,
how we might be able to have the macro input bring about changes on
the micro levels. It is my sense that those of you who are here, and those
who have said to us that they wished they had the time to be here, have
