The Generation Gap-WHY? - Herbert W. Armstrong

46
also spilled over into mu ch of th e
rest of the English-speaking world),
with all th e new liberalisms in soc iety,
the schools have been per haps th e.' most
liberal and "progressive" of all.
\X'ith " p rog ressive ed ucation," new
methods o f aud io-visual education, new
teaching aid s and new texts, complete
revo lution ary change s have occu rred in
\X!estern schoo l system s. First came the
m issile race, and a complete shifting in
emphas is in Am erica's schoo l systems.
In th e late fifties, the enti re emphasis
in Amer ican education was up on
a crash program to produce more doctors,
phy sicists, chemi sts, scientists of all
types. T he Un ited States fclt itself in a
despera te rush to catch up wi th Russia's
sensational " Sp utnik" lau nchi ng. wh ich
had captured the im,lg ina tion o f the
world and revealed th e ugly truth
that the Un ited Stat es was, ind eed ,
lagging behind what most of th e world
had always thought o f as a completely
agrarian and slow-moving society.
In the flurry of little-researched, and
hastily prepared text books and teaching
methods, Am erica's schools stru gg led
to m eet the new challenge.
Instead of recognizing the inherent
evils in specialization, and the immediate
dissolution in the cu ltural and
social values in the teaching of the tech ­
nologies, America's scho ol systems
plunged heed lessly in to a further g lori ­
fication of the machine, the process,
the com pu ter.
Only years later cou ld some of America's
universities beg in to appreciate
the wistful statemen t of the pi mp led
fr eshman who complained, "T he only
time I' m ever noticed arou nd here is
wh en I spindle my 1B1'1 card! "
The teaching of th e chil d psycho log
ists and their ad vocacy of no punis h­
ment, no d iscipl ine, an d no absolutes
had gained accep tanc e in the high est
ed ucational levels. Also, thousan ds
more were now abl e to Illf ord " hig her
education" because o f the new wave
of affluence, coupled with the d ema nd
for g reater specialization in all the
profession s and trad es,
H und reds arc the evil s of th e American
educational system, It' s one of the
best in th e world - for produc ing
scientists, specialists, che m ists, ma thematicians
- o r professional stu dents.
The PLA IN T RU T H
It's also on e of th e best in the wo rld
for producing d issidents, protestors, d isenc
ha nted stu den ts, and riots.
Today's textbooks ramble through
m illions of m iles of tr ivia - pounds
of pages of philosophy; and th e lists
o f pse udo -intellectuals produ ced by
substandard professors in substandard
classes deal ing in substandard d rivel
would rival the lists of honored dead
o f W orld W ar II.
Cite all the successf ul young corporation
executives you wish; point to all
the br igh t young men in g rey comm
andi ng large green salar ies yOll wish;
the stark fact s are America 's colleges