Swarthmore College - Halcyon Yearbook (Swarthmore, PA)

Page 8 text:

A PHILOSOPHY 01 ' EDUCATIOX She ' s a rum ' un is Education, to paraphrase Mr. Squeers in Nicholas Nickleby, . . . more easier concei ed than described. Certainly no one des- cription would fit the philosophies and programs this country offers its students, and no one statement ivill do justice to the educational ideals of Swarthmore College, or reflect the differences of opinion of those whose business it is to formulate and execute the program. Three propositions, howe er. summarize

Page 7 text:

rTi To all of those who are Swarthmore Col- lege, this book is respectfully dedicated. It is so dedicated with unspoken praise and with a word of caution. To the Alumnae ... we shall soon be you, and there is no difference between us. To the Administration that the least of the reasons we come to Swarthmore is to sleep in your dorms, eat in your dinng rooms and live by your regulations . . . that rules and regulations are made to help people live together, not to hinder them . . . and that a frank admission is to be preferred to soft words. To the Faculty . . . that your part of the college lies far beyond your class rooms . . . that we come here unlearned, but we do so in order that we may learn . . . that freedom of education means equal opportunity, and judgment solely upon merit. To the Students that you are here for the development of the mind, and of the inner self, rather than of the ego . . . that no group has the right to take it upon itself — unbid- den — to say how others shall live and act . . . that the engineer with his road and the scien- tist with his experiment, each have a respon- sibility as to their destination or use, and he cannot claim an occupational deferment from the world around him . . . that apathy is one of the greatest enemies . . . and that time is not standing still while we prepare for the future, and our lives now are no less im- portant than what is to come. .

Page 9 text:

certain features in Lne practice and ideals of the college. 1) A liberal education involves the development and discipline of the mind. A disciplined mind is one that knows how to analyze complex data and to rise methods suitable to the material. To do so, it must possess at least some of the common intellectual skills necessary to the understanding of man and his environment, including the appraisal of values inherent in human action. Intellectual discipline is, in the last analysis, self-discipline, and the college can but provide the setting and the tools. Each individual must depend upon his native qualities plus the use made of time and opportunity. Freedom from many conventional academic restrictions puts the responsibility on the indi idual. The honors program, above all, is designed to foster this intellectual discipline and achievement. Introduced twenty-five years ago by President Aydelotte to compensate for what he called the academic lock-step of mass education, it is needed even more today. Some students want combinations not a ailable and elect to remain in course. Some do not want to make the effort that honors work requires. Some are not yet capable of it. Honors work is not the only method of intellectual sahation, but its success at Swarthmore and the subsequent wide imitation elsewhere emphasize the first ideal of genuine education. 2) A liberal education provides a common background. The range of human knowledge and the diversity of individual interests are so great that some degree of specialization is necessary and desirable. Equally necessary and desirable is a certain amount of common information and intellectual background. If men are- to deal intelligently with their problems as members of society, they need to understand each other ' s language. The scientist cannot be a good citizen if he is ignorant of economics and politics. The political economist cannot understand the natural scientist if he knows nothing of the rigor if the scientific method. Both ought to be familiar with the classis expressions in philosophy and literature of tlie way men have conceived human life. Thus, a liberal education ought to deal with certain broad concerns of men in their relations with each other, concerns which underlie their indi idual enjoyment of life and their common efforts to develop a civilized societ). For this purpose some subjects are more important than others. This recog- nition is embodied in the new curriculum vith its various required courses in the first two years. There is room for debate whether the particular subjects now prescribed are the best or whether the content of the requiresd courses best serves the common end. The ideal, howe ' er, is receiving increasingly -svide recognition in contemporar education. S)A liberal education includes the development and disclipine of the emotions. Those who look uison the college or university as a kind of intellectual factory only, are wrong. The development of the mind and of the emotions do not alwa)s go handin hand. The ideal is the growth of the t vo together, and any college which fails to recognize both the ideal and the close i-iterconn°ction of the two in the actual learning process is failing in its responsibility. This is why the spirit and attitude embodied in a college are as important as its intellectual standards and methods. The Quaker tradition of Swarthmore plays an important role in providing a framework of values and attitudes which cannot be taught in classes, but which permeate the institution in the quiet way typical of the Society of Friends. Student activities contribute to the total education. They are not sideshows, but, when used wisely,should form an integral part of the academic program. In proper proportion, they are a vital part of a liberal edu- cation concei cd as the de elopment of men and women whose intelligence is directed bv character and ivhose philosophy of life is sharpened bv discii lined and informed minds. JOHN W. NASON