Page Two Editorials . . . Protests — but only more war The recent peace demonstrations in Des Moines, New York and other parts of the country have been overshadowed by the bombing of Haiphong and the prospects for a continuing escala— tion of the Vietnam war. Most Americans did not need the words of an anonymous military oiiicial who said the Haiphong attack was a “tremendously important intensification of the air war" 1(quoied from the Des Moiner Register, April 21), As the war grows in seriousness and the numbers of casualties mount (this year prob- ably more American soldiers will he killed than during the peak of the Korean War) the possibilities for peace seem very dim, Most Americans still go along with the war effort and Congress in as willing as ever to provide the billions of dollars needed to continue the conflict. Yet, as the recent demonstrations indicate, more and more Americans are willing to take some positive nation to protest of the war. We were greatly encouraged by the num- ber of students (and even some faculty members) who went to the Des Moinen march. While it may be effectively argued that protest: "don't do any good" it may also be argued that larger and mom militant protests might cause some moderation of the Johnson policy. And it is also probably true that active responsible protest is the only means of effective expression left open to those opposed to the war effort and the current direction of American foreign policy it is easy to despair of the present situation, but a moral commitment to peace precludes giving up protest and yielding to those in power. — K. N. The ”Riot” — only oi symptom The excessive drinking and property destruction which occur on “Spring Riot" night are symptoms of a Grinnell social problem which differs only in degree and not in kind from Lhe usual. The administration‘s decision to abolish the “Riot” may indeed be jus- tiiied by the very intensity of these symptoms, but fails to come to grips with Ihe problems which are not peculiar to that night and were, in fact, less severe in this year’l "Riot" than in previous years! "Riot” night was only one additional indication that Grinnell men and women do not lmow how to meet and enjoy one another when the social iormalities are removed. Instead, as on this Spring night, they drink excessively and wander forlomly around the cam- pus waiting for a seasonal miracle to sweep them off their feet Grinnell is a difficult place for many people to meet members or the opposite set. The physical separation of the campuses. along with the separate dining rooms, force them to rely on formalities. In a school this small it should be simple and natural for men and women to meet casually. While the elimination of women’s hours and someday the extension or dorm visitations may someday ease this situation, they cannot remove the obstacle presented by segs regation of men and women in opposite ends of the campus Because of our fear of tampering with North Campus traditions and because of the imminenoe of joint dining faciiiitec, we have too long postponed the issue of integration of the campuses. This is perhaps the single most important issue to raise in the search tor a real Grinnell community — M. M. “Four-letter“ words Last week Th 11W printed the word “shit" when quoting the former lowa State University Itudent body pmident. The year before last when the Itudeni newspaper printed a "fotmletler" word the Publicltoim Committee [inhibited Editor John Wolf tom ever doing Io again. We were heartened this year. therefore, to luiow that tho present Committee realized that accurate re— porting sometimes necessitates the priming of . “fourvletter” wordl ——K. N. The Grinnell Reporter (formerly the Scarlet i! Block) Grinnell College ‘tiunll. Iowa Salli A weekly newspaplr published emu Friday or the college yclr by tho Grinnell Committee on Stu- BPS Member of "I. Colkqlch Press Service mlron ,, nusmcss tumour mucous. nan A non: E11111)! _ nuns rnomonarnn con EDITOI . SCIENCE consunrnur _— _ Joh- Wolf Immune ours 7- nuns. m, l.- Elk, A-‘y Isl-cl. he calm, Mary Ideal-n. no. mar, uni. noun-i, lt-vo Dill-n. nil Guy. rum nu dent rubliutions. Represented ror national silver. tisinz by .iioriul Advertlllnz service. lllc., college Publish nepnsentative, it as: both street. New York 22. .v. Second cllsl pori-u paid ll Grinnell. fowl. subscription rm ratio per school rm. ratio wild subscriptions. nrynvu Noun-n nu.- mil tin-old rm. rtolllr win-lo or m Ilm Sch-rim: "— Imv ml im x-eser - n Sub-mi TECHNICAL lurnvrso- ______._snmy winch- The Grinnell REPORTER ssivrdny, Apr" 12. m7 Eastmanmiiyivillucalion l By George Eastman (Education) Education is not schooling. The latter is what almost all students acquire in public elementary and secondary schools. it consists of acquiring iniorrnetion that remains external to the pulse of feeling, thinking, and experiencing that marks the real life of the learner. To be schooled means to be able to recite names, dates, and events in history but to be insensitive to their significance for one’c personal life and the contemporary scene; or in be able to distinguish among hedo- nistic. utilitarian, cmotivist Ethical theories but '0 be insensitive to the reasons for and justifica- tion of one! own behavior. The process of schooling tends to be based upon assumptions, generally implicit, regarding the nature of the learner, the subject»matter, the teacher, and the school. The learner is an im- mature person who needs to be “completed." His proper place is to absorb what is extended to him from without. Learning consists mainly at passive. but hopefully efficient, absorption of ready-made facts. At best the learner might be an apprentice — an imitator of the master — at worst a compliant sponge. Subject matter is assumed to be reflective of an underlying reality structure independent or time and place. Continuities in the development of human life are stressed, discontinuities ignored or minimized. The present is largely a new ex- pression of old truths, The teacher is the privi< leged repository of these unchanging truths, His training and status establish him as the chief giver of information and passer of judgment. l-lir task is to begin with a partially filled receptacle and to end with having added to it appreciably. The school is a systematic means of ensuring cultural continuity and compliance with the fa- miliar, tried, and tnle. Its function is to encultur- ate: to fill-up the learner with the current values, conceptual categories, facts, and attitudes. The process of schooling produces a person in us. culture who possesses a body oi received information at best tangential to the pulse of his real life, who is driven by compulsive competi- tiveness and frenetic acquisitiveness, and who is gripped by an acute sense of dissonance between the requirements of coniorming to a tackedon superstructure of behavior and values and the de mands of genuine elmeriencing. To be schooled may, at best, mean that one is ready to be edu— cated, at worst, that one has been handicapped. The process of education is also based upon generally implicit amumptlons. The learner is s person in transit. as complete at any moment I: he can be, c dynamic, acting agent who struc- tures his world in the very process of perceiving in Learning consists of I vital [rindic interaction among learner, subject, and teacher. It is an ac- tive process of discovering and relating, particu- larly of relating received abstractions to men gut-sense of reality. The learner is an active, inquiring agent, performer and spectator at once, partner in the Continuous process of coalescing external and internal realities. Subject matter is relative to the perceiver. to time, place, to context. Meanings ate relative to conceptualrlinguistic frameworks that may or may not — 8 matter to be individually deter- mined _ themselves be rooted in "fundamenml," “universal,” “unchanging truths." Knowledge is continuously restructured, progressively by each generation, dramatically in response to drastic change. The present is a pastiche of the novel, the worn, the absurd, the beautiful, the erroneous, the tragic, and has sign' icanoe tor the educated person in direct proportion to the extent to which be has made the present part of his genuine ex- perienclng. The teacher is in a cohort, one of I legion an tively but cooperatively seeking to know and to experience the world. The teacher seeking to edu- cate is first of all caught-up in the continuou- task being himself educated. He, too. is I person in transit and, depending upon his ricer“, and the conditions of the teaching setting, may be learn- ing more than he is teaching. Teaching is a co- operaiive venture to which both learner and teacher contribute in an attempt lo share inter- nal realities and to relate these to the "outer" world with which they are in the process of inter- acting. The school is an instrument through which the human being is both aided in incor- porating the conceptual categories, values, and attitudes of his own and other cultures. and in scrutinizing these critically in the light of his developing sense of reality, truth, and goodness The school is, therefore, no more a preserver of the past than a purveyor of the futon. it is an instrument for establishing and furthering I process of critical, active experiencing, the out- come of which cannot, Ind ought not to be, pre- determined. The educated man knows himself, and through this, knows borers; is emphatically sensitive to those immediately around him, and, by exten— sion, to all mankind; whose knowledge is a genu- ine part oi his ongoing, real life; who has mas- iered the basic techniques for acquiring and processing information in an era of information explosion; and who, above all, realizes he is A person forever in the process of becoming. What of Grinnell College? If one holds that Grinnell freshmen have yet to be educated, may be handicapped by their prior schooling, and that being educated is a continuous task extending throughout line’s life, the College has two main tasks: remedial and preparatory. it is unlikely that “New Student Days" at any limited period preceding freshman year is ade- quate to remedy the defects of schooling or even to alert students to the difference between being educated and schooled. The General Education program might be viewed as a type of crash pro- gram that'could assist the student in making the lmnsition out of schooling to Education. But.do the Historical Studies, Humanities, Foreign Lark gunge, Science, Fine Arts requirements do this? Or do these courses largely give more of the same — more schooling; or confuse the issue by serving up both in an unplanned misalliallce? Do the General Education courses stress education as a preparation tor a life-long process of critical and passionate experiencing? is taking forty-plus hours in one's major or iocusing upon graduate work and advanced degrees more conduiuve to a schooling or to an educating attitude? How is tho leanier viewed at Grinnell — passive recipient, Ipprenfioe, imitator of the learned master? is it conducive to being educated to feel that one'l task is basically to mishap on intellectual-Cultural fare made available It s predetermined rate in n master-Ipprcntfce context; or miyrt not s re- lationship of shared, Wrative lanIlry into matters that mslte a personal difference to both teacher and learner be more conduclve In lchiev< ing education for Ill concerned? Will one who view- himself Is I passive receiver or previously established truths known best by u privileged class be prepared to enter upon the life-long process of becoming educated? L! the altered nature of lmawledge reflected in department and division structures, in course otierings, and in staffing policies of the College? And how does Grinnell view itself as a school? is it an instniment through which students and faculty are aided in the continuous process of coming to know themselves and the world, or is it mainly preoccupied with perpetuating a learned class, learned pmiessions, imitators of the mas- ters? How often do the rewards go to the schooled rather than to the educated? High grade point average may represent adeptness at schooling, but is it an indication of having been educated? Still, there Ire students who leave Grinnell more educated than schooled; but is this the rule, and, when achieved, the mull of sellcon- scious planning? There are outcroppings of edu- cation at Grinnell that occur with it frequency sufficient to recommend it as an irstitutinn genu- inely striving to educate; but these outcroppingc project horn a plain or schooling that urgently needs weeding if such outcmppingii are not to in covered like some lost temple.