"Dr. McGrew's article stems from his informal remarks as a panel member during a campus discussion program."--Page 19."It is a matter of record that American students are ill prepared academically and that in the name of 'educating the whole child' we have debased our intellectual coinage."--Page 2By Roderick E. McGrew (Associate Professor of History)

McGrew, Roderick E.

University of Missouri: MOspace

Conformity and An ti-Intellectualism By Roderick E. McGrew Associate Professor of History J n recent years American educators have again taken stock, and their inventories have proved Lo- be fright-eningly low. The educational revolution accomp.lished in the wake of Dewey's progressivism and in the image of Columbia Teachers College destroyed much of value and added little which was positive. It is now only an academic point whether Dewey would have agreed with what was done in his name, for the re-sults are too much with us. lt is a matter of record that American students arc ill prepared academically and that in the name of "educating the whole child" we have debased our intellectual coinage. Recent Soviet scientific advances have focussed public atten-tion on these -continuing conditions, and now that: Sputnik's first shock is past, we are aware of the edu-cational shoddy which has passed for quality goods. Professional educators must bear the greatest re-sponsibility for the direction our schools have taken. \!\Tell organized pressure groups in state legislatures have dictated the curricula and training programs for primary and secondary schools, while the colleges n[ education have deeply influencetl the patterns an(l a ttitucles which modern American schools reflect. As a group possessing power and influence, the educators must also accept the responsibility which goes with power. But there is another point to be consiclerccl, and as an historian, T find it rather striking. Our edu-cational system is not _ something which developed apart: from society, but on the contrary it reflects ten-dencies which are fundamental to our social life. Put in these terms, education's present problems only open a larger issue and a more serious one which rests at the roots of our society. That problem appears in the current revulsion against intellectual values and the spirit of conformity which produced it. Intellectuals are very self-conscious these days, and indeed the intellectual is self-conscious by definition. For this reason I want to make it clear that anti-intel-lectualism does not mean just society's reaction to the intellectual. Rather it means ;i cast of mind, or mode of thought, which rejects intellectual valt\es, ancl is, therefore, more significant than any al.tack 011 any par-ticular individual. The attacks come as the out.wan! manifestation of a non-intellectual state of rnincl or as the result of acti~a ting its peculiar values. Further-more I want to avoid giving· any sociological or pro-fessi.onal significance to "anti-intellectualism." People who hold an anti-intellectual approach populate our university faculties as well as the great market plan·. In this sense the cultural stream is polluted al: its very source. Universities themselves must struggle to main-tain intellectual values, ancl not the least of their problems are the faculty members who have abdicated their cultural obligations. Stuclents can scarcely he expected to respond to teachers who have sold their birthright. Certainly the University of Missouri faces these problems. Missouri stud en ts cliffer Ii tile from students across the country, ancl the Missouri faculty, like faculties everywhere else, has been recruited from the four corners of the nation and from abro;itl. Stu-dents have raised the problem of anti-intellectualism here, and there seems to be some sentiment that Mis-souri is peculiar in the spiritual apathy anti cultural slackness which appear. This is not necessarily true. Rather than being a special case, the University ol Missouri presents in microcosm tcnclencics which arc all too obvious in our national life, and the explana-tion for local conditions lies in the broader national picture. Anti-intellectualism has a long tradition which reaches deep into the past and extends far beyond our boundaries. But anti-intellectualism as we know it is specifically the product of our immediate past and reflects a value system which is peculiarly our own. Intellectualism finds i ts essence in the imlivicl-ual who seeks his own truth, who defines his own taste , ancl who develops his own values. Ready-made truths arc no more palatable to him than packaged dinners, and he much prefers his own decisions, whether idealogical or gustatory. At best our society calls such a man a clreamer-"egghead" is the most recent affectation- , ancl at worst: slanders him as a MISSOURI ALUMNUS/ MAY '59 2 subversive. Society has always demamled conformity, but our society demands enthusiastic conformity. 'fliere are several reasons for this peculiar empha-sis, a1ul they are bred in Lo the very bones of our social organism. Industrial development since the Civil vVar has been prodigious, and ours has become pre-em-i11ently an iudustrial society. .Mass prc>lluction has provided all manner of material conveniences which are available to most of the people and which have produccll a continuing rise in our material standard ot: living. But we have paitl a heavy price. Individual lastc has hall to compromise with production costs, and more . arnl more the it.ems which we buy arc dif-fcrenli,1ted only by price a1Hl label. T'he highways arc crowded with an unvarying stream of sameness, and our cities arc ringell about with unrelieved struc-1.llral boredom. 'J'he $50,000 split level in its land-scaped setting is Lhe same from coast to coast and border to border, while the humble .$15,000 "ranch house" proliferates row upon row, city after city, with nothing lo distinguish it but pathetically drastic ad-ventures in pastel coloralion. \!Ve have become the victims of our own technology, arnl the mass patterns which mass prmluction forces upon us blunt our scnsibiliLics. This necessary loss o[ choice woulll in itself be bad cno11gh, Intl in recent years we have convinced our-selves that: it is both necessary and good. Expansion in material opportunity and constriclio11 in choice have been paralleled by positive emphasis on the tlesirabil-ity ol.' conformity all(l security. Nowhere is this more striking than among college students who see their education in terms of the degree ancl who weigh job <>pjH>l'l.unilics on the scales of security. To stand against the group in job choice, clrcss, mode of living or taste creates furious tensions and invites social re-prisals. R.ecen t studies have shown conclusively that sameness, conformity, acceptance, have henme positive social virtues, and that it is the group, however it may be motivated, which establishes standards. Religious life has shown this drastically, and in many suburban comrnunities sectarianism has been overcome at the cost of making· the church only a community center. These developing eonomic, social ancl aesthetic pat-terns have been reinforced in our schools, colleges and universities. In education, equality of opportunity has come to mean equality in achievement, and the right to go to school has become the right to graduate. More than this, the very curricula have been subjected to the equalitarian test: courses slanted to the ma-jority, standards debased, and the ideal of education for all become the reality of education for none. The students sauntering through their education glance contemptuously at books and mentors, and well they may, for mediocrity has become the accepted achieve-ment norm, and educators are almost indecently hap• py when that line is occasionally passed. Science, math-ematics and foreign language have been shamefully neglected and the number of college students who lack even the rudiments of English grammar, spelling and composition is shocking. And the after-effects of this pedagogical shabbiness are equally striking. The per-centage of Americans who read books after leaving college is abysmally low, and the general cultural lt~vel of the nation is depressed all out of proportion LO the literacy ratios. The mass media-radio, television, newspapers-play to this depressed level, and by doing so, perpetuate it:. The "crisis in education," as the Sunday supple-ments call it, is both a cause and an effect. In the sense that education bas failed and is failing· to pro-vide the necessary intellectual challenge, stimulus or even tools, it semis out products who are capable ouly of acceptance and who are not able to conquer the fear of the unknown. Furthermore, by emphasizing the norm, education strengthens Lhe sense of necessary conformity and positively advances mass cultural pat-terns. The seriousness of this problem is underscored by conformity's penetration into the very nerve cen-ters n[ our society. Major scientific research organiza-tions insist on "Leamplay" and avoid the erratic g·enius like the plague. Businesses look for the man who will "lit in" and place conformity rather than capacity at the lop of their rating- scales, and even universities have shown a markell tendency to value comfortable competence above unprec\ict:1ble creativity. Ecluca-c011tinuer.l 011 jJage 19 CONFORMITY, ANTI-INTELLECTUALISlvI from jJage 3 tion itself shows this tendency, and to that extent, may be reganletl as another evidence of the prevailing mode. These att:itucles have clcvelope(l over a number of years, and they arc developing- still. These are the at-titudes which produce that intellectual apathy and unconcern which in turn fertilize anti--intellectualisrn. The stmlent body and faculty at Missouri reflect these tenclencics, and to that extent participate in the cul-tural barbarism which is becoming· a part of our her-itage. Jt is significant that the two great powers in the n1<Hlcrn ag-e, the United States an(l the Soviet Union, wh ile dissimilar in so many respects, show a consistent similarity in their fear of the unusual, the non-conl'ormist, the intellectual. ·we have a proucl traclition o[ freeclnm, hut we arc in real clanger of f'reeclom's becoming only a trad .ition. The rising con-formist tide lacks drama, but its dangers are even more immediate than those embodietl in the Com-missars confronting- us. Dr. l'vfcCrcw's artidc stems from his informal remarks as a panel mcmhcr during a campus clisrnssion program. .JOURNALISM'S SECOND DEAN from j)(lge 5 conferred on a non-llritain. In 1935 he served as president of the American Association of Schools and Departments of Journalism. His own son was to serve in Africa as an AP war correspondent. Frank L. Martin, Jr. is now publisher o[ the West Plains (Mo.) Daily Quill and a member of the executive committee of the Fiftieth Anniversary observance of the School of Journalism. The Martins' llaughter, Martha Ann, is the wife o[ Maj. Gen. Ralph P. Swofford, Jr., stationed at Boll-ing Air Force base in Washington. The Swoffonls have four children, Frank, Ralph Ilf, Anne and Susan. Frank L. Martin, Jr., has one son, Frank Lee Mar-tin III. Today, the Frank L. Martin Memorial Library stands as a tribute to the m an who came for a year and stayed for a Iifctiine. Harry-E. Taylor, B.J. '15, editor ancl publisher of the Traer (Ta.) Star-Clipper, wrote: "I have always marveled at Dean Martin, who for many years had the task of training a fresh crop of cub reporters every semester. In the later years the enrollment in his reporting classes was usually 100 or more. "Each and every one of us who had any talent for newspaper work, or showed any willing·ness to learn, was given the solid foundation here for a successful start in journalism by Dean Martin. "President Williams and Dean Martin set the sort of example that inspires and leads. They were prac-tical men, and common sense has always been in style in their School." TAK/NC A TRIP?-TAKE A TIP! FLY OZARK A/Rl/N~ WITH NEW ~ERV/CE TO tr. JOt[PH, Ml~OIJR/ MAO/tON, WltC0Nt/N /OWA CITY, /OWA OMAHA, N£BRA1KA NOW OVER 9 MILLION MILES FLOWN ANNUALLY With an increase of 8,000 miles served daily, Ozark brings new con-venience in service to many cities throughout the Ozark system. Consult your local Ozark . representative for complete schedules and reservations. OzARKA IR LINES serving 52 midwest cities in 10 states MISSOURI ALUMNUS / MAY '59 19 

Conformity and anti-intellectualism

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Conformity and anti-intellectualism

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