Newspapers / The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.) / March 22, 1968, edition 1 / Page 19
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THE GUI LFORDIAN Quaker Nine Wins Ist Three Guilford College opened the 1968 base ball Season in grand style, shutting out Belmont—Abbey 6—o behind ace South paw Edgar Parker and Sweeping Hiram College of Ohio 7—o, and 2—l behind stout pitching by veteran Jimmy Bryan and Rookie Mike Stewart. Against the Abbey, Parker had a no hitter until the eighth before two basehits forced the junior lefty to settle for a two—hitter. Bryan, who later in the week blanked Hiram on three hits. Banged out three hits and drive in three runs to head the Quaker offense. Against Hiram, Bryan collected four hits to offset his shutt—out hurling in the 7—o rout of the visitors from the Ohio conference. In the second game freshman Stewart had his control and with it a s—hit 2—l triumph. Catcher Marlyn Sco tt's sacrifice fly broke a I—l tie in the bottom of the sixth. Coach Stuart May nard's club now turns it's ( attentions to the challenge of Carolina's Conference action in their attempt to unseat High Point as league champions. Reprint con't talent away from the long-range social need for better undergraduate instruc tion. The hazards, however, are also oppor tunities. Faculties have never before had such wide alternatives for renewal of their flagging intellectual interests, for upgrading their disciplinary competence through temporary leave in universities or in field work away from home, and for studying teaching through institutes, summer workshops, and externally fi nanced experiments at the home campus. Both his grasp of the relevance of his special competence to the society's needs, and his ability to make that relevance clear to students can be enhanced by appropriate use of the new career pos sibilities. A fourth trend to which colleges should respond selectively and critically is that toward constant innovation in curriculum and instruction. Most of us have taken it for granted, at least in our actions, that being educated means master ing one discipline and knowing a smat tering of other subjects. Virtually all of our colleges are organized by depart ments with this ideal in mind. But stu dents are beginning to insist that there must be other ways. They see knowledge increasing at such a rate that they will never be able to master chemistry or mathematics or Engilsh literature. Mas tering a discipline sounds like an endless Hi HL "iv**"' l JK** m , : /^s ■ H^r'W? l3o V nHSnDHPQCrHHft preparation, and where will it lead to— the chance to impose the same discipline on students of their own? To some stu dents this prospect sounds sterile or in cestuous, as if zoology bred only zoolo gists, and zoologists created nothing but zoology. Students want to know what their learning is good for—not particu larly what job it will enable them to get, but what social utility it will have. What will they be able to do after they have couldn't do before? (The answer, of course is: "Read Chaucer.") History and political science and psychology must have uses, and if they do, students ask, why can't we begin using them now? The new technology will contribute to this experiential, even utilitarian, con cept of education. It is quite likely that television and the computer will lead us to put less premium on storing up in formation in our own heads. The ma chines can do it better. The function of education may be to teach us what ques tions to ask and how to interpret the answers, what techniques or approaches are appropriate for what sorst of prob lems, and how to develop the social, po litical, and intellectual skills that we will need to size up a job, go after it, and get it done. We do not mean to overstate this prospect. The world will continue to re spect people who really know some thing; we will not begin producing all purpose entrepreneurs. But the direction seems clear. There will be less emphasis, at least in undergraduate education, on "knowing a field' and more emphasis on confronting pressing social or personal problems where they are and figuring out some way to get a hand-hold on them. Different colleges, of course, will lead their students to different kinds of problems: Some will consider student participation in the regular operation of the college a legitimate educational ven ture, worth the time and trouble it re- quires; others will emphasize student participation in research, real investiga tion of social or scientific problems, such as the National Science Foundation is al ready sponsoring; others will encourage students to campaign for social reform by lobbying, writing papers on national or local policy, demonstrating, inviting public officials in for discussion; others will arrange for students to undertake special assignments in the public schools, or in the arts, perhaps, or in science. If the developments we envision do materialize—the networks of educational services, more various and colorful fac ulty careers, a wider range of students and growth of student responsibility, and transformation of curriculum and instruction—college leaders will still face the complex task of integrating these developments in a way that gives them sense and significance. Actually achiev ing this integration will be far more dif ficult than conceiving statements of pur pose and policy that make the changes seem congruent. The real problem is to secure coherent and mutually supportive commitments on the part of the people who make up the colleges. To be worthy of the name, a liberal arts college must go beyond recognition of the trends we have described. It should look further than the immediate uses and adaptions of these trends to the college's traditional programs. It should probe for intimations that, just as Newman clothed his idea of the uni versity in the terms of nineteenth-cen tury British ideals, we, too, have con ceived our colleges too narrowly. While the mission of liberal education—in its concern with inquiry, appreciation, and criticism—transcends particular times and cultures, the implications and applicat ions of that mission call for substan tial change or replacement of the institu tions that have served it. PAGE ELEVEN
The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.)
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March 22, 1968, edition 1
19
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