Education Must
Respond
Can there be what William James once called a “moral
equivalent of war”? Can we have in times of peace the same spirit of
cooperation and sacrifice, the same deep recognition of individual obligation
to the common weal, that a great national struggle so quickly develops?
This question now presses for an answer, and it is education
that must respond. It is not too early to make a beginning. Peace does not mean
that the battle for democracy has been permanently won. It does not mean that
the responsibilities that our country has assumed for the cause of democracy
can be laid down, or that we can return to the self-sufficiency of an earlier
day. Problems that involve the welfare of others as well as ourselves must be
faced and solved by the American people. It is not too soon to impress upon the
children now in school the fact that to meet these responsibilities in harmony
with the ideals for which our soldiers have fought requires from them the
keenest and clearest thinking of which they can make themselves capable.
If education was at any time merely a privilege, that time
has passed in our country. If to strive for knowledge and insight can ever be a
duty, it is a duty today.
--National School
Service
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