living in a modern industrial democracy. Experimentation ong never to take precedence over performance of these basic school ta And as for testing pupils to see whether they have mastered the r quired amount of knowledge, let me quote the terse comment of member of one of England's university examining boards:

Being examined becomes irrelevant to the process of being educated only if is agreed to be sufficient to expose the pupil to learning and undesirable to di cover if there are any results.

England could not afford to follow the practice of many of o State universities that take in nearly all high school graduates an flunk out 40 percent of the freshman class at the end of the first ye I don't think we can afford it much longer.

So useful do the English find national examinations that at moment they are working to set up a new examination to be tak by secondary modern pupils at the end of the fourth form: an exi ination below the GCE but which will be helpful for youngsters w want to become skilled craftsmen or technicians. It was the pur themselves and their parents who requested the Ministry of Ed tion to create an examination at secondary modern school level.

A national scholastic standard in our country would, I think. very beneficial to our children; it would set them a goal to work f It would be most useful to parents because it would give them a var stick to hold up to their local school so that poor teaching could! easily shown up. It would give reality to our claim that we ha community control of our schools at the local level. If the lo people knew what a particular school actually could achieve, pr vided it tried to comply with the national standard, then they wo have something to use against recalcitrant educators who prefer 1 adjustment trivia to hard academic subjects.

Surely it is not Federal tyranny to ask that a diploma give honest description of what the holder has accomplished. We expe Prime beef to meet Federal standards for Prime beef. We dem that medicines and all sorts of foods carry labels that indicate the

content.

We do this to protect the public against being cheated. Well, ho est labeling in education is just as important. The ordinary pers is just as much in need of help when he tries to judge a school or diploma as when he looks at a cut of meat or a bottle of medicing Once you set a standard, products always tend to get better.

Apologists often argue that in as populous a nation as ours yo cannot have a national scholastic standard. But size has little to with this. There is greater equivalence in degrees among the s vanced countries of the continent than exists within our country, V they are politically divided and we are not. Taken together they 3" as heterogeneous and as populous as we. However, no country abro wants to fall behind, so each informs itself on what goes on educ tionally in neighboring countries and makes certain its nation standard is up to par. I should like to see a similar thing hapti among the several States of the American Union. This kind of com petition is altogether good, and the beauty is that it does not cost mo to have good education than medio life-adjustment training. T

American schools and diplomas have always been qualitatively of he most amazing diversity. This was probably unavoidable in earlier imes when Americans were still engaged in subduing a wilderness. Different parts of the country were then at different stages of develpment. And, of course, education reflects the state of culture. High ulture comes when the material necessities of life have been provided for. Education was bound to be better in the long-settled communiies along the Atlantic seaboard than in pioneer country.

COMMON EDUCATIONAL NEEDS

Today technology has brought culture to the remotest farm. A child's education needs are now the same whether he goes to school in Florida or California, in Wisconsin or Connecticut. Every American youngster must have knowledge of the basic subjects: of language, mathematics, and science, of government, geography, and historyall up to the highest level he is capable of achieving. Every child has the same need for development of his intellectual capacities so he will be able to reason logicaly and understand the compex world in which he lives and the public issues on which as a democratic citizen he is called to express independent and rational opinions. All our children need a good basic education to qualify them for the kind of jobs a highly technical society provides. Less and less will there be rewarding work in this country for the uneducated, no matter where they may live.

Is not the need for this knowledge and this skill the very reason why we have a public school system? We support it with our taxes because parents have neither the time nor-with rare exception-the competence to develop their children's mental capacities and guide them to intellectual maturity.

Let me make it crystal clear that nothing in my proposal would violate the constitutional separation of power between Federal and State governments, nor go counter to our tradition of control of schools by the local community. I envisage the rendering of a service, not regulation in any way, shape or manner. The proposed committee would not usurp the functions of any existing institution.

NATURE OF THE EXAMINATION

Its job would be to draw up national examinations going deeply into a candidate's true knowledge and intellectual caliber-not IBMgraded, multiple-choice tests. We might well model them on the English national examinations which come at three levels and which offer many subject tests. Students choose the number of subjects and the level at which they wish to be examined. This is marked on their certificate which will list their so-called passes.

The committee might provide one set of examinations at the level appropriate for a high school graduate who aspires to enter a firstrate college; another set of examinations at the level of students who may wish to prepare for a semiprofessional or technician's job not requiring a bachelor degree but still requiring a good high school education.

Still another for graduates of various types of colleges, especial those bound for the teaching profession. I stress again that no a would need to take these examinations; but those who did pass the successfully would obtain national certification; perhaps the notati "N.S."-national scholar-stamped on their regular diplomas or d grees. The seal would clearly indicate what the holder had achieve There are many occasions when admissions officers of higher educ tional institutions or prospective employers have a valid reason f wanting to know what an applicant's scholastic qualifications actuall are. Think how much time and money would be saved if the diplom were clearly to indicate this. Everywhere abroad it is taken f granted that academic degrees conform to a specific standard-a stand ard known to everyone. Setting the standard is not regarded as go ernment intrusion or tyranny but as a welcome service to student their parents, and the taxpayers who pay for public education.

IMPACT OF A NATIONAL STANDARD

Everyone benefits when there is a standard. At one stroke it do away with misleading educational labels so that any layman has th means to judge whether a school or college is doing its job propert By offering the reward of a certified diploma to our children, man who now drift through school would be encouraged to aspire to high academic goals. You can't expect children to study hard subje such as mathematics, science, and languages when next door othe are effortlessly accumulating equal credits by easy life-adjustme courses in "family life." It surely isn't "undemocratic" to rewa those who exert themselves with a diploma that takes note of the accomplishments. This is what certification by a National Standard Committee would do.

There is no question in my mind that a large sector of the Amer can people wants better education. Public interest has grown tremet dously. In the recent primaries for election of a superintendent the Los Angeles schools there was almost as great a voter turnout in the primaries for Governor of California. The news media no give much more space to educational matters than was the case b a few years ago. Every time I speak or write on education I recent a tremendous number of letters.

What strikes me in these letters is the sense of individual helples ness they reflect. Individually, my correspondents have long know that education must be drastically reformed but they don't know ho to induce government to act. The very size of our Nation aliena government from the individual and accounts for much of the apath for which the people are frequently castigated. Yet so often the can find no one in government to supply the leadership that is neele to carry out their wishes; especially when this requires tackling, the local and on the national level, so powerful a lobby as our educ tional establishment. People like myself can try to bring the trit to the public so that it may be able to reach a consensus and th I believe has now been accomplished. Enough people want se

PUBLIC EDUCATION CALLS FOR A PARTNERSHIP

I think this country has reached a stage where public education alls for a partnership of local, State, and Federal authorities, each aving its particular service to offer. Any determined reform efort-be it at the local or State level-would, in my opinion, be greaty helped if we had a National Standards Committee. The permissive haracter of the Committee's activities would introduce into public ducation a needed element of choice. It would leave untouched the tatus quo for those who are content with it. At the same time it would provide facilities for people who prefer to set themselves a cholastic standard well above current achievement levels.

The Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset once wrote a book around he thesis to quote him-that "there is no doubt the most radical livision it is possible to make of humanity is that which splits it into wo classes of creatures: those who make great demands on themselves, piling up difficulties and duties; and those who demand nothing special of themselves, but for whom to live is to be every moment what they already are." I read this as a young man and it impressed me deeply. And all my life I have unconsciously judged people and institutions by whether or not they set themselves a standard; whether they measure themselves against a criterion that requires effort because they deem it worthy of effort.

Let us in education as in everything else heed Jefferson's advice, to "dream of an aristocracy of achievement arising out of a democracy of opportunity."

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

This completes my prepared statement. I would appreciate it if you or other members of the subcommittee would ask any questions which may clear up any points I have made.

Senator MORSE. I want to thank you in behalf of the subcommittee for this inspiring testimony. It more than lives up to my expectation of the brilliant closing chapter of these hearings.

As I listened to you, I thought of a great educational, intellectual experience I had as a graduate student at Columbia when two great authorities in the field of legal philosophy, but poles apart in their views, conducted a joint seminar, of which I was one of the fortunate victims. We met, supposedly for the seminar, one night a week from 7 to 9. I know of no time we got out before midnight and I know of no time that the assignment for the next week's discussion did not make it necessary to read a minimum of three tomes on jurisprudence. Sometimes more were required, if we were to comprehend the discussions of these two brilliant minds. As you were testifying this morning, I went back to that great experience and I thought what a wonderful experience it would be for the summer session at some university this summer to have you and any of the great educationists to whom you referred in your testimony this morning conduct a seminar on the objectives and goals of education.

I would like to be one of the victims at that seminar, too, because it would be a great intellectual experience.

In my judgment, and I speak most seriously when I say this, there is a need for such a seminar record to be made for the annals of

I am sure there are going to be questions. The problem, Admiral is that we cannot begin to ask all of the questions that your statemen this morning is bound to inspire in us.

I am going to start, however, with questions from the subcommit tee members. I shall ask my colleague on the left, Senator Yarborough, to start with the first question.

STIMULATION OF INTELLECTUAL EFFORT

Senator YARBOROUGH. Admiral Rickover, I join the chairman in welcoming you to this educational subcommittee. You have made a number of statements over America about education that have, as you said in your statement, provoked comment and stirred up dis cussion. I think you are rendering a real service to American educa tion by these public statements you are making, by the speeches you are making, by the advocacy you indulge in. Whether or not what you call an educational establishment agrees with you or whether the people agree with you, all of the statements I have seen have been pointed in one direction, toward greater intellectual and educational excellence. To me that is the direction the Nation needs to take whether it follows the format that you recommend or not. All of your statements are directed toward a greater stimulation of an intellectual effort by all of our people.

Of course, your statement this morning is along certain lines, gen eral guidelines, it seems to me, of competition for excellence. It seems to me that in this committee we have dealt more with piecemeal approaches to kind of shore up weaknesses here and weaknesses there. We have tried to get some kind of college facilities available to the youth of America who are qualified intellectually to go into college and to try to get buildings, try to get science equipment. The National Defense Education Act of 1958, I think, was one step in the right direction. I think from what I have learned from talking to teachers and educators and school officials, there has been quite an advance under the terms of that act.

I recall going into one high school in Corpus Christi, Tex., and the physics teacher showed me a laboratory built with National De fense Education Act funds, where no such funds had been available before. There were eight or nine top students doing work in there. They said these boys, when they get their high school diplomas, will have completed their equivalent of junior year physics in the average college in this State.

That is along the lines you were talking about, but that is on a limited scale, in limited areas and in a limited number of subjects. But I think that is helpful.

YARBOROUGH GI BILL

I want to go to a different specific field. We have a bill this committee just voted out this week. That is a bill to give veterans an opportunity to start an education, these veterans of the so-called cold war period, coming out at the rate of hundreds of thousands a year, finishing their tour of duty and coming out of the armed services. We learned from our experience in World War II and the Korean