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WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM ENGLAND

BY

VICE ADMIRAL H. G. RICKOVER, USN

HEARINGS

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

EIGHTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON: 1962

COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

CLARENCE CANNON, Missouri, Chairman

GEORGE H. MAHON, Texas
HARRY R. SHEPPARD, California
ALBERT THOMAS, Texas
MICHAEL J. KIRWAN, Ohio
JAMIE L. WHITTEN, Mississippi
GEORGE W. ANDREWS, Alabama
JOHN J. ROONEY, New York
J. VAUGHAN GARY, Virginia
JOHN E. FOGARTY, Rhode Island
ROBERT L. F. SIKES, Florida
OTTO E. PASSMAN, Louisiana
SIDNEY R. YATES, Illinois
FRED MARSHALL, Minnesota
JOE L. EVINS, Tennessee
JOHN F. SHELLEY, California
EDWARD P. BOLAND, Massachusetts
DON MAGNUSON, Washington
WILLIAM H. NATCHER, Kentucky
DANIEL J. FLOOD, Pennsylvania
WINFIELD K. DENTON, Indiana
TOM STEED, Oklahoma

HUGH Q. ALEXANDER, North Carolina
ALFRED E. SANTANGELO, New York
JOSEPH M. MONTOYA, New Mexico
GEORGE E. SHIPLEY, Illinois
JOHN M. SLACK, JR., West Virginia
DALE ALFORD, Arkansas
JOHN LESINSKI, Michigan
JOHN J. FLYNT, Georgia

JOHN TABER, New York
BEN F. JENSEN, Iowa
H. CARL ANDERSEN, Minnesota
WALT HORAN, Washington
IVOR D. FENTON, Pennsylvania
GERALD R. FORD, JR., Michigan
HAROLD C. OSTERTAG, New York
FRANK T. BOW, Ohio

CHARLES RAPER JONAS, North Carolina
MELVIN R. LAIRD, Wisconsin
ELFORD A. CEDERBERG, Michigan
GLENARD P. LIPSCOMB, California
JOHN J. RHODES, Arizona
JOHN R. PILLION, New York
PHIL WEAVER, Nebraska
WILLIAM E. MINSHALL, Ohio
ROBERT H. MICHEL, Illinois
SILVIO O. CONTE, Massachusetts
WILLIAM H. MILLIKEN, JR., Pennsylvania
EARL WILSON, Indiana

KENNETH SPRANKLE, Clerk and Staff Director

PREFACE

Three years ago in 1959, the Committee on Appropriations asked Admiral Rickover to talk on Russian education which he had been studying for some time. This was just after he returned from his visit to Russia as a member of Vice President Nixon's party. The Report on Russia containing his testimony evoked a great deal of public interest and response. We had more requests for these hearings than for any hearings in the history of the committee. It was one of the six best sellers. It evoked both praise and criticism.

We have again asked Admiral Rickover to come before this committee to give us his ideas, this time on English education. He has immersed himself in this subject because he believes some of the procedures, practices, and devices the English have developed might prove of help to us. Like ourselves, the English want to keep education decentralized. They, too, do not want a centralized, governmentcontrolled school system. In fact, the British Ministry of Education establishes no school, hires no teacher, prescribes no curriculum, awards no degree. Nevertheless, the English have been able to maintain uniform national scholastic standards in their decentrally managed state education system. This, to the admiral, is their great achievement and he feels that the procedures through which they accomplish this might be acceptable to this country.

He makes a strong case for his belief that we can learn from the English educational experience. He bolsters it by reminding us that we have in the past adopted and adapted much from England and found it good. Our system of justice, our common law, our parliamentary procedure, the safeguards with which we surround the individual to protect him against arbitrary authority-these and many other basic features of our way of life are not unlike basic features of the English way of life. There are enough similarities in English and American political and cultural institutions to give some relevance to the English system of education.

The Admiral brings out the rather striking parallelisms between England's educational problems a century ago and ours today. Her educational facilities at that time were neither adequate to the needs of her rapidly industrializing society nor competitive with education in countries that challenged England's military and political position. Like ourselves, England moves slowly, awaiting the formation of public consensus before radically changing established institutions; as with us today, her competitors were authoritarian countries that could order educational reform by government fiat and thus move ahead much faster. The English procrastinated and we are doing likewise. The admiral argues that we can profit as much by the mistakes England made a century ago as we can profit by the successful way in which she manages public education today.

He shows in detail how the English establish and maintain national standards. He puts the system before us so that we can observe how it works. Among several devices, he suggests that we might like to

examine and perhaps copy the way they make use of Government grants to bring about higher educational achievements. He thinks we should follow her example in setting our children a national scholastic goal by providing a variety of permissive national examinations leading to national accreditation of diplomas and degrees. What he has in mind is for Congress to set up a National Standards Committee, small committee composed of eminent and scholarly persons, who would do two things:

They would keep the American people informed on the state of American education: Does it meet the needs of our times? Is it competitive with education in countries at similar levels of culture and technology with whom we compete economically, politically, or militarily? How do American children compare in academic knowl edge with children in Europe or Russia, say at age 12, or 16, or 18: taking, of course, into consideration different ability levels. The Admiral thinks we need an unbiased, disinterested body of intelligent and well-educated people to keep us continually informed on these

matters.

The committee would as its second assignment work out various examinations that could be taken by anyone who wished to do so those who passed successfully would obtain accreditation from the committee. He thinks this would be particularly valuable for certification of teachers, who are unfortunately not as well qualified as we would wish them to be. The committee would in no way interfere with established institutions now granting various diplomas and degrees. It would simply set up a higher standard, offer it to anyone who wished to meet this standard, and accredit those who had successfully done so.

The Admiral believes that the English Certificate of Education examinations offer us a pattern. They are closer to our educational ideas than the maturity or baccalaureate examinations of the Continent. They are far more flexible, since they come at three levelswith a fourth to be added presently; each student can decide for himself how many subjects he wants to take and these will be noted on his certificate. They are of course entirely permissive. The manner in which the examinations are set up seems to him most suitable to our own needs. His proposed Standards Committee would do this cooperatively with schools, colleges, universities, and the existing private examining bodies.

their

He has given a detailed description of how the English set up GCE examinations and how they evaluate or mark them. In his opinion they are an eminently fair yet searching means of testing & person's real knowledge and ability. Employers as well as higher educational institutions must be able to find out what an applicant has learned and how well he is able to apply what he has learned to the solution of unforeseen problems. Otherwise, they cannot decide intelligently and fairly whether to accept him.

We in the Congress are fully aware that in the world of today a nation's position is largely determined by the respect accorded its science and technology; preeminence in science and technology as in all cultural matters depends upon a good system of general edu cation. Here quantity is no substitute for quality. A public school system must be open to all children, regardless of the affluence or social circumstances of their parents-this is fundamental to democ

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