to any of us to note that the educational system in the Soviet Union has
as its primary aim the training of scientists, engineers and technicians,
and that they are producing two or three times as many of these profes-
sionals as are we. I was impressed by this excerpt from the report, which
attempted to explain the differences between the aim of American and
Russian education.

"In the United States, " it said, "although the aims and philosophy of
education have often been the subject of controversy, the basic ideal
which has guided and molded the development of the educational sys-
tem has been the principle that education is good only if it is primarily
for the sake of the individual; that its mission is to teach the individual
to think and to act, how to develop and perform a skill of his own
choosing for his own benefit, within the bounds and restraints set by
the democratic system and its law.... "

And then it went on to describe the Soviet aims as follows: "The
basic aims of Soviet education, " it said, "are altogether different. The
educational system is designed to serve, not the individual, but the col-
lectivist state which, by identifying itself with the common good, sub-
ordinates the individual—his rights, privileges, choice and his entire
physical and mental training—to its own needs. It is only within the
confines of choice determined by the state that the individual may
develop his personal abilities. " Now, I cannot conceive of an American
subscribing to this Soviet view of education—that education is to be
employed as a tool of the state. We believe that our state will thrive and
make advances on the strength of the accomplishments of the individual
citizens who comprise it....

I believe you will agree with me that if we are to survive in this contest
with the Soviet Union and the other communistic states, we must move,
and move fast, in education. For this reason, those of you who are
engaged in the area of public education face the greatest challenge in
the history of our country. I am both hopeful and confident that we
will be able to meet this challenge....

Learning, we know, is not something that can be purchased. If it
were, who is it that would not immediately buy universal education, at
whatever cost?

Neither is it something that can be forced upon the individual by
schools, curricula and all the instruments of formal education. You who
teach, or are learning to teach, understand this, I am sure, much better
than I. A person can be led or directed to education, just as is being
done in our schools, but ultimately the individual must educate himself.

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