The Uses of Education: an American Lesson

A meeting on education which took place a few weeks ago in Washington must te scen as 2 grim warning to us of the possible consequences of attacks on the freedom of universitics. The werming is a timely one, for talk of making the universities in Britain "accountable" to Parliament is in the air at the moment; it is certainly Government policy, und, cs this news from America will confirm, the result of such accountubility will be the stifling of the wniversities in their key role es @ critical institution, and their total subordinction to technological und utilistarian deminds. The meeting was called "Project Aristotle". The American Department of Defense summoned to it magnates of industry, top-ranking bureaucrats, and administrators from the field of education, and its significance lay in the explicit way in which three fields were shown to have shired gouls — the ficlds of industry, government and education. At the conclave, the military establishment called upon the educational system to provide the manpower for current priorities defined by the military—industrial complex. The offical sponsor of the Project was the National Security Industrial Association, which consists of companies that have defence contracts and whose stated goal is "national security". ‘They insisted that thay, the military-industrial complex, and not the educutors, had the most innovative ideas in the field. One of those good ideas was the application of systems analysis to any educational situation. This means the implementation of a malti-etep system in which end results are carefully mesusred aguinst stited objectives. The initial objective, of course, is never searchingly examined. a& principal theme was the way in which educational technology emerges from military technology, for example, the navy's method for developing a better torpedo wes shown to be applicable to sreas relevant to the county superinte— ndent of schools. The focus is on the techniques; the establishing of objectives and priorities is thus removed to a point outside the educational process itself. 4s Frank Rose, President of the University of Alabama, said, "The general purposes and aspirations of the educational institution should be the same as those of industry and gov-rnment." The Project did not overlook the internetional implications of standardised education. A topic for discussion wes "International Considerations", the dominant theme being the need to train Americans to rule a de facto empire. This conference wes a frightening one. We should beer it in mind when faced with the propesition, on the surface quite reasonable, that the universities in Britain should be accountable, FoR eats expenditure to Parliament. For too long the left in this coumtry ha (insufficient attention to the key field of education. This is a good issue upon which to make a stort.