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http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/14621-024
What are the true evidences of education and culture? A distinguished university president has defined them as: correctness and precision in the use of one's mother tongue; refined and gentle manners; the habit of philosophical reflection; the use of scientific methods in the approach to problems of public and personal interest; and the power of intellectual and moral growth. He might have added to these, the possession of sufficient background of the history of civilization to furnish a common bond of sympathy and of understanding with one's fellows—the understanding that breeds tolerance, humanity, and sophistication. How can this background be cultivated by a student of science, and what is the analysis of his particular problem in acquiring a genuine interest in the history of civilization? How can culture be linked with a machine age? The present period is one in which workers tend to become specialized. A single shoemaker no longer makes a pair of shoes; a hundred employees in a large factory contribute each a detail. One man trims, another punctures, another bends. This is called the division of labor. Thousands of alert young Americans flock yearly to technical schools to be trained in the principles of physics, chemistry, biology, or engineering. By nature these youths have a knack for measurement and machinery, are apt at mathematics and laboratory experiments, and perhaps possess ability at organizing research and systematizing labor. American industry makes use of such graduates and profits highly from their work. These young men give their conscientious efforts to our great corporations, but receive rather inadequate compensation. Their wages are often small in comparison with those of salesmen, legal employees, or even skilled labor. Handicapped for participation in administration and leadership by their narrow background and their intense application to details, such workers have a tendency to get tied down or to end in a technical blind-alley. Is it possible that our teaching of science has been too narrow and myopic? Has too much attention been directed to laboratory manipulation and trivialities, and not enough to the broader principles of science and philosophy? Another university president similarly criticized over-specialization in higher education; the outstanding purpose of a university, he stated, should be philosophic thinking, not mere fact-grabbing. Perhaps Socrates was right in teaching that philosophical consideration of the problem of reality versus illusion should be man's deepest concern. Modern education does not always teach people to distinguish between genuine values and false or imitative phases of life. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)