Education: Slogan of Nonconformity

Though they hate to admit it, U.S.

educators have their shibboleths, and one current favorite seems to be: “Down with conformity.” Last week, at a meeting of the Eastern Association of Deans and Officers of Admission, Philosopher Sidney Hook of New York University had a few words to say about how foolish the new vogue can be.

“It may be that we educators do not talk as much as we should, but we have talked more than we ever have in the past. The question is, what have we to say? My point is that we don’t talk enough about problems, and [that our talk] is ineffectual. As a kind of compensation for this ineffectuality, there is often heard in educational quarters a new slogan —the importance of nonconformism . . .

“Sloganized thinking is catching. Not so long ago the New York City regional meeting for the White House Conference on Education recommended that our schools ‘help develop the art of dissent.’ What is commendable in dissent as such? Gerald K. Smith and William Z. Foster are both dissenters. What we require is neither assent nor dissent but independent judgment. It is just as idiotic to make a fetish of dissent as of assent.” Hook’s summing-up: “The task of education is not to produce conformists or nonconformists but intelligent men and women who will see through slogans and who will take responsible positions on current problems of importance, unafraid to agree or disagree with anybody.”