Recording by Commissioner Of Education Earl McGrath, Freedom and Education

FREEDOM AND EDUCATION* I want to talk for a few minutes on Freedom and Education. For you young people going to school this is, I think, a matter of highest importance. Only as we all grasp the essential relationship between these two words can we understand some of the most important problems of the world we live in today. First of all, let's look at the fact that you are receiving an education--and all things considered, a good education. Even though our school system has many manifest shortcomings, it remains true that the United States has achieved a higher level of educational opportunity than any other nation on the face of the globe. Somewhere around half our boys and girls are today privileged to go through thigh school. And a very substantial- and increasing--portion of these is entering college. Now it is no accident that this achievement has taken place in the freest and most democratic nation on earth. For it is precisely because we do believe wholeheartedly in freedom and democracy that we have been able to reach this level of educational opportunity. For we believe that education makes men free. This factor stands out all the more clearly when you realize that two-thirds of the world's population is virtually illiterate and in most other countries the overwhelming majority of children never get beyond the equivalent of, say, our own sixth grade. As our concept of freedom and democracy has made possible these tremendous achievements in education, it is education, in large measure that is the bulwark of our freedom and democracy. Generally speaking, the average youngster coming out of school today has learned the importance of the give and take of individual ideas and *Recording by Earl James McGrath, U. S. Commissioner of Education, Federal Security Agency, for 1951 Voice of Democracy Contest, Washington, D. C., August 13, 1951.