Statement by United States Commissioner of Education Earl James McGrath

STATEMENT * The general education movement is the most profound change in higher education since the development of the elective system under Elliot at Harvard, about three-quarters of a century ago. It is an attempt to curb chaos and rank intellectual specialism that grew out of the elective system and the multiolication of subject matter in the college and university curricula. It is an attempt to provide the core of experiences absolutely essential for all Anerican college youths to nave if uney are to understand our great democratic society and our political traditions. In addition to these e cerences in onr great tradition, our position of world leadership de lands that we understatd with cl irity the develop- ments in the world at large. As a Nation, we. have advanced in the techniques of livin without making comparable progress in visualizing the purposes of life. The greatest need of our free society is the ;enerar"educatio: of our people for the responsibilities of citizenship. The genéral éducation *novement is an attempt to broaden the base of education in the colleges and universities without impairing essential special training. It seeks to complement special training with instruction in the social sciences and the hunanities for the responsibilities of citizen- ship in order that each American college and university student may under- stand and become dedicated to the great American tradition of freedom and individual responsibility. *By Earl Janes McGrath, U. S. Commissioner of Education, Federal Security Agency, Washington, D. C., to the press on Conference on General Education, May 12, 1952.