Statement by United States Commissioner of Education Earl James McGrath, Education--Foundation of World Peace

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EDUCATION--FOUNDATIOI OF WORLD PEACE* Mutual understanding and cooperation among the nations of the modern world are the only sure conditions for lasting peace. Education is the best means we have to develop mutual understanding and cooperation. It is, therefore, my firm conviction that the only certain foundation for world peace is education. 'As I am using the word education here I mean not only the formal teaching in the classroom, but also instruction in life situations outside, in the field, in the clinic, even in rubbing elbows with others in the ordinary activities of daily life. Any discussion of international relations in these days must be premised on one fact, namely, that all of us today, whether we like it or not, live in one world. There may have been a time when one nation, or a small group of nations, could isolate themselves from the rest of the world and live within a self-contained social system. But if there ever was such a time, it has passed. Other human beings who live thousands of miles away from us are now our nextdoor neighbors. The inventions of recent years in the fields of transportation and communication have brought us into intimate contact with persons who differ from us in many respects Today one can have breakfast in Cairo or in Buenos Aires one morning and in New York the next. The nations of the world have now become neighbors in a greatly shrunken international community If they continue to fight with one another the outcome will be the destruction of civilization as we know it. It is absolutely essential, therefore, that we learn to live together in mutual understanding and help. *By Earl James McGrath, U.S. Commissioner of Education, Federal Security Agency, Washington, D. C., at Public Lecture and Forum Series, Summer Session, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 8:00 p.m. EDT, July 8, 1952.