The Case for Basic Education.

Abstract

Despite the fact that the launching of sputniks by Russia threw the country at large, and educators in particular, into a spasm of extensive proportions, the period of agonizing reappraisal has been largely that of offering lip service, not always very consistent or clear, to one or another of the several philosophies of contemporary education. This book was published under the aegis of the Council for Basic Education in Washington, D.C., a sound and constructive organization dealing with problems in education. They publish a monthly news letter, but this is their first book. Its subject is a program of aims for public schools presented as a statement by eighteen scholars, distinguished in various fields, who come to grips with the realities of basic education. They emphasize their ideas of what a student should have gained after twelve years of public schooling. The book deals with principles rather than details. It