FROM: THE SCHOOL IN AMERICAN SOCIETY

CHAPTER ?:
THE SCHOOL'S ROLE IN SOCIAL CHANGE (excerpt)
by Ralph Linnaeus Pounds & James R. Bryner

Keyes and Fresco, in their recent utopia Looking Forward, indicate clearly what the choices are:

If anyone wished to spell out in useful detail some of the forms of our future, we believe he must pick the right horse in three different races:
  1. He must correctly assess what man will want to do-what he really values most.
  2. He must accurately find out how he's going to try to do it-what methods of thinking he will rely upon most.
  3. He must analyze the tools that man will have for accomplishing what he sets out to do-he must pinpoint the significant technological developments that will play major roles in the future.
All three factors interact with each other. The value structure not only influences the method of thinking and the technology, but it is, in turn, influenced by them. The method of thinking that man employs is affected by his value structure and the technology of the age, but it also plays a part in modifying both of these. Similarly, the technology of any given civilization interacts in a mutual way with the value structure and the methods of thinking. These pregnant factors might be viewed as three gears that mesh with each other.'


EDUCATION FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE

The authors believe that the information obtained from the social sciences, from the past history of man's social trends, and from these forecasts of the future has certain definite implications for education. They have drawn specific implications in each of the chapters as the data have been presented. On the basis of their understanding of the nature of our culture and its recent changes as developed from data from the social science.s and psychology and on the basis of a set of values they consider appropriate to education in a democratic society, they set forth the following as over-all suggestions for persons responsible for decision making for education. Many of these are related to the basic questions raised in Chapter 1 as part of their purposes in writing a book presenting this analysis of society.

There are numerous consequences of these enormous scientific and technical advances. One is that we will have to teach respect for new ideas. This must include both the acceptance of technological changes themselves and the acceptance of the new patterns of living and institutions these changes make necessary. One of the characteristics of life in the future will be an enormous increase in the amount of leisure time. That leisure might mean that we could have a new renaissance of culture in America. The part that the school can play in this is of course, quite basic. One of the main  educational jobs of society and of the school, society's institution for doing that job, would be to teach for "adjustability," not for "adjustment" only. "Adjustment" implies education for a static society, whereas "adjustability"  implies that the student can adjust himself and his institutions to changes that come about after his education has been completed. . . .