SC0019_b25_f209_Andrews_1945

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SC0019_b25_f209_Andrews_1945

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Pfc John N. Andrews, 3904412 Co L, 111th Inf. A.P.O. 265 c/o P.M., San Francisco, Calif

Donald B. Tressider, President Stanford University

Dear Sir, I am in receipt of your letter of March 1945 relative to the post war plans for the University. While I was graduated some time ago, with the class of '29, and have taken a degree in law at Columbia since then, and therefore have little interest in returning to school for further degrees, I do have a few observations to make on the subject of the letter, particularly since you invited such observations.

You ask whether I hope to to return to Stanford after the war what I would like to study and how work in that field should differ from the previous program

Last edit over 6 years ago by Ckurihara
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Now all I am interested in is to discourage, as far as I can, any general conversion to the idea that all education could be "stream-lined" to match some of the hurry-up education dished out by the armed forces. I've seen quite a bit of such agitation in the popular magazines of late.

Now there is one field of what is generally classified as education where such methods, if technically sound, are proper. That is in the purely technical fields where the aim is purely to equip the pupil to earn a living. [Tho?] some methods developed by the armed forces during the war might prove valuable as a preliminary training for further education - such as the considerably

Last edit over 6 years ago by Ckurihara
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publicized method of teaching foreign languages.

In the field of the general, non-technological college education, however no stream lining is possible. The reason is because the purpose of such education is not merely to teach facts and the classification of theories. The purpose is to acquaint the pupil with the world of knowledge ("acquaint" not to taech the pupil to repeat parrot-like the professor's classifications thereof) and to train (not teach) him to be a thinking animal. In other words the pupil must learn, or lay the basis for learning far more than is taught him. Other than the technical knowledge necessary to earn a living there is little value in transferring the knowledge found in books and

Last edit over 6 years ago by Ckurihara
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the professors' minds to the minds of the pupils. The education conducted by the armed forces was and is merely a technical one, and in narrow fields at that. It is no precedent at all for the other type of education.

The opinions of returning soldiers, sailors and marines are very unreliable. Killing your fellow man is the second oldest of professions, and a good dog knows most of its technique. The mechanics involved are for the most part relatively simple. The experiences are vivid and are lasting but it is very doubtful that they balance out to be beneficial training for peaceful social living. Therefore keep a level head and do not be stampeded into any general stream lining of your general college training even for returning veterans.

PS. Excuse the failure to rewrite this. Paper is scarce here in the [Palau?] Islands.

Very truly yours JN Andrews

Last edit over 6 years ago by Ckurihara
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