Dull Reflections of a Ready-Made Pattern – Sunday, September 19, 1943
Among the dictator nations there is an avid recognition of the fact that control of what is taught in the schools is a long step toward control of the future and so a deliberate policy of indoctrination is pursued, which, if permitted to proceed unchecked and unchallenged, can go far to assure any regime, any philosophy, any system of government, any ideology, the loyalty and devotion, right or wrong, of the youth of the land who will soon become the citizens of the land. And by this means, barring some outside circumstance or contrary influence, a generation or a nation of people could be reared with their hearts set upon false standards and their feet planted on crumbling foundations.
If the processes of education are so potent and so vital to those who would misuse them, surely they are even more vital and of more concern to those who would use them for legitimate ends. And so, the forces of freedom must use the factors of education for a positive good as diligently as the forces of dictatorship and regimentation would use them for evil and enslaving purposes. And in furtherance of this thought perhaps it should be said that the closer to home the policies are dictated—the nearer the control of our schools is to the communities in which they operate and to the parents whose children are being taught—the better it is in many particulars.
Somehow the down-to-earth wisdom of conscientious parents, and a sense of pride and responsibility in crossroad communities, have been factors in building greatness in this land and others. And since there is no such thing as omniscience among men, edicts from some tall tower, remote from the grass roots and from the little red schoolhouse, might not do so well, because local problems are not always understood or appreciated in places of remote control. Each community has its own particular color and character, and, if permitted to do so, will contribute something unique to the life of a nation. And recognition of local responsibility leads to the development of local strength, local independence, local leadership and achievement, the aggregate of which, if freely permitted, enriches a nation or a people far beyond what could be achieved by the supposed omniscience of a remote directing body whose purpose is control rather than initiative and uniformity rather than that individuality which, after all, is the essence of progress, of social Safety, and of democracy itself. But, if permitted to become stereotyped, our schools and our children and our lives may tend to be merely the dull reflections of a ready-made pattern.
By Richard L. Evans, spoken from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, Sept. 19, 1943, over Radio Station KSL and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System. Copyright – 1943.
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September 19, 1943
Broadcast Number 0,735