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Social Responsibility in a Free Society. 
Educational Policies Commission, Washington, D.C. 
Pub Date 63 
Note-39p. 
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Descriptors- *Citizenship Responsibility, Public Policy, *School Role 
Identifiers-United States 

The health of modern American society depends upon the social responsibility of 

its citizens; yet this responsibility, rooted in the home and school, has not been 
adequately developed. It is the role of the elementary school to offer children a 
secure place in which to learn and act independently of the home; to develop within 
them an understanding of concepts, such as interdependence, which nurture social 
conscience; and to provide examples, through its teachers, of interpersonal 
sensitivity. In the secondary school and college, the student should continue to 
acquire factual knowledge and develop a sensitivity to philosophical questions, both 
of which are necessary for reasoned social responsibility. Yet the schools and 
colleges, with the cooperation of the public, must also offer the student opportunities 
for participation directly in community life. Outlets must be provided for young adults 
to be of service to society, even after they have left school: thus far bureaucracies 
es many youth agencies, devoted to the very young, have not satisfied their needs. 


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THE EDUCATIONAL POLICIES 
COMMISSION 


Of the National Education Association of the United States 
and the American Association of School Administrators 


A. Joun Horpen, Jr., Chairman 
Artuur F. Corey, Vice-Chairman 


ROBERTA S. BARNES GEORGE D. HANN 
HAZEL A. BLANCHARD CLARICE KLINE 
SAMUEL M. BROWNELL RACHEL R. KNUTSON 
NATT B. BURBANK MAX LERNER 
WILLIAM G. CARR MARGARET LINDSEY 
JAMES B. CONANT JAMES D. LOGSDON 
FINIS E. ENGLEMAN ELSIE PARNELL 
NOVICE G. FAWCETT JAMES W. REYNOLDS 


WENDELL R. GODWIN'- —O.. MEREDITH WILSON 


James E. Russext, Secretary 
Ricuarp L. REnrFieExp, Project Secretary 


The recommendations in this publication 
are those of the Educational Policies Com- 
mission, a commission of the National Edu- 
cation Association of the United States and 
the American Association of School Admin- 
istrators. Publication in this form does not 
constitute formal approval by the sponsoring 
associations. 


F oreword 


In recent years the great crises facing the American people 
have led to widespread efforts to evaluate and improve education. 
Neither a Sputnik nor a depression is a valid reason for intensify- 
ing a scrutiny which ought to be intense at all times. Yet the Soviet 
challenge in space caused attention to turn to the academic side 
of education, and the more recent economic difficulties brought 
added attention to vocational education and to the problems of 
the disadvantaged. These events reveal a tendency to make edu- 
cational policy in reaction to crisis, with the constant risk that 
programs may be skewed by over-reacting. 


The debates of recent years have failed to give appropriate 
stress to a traditional aspect of education: the ethical dimensions. 
The constellation of qualities encompassed in terms like patriotism, 
good citizenship, morality, and character have always been in the 
forefront of educational objectives. As American schools seek to 
help pupils develop their rational capacities, they inevitably be- 
come involved in these ethical dimensions, for just as ethical char- 
acter demands the ability to make reasoned choices, so does the 
ability to think demand ethical standards. To direct attention to 
this area, the Educational Policies Commission presents this state- 
ment. 


TABLE OF CONTENTS 


SocraL RESPONSIBILITY IN MopERN AMERICA ........... ] 
THe GrowTu oF Socrat RESPONSIBILITY ............... 7 
Tue ROLE OF THE SCHOOL ............0.. 0c cceececeee 13 
IMPLICATIONS FOR Pusiic Poticy .................... 27 


Social Responsibility in 
Modern America 


We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are cre- 
ated equal, that they are 2ndowed by their Creator with 
certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty 
and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, 
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their jus 
powers from the consent of the governed. 


The Declaration of Independence is a charter of individual 
liberties. It describes a way of life in which the central value is 
the individual himself, his concerns and actions, his consent, his 
happiness, his liberty, his life. It portrays government as the servant 
of the individual’s purposes. 


But the Declaration of Independence is more than a declara- 
tion of individual supremacy. It is also an expression of faith in 
the concern of free men for the public welfare. For a free society 
must rely heavily, if its values are to be defended and realized, on 
the voluntary actions of its citizens. 


The good citizen knows that he has responsibilities not only 
toward his own affairs but also toward those of others. He knows 
that his responsibilities begin with persons most immediately near 
him: family, friends, and acquaintances. He demands for every 


] 


person what he demands for himself—the freedom to seek his own 
future. But he knows that such freedom can flourish only within 
a social structure which desires it and which has the strength to 
defend it. He therefore accepts his responsibility toward the system 
on which freedom depends, recognizing that this system must have 
his services, his support, and even at times his sacrifices. He is 
aware that r» two persons will respond to these requirements in 
identical wz . Each citizen reveals his social responsibility in his 
own ways; all good citizens are aware of their responsibility to and 
for their fellow man. 


A person’s sense of his social responsibility gives rise to action 
which expresses it, to behavior which makes human relationships 
warm, rewarding, and constructive. Thus, this sense is more than 
a pragmatic requirement for advancing the public business and 
protecting the social system on which freedom depends. It is a 
personal necessity, a requirement of self-fulfillment. The feeling 
of connectedness with one’s fellows is part of the feeling of being 
human. 


It is the contention of this essay that social responsibility is 
not adequately developed in the American people today. In a so- 
ciety which produced the traditions of the quilting bee and barn 
raising, many citizens today appear indifferent to the well-being 
of others. In a society where men once pledged to che struggle 
for liberty their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, many 
citizens today begrudge lesser contributions to the preservation of 
that liberty. 


Thus, a socially responsible person cannot accept practices 
which deny human dignity. Yet racial and religious prejudice per- 
sists, to the detriment of millions at home and of America abroad, 
and efforts to correct it are greeted with derision and even violence. 


Millions of disadvantaged Americans are congregated today 
in congested sections of the great cities. Their great need is to learn 


2 


the ways and skills of modern life. The disadvantaged therefore 
need good schools to attend and good models to emulate. Yet many 
Americans who are in a position to help refuse responsibility for 
the well-being of the disadvantaged. Rather than seek to help the 
disadvantaged, they make a point of avoiding all contact with them. 
Rather than pay for the needed services, they reject the necessary 
taxation as an infringement on private affluence. Even teachers, 
with whom much of the remaining hope lies, often prefer to leave 
for others the task of working with disadvantaged children. 


Where personal concern for others is absent, public policy 
is likely to be unresponsive to public needs. Thus do matters of 
relations among individuals merge into problems of general policy. 
For example, although Americans well understand that the future 
of their nation depends on adequate education, still the American 
people have not yet taken steps needed to assure that opportunity 
for all children. Many communities with the ability to support 
their schools adequately have failed to do so, and many Americans 
reject all responsibility for the education of persons beyond their 
immediate neighbors. The very children whose home environ- 
ments provide them with the least opportunity for success in the 
modern world—children who most need extra educational oppor- 
tunity—are usually given the most crowded classes, the poorest 
fonilities and the leant ynriad proyrans: alr every sume ibyisidiure 
and in the national congress, educational legislation intended to 
correct problems resulting from inequalities of wealth is often re- 
sisted precisely because it might succeed. Yet such resistance ought 
to crumble before concern for human dignity and an awareness 
that every undereducated American weakens the national fabric. 


A minority of citizens actively holds the view that it is unde- 
sirable to promote social action. Under the banner of patriotism, 
they look on public action as an assault on private interest. They 
look on taxation as a form of theft and on all publicly managed and 
supported activities as the intrusions of incipient dictatorship. They 


3 


deny the right of the society to make demands on them for the 
general good. This group, though small, makes itself felt and can- 
not be ignored. 


These shortcomings are symptoms of that insulation of indi- 
viduals from each other which a democracy can ill afford in the 
face of modern challenges. The crisis is not merely one of deficient 
social responsibility. Selfishness and indifference have probably 
been widespread in all ages, but these deficiencies are of increasing 
concern today because the challenges before the society have so 
altered that the responses of a simpler day no longer serve. 


The Minute Man of the Revolutionary era faced an enemy 
he knew in a fight he could understand. His readiness to take 
arms contributed directly to his own safety and the general security. 
Today there is no parallel to this form of action. The term Minute 
Man evokes patriotic memories, and it has been used for political 
effect. But the national well-being today requires of individuals 
something more complicated and rare than the Minute Man’s 
rough-and-ready courage. It requires more knowledge, perceptive- 
ness, and patience. For today’s problems are as complex, subtle, and 
durable as they are grim. 


The struggle with communism and communist imperialism 
is one requiring heavy expenditure of energy and treasure over 
many years. The drain on the nation continues to test the citizen’s 
fortitude and wisdom. The citizen faces this test without the spur 
of open warfare. Though the dangers are fully as great as in the 
major wars of the recent past, the fervent emotions unleashed by 
war no longer prod the people. 


American policy toward underdeveloped countries is another 
frustratingly drawn-out and relatively undramatic enterprise, with 
costs more visible than results. 


The challenges which face the people on the domestic front 
seem less critical than those posed by communism, yet they may 


4 


in the end contain an even graver risk. The bewildering pace of 
change continually restructures ways of living and acting, requir- 
ing responses which demand more factual knowledge, a fuller un- 
derstanding, and a keener devotion to the general welfare than 
ever before. 


The number of problems which require expert or secret 
knowledge appears to be growing. Popular sovereignty loses valid- 
ity if the people do not understand the nation’s problems, if they 
cannot evaluate the alternative policies for meeting them, if they 
cannot relate events and choices to the values at stake in the world. 
But it remains the citizen’s responsibility to demand action on so- 
cial problems, to evaluate the appropriateness of action taken by 
his government, and to set tolerable limits of choice for his repre- 
sentatives. This responsibility requires a knowledge and analysis 
of events that cannot be obtained by the uneducated or the unin- 
terested. 


Thus social responsibility implies ever greater demands on 
the individual. In the face of a widespread inadequacy of social 
responsibility to the demands of the times, it is fitting to reconsider 
how social responsibility grows in an individual and how it may 


be fostered. 


The Growth of Social 
Responsibility 


The socially responsible person is one for whom the general 
welfare, as he interprets it, is of deep personal concern. His sense 
of responsibility manifests itself in thoughts and actions which he 


believes to be right. 


It is in adulthood that social responsibility is to be measured. 
But, as in the case of most basic attitudes, it is in infancy, child- 
hood, and youth that the foundation must be laid. The growth 
of social responsibility is a process of identifying with other per- 
sons on an ever widening basis. Its growth takes place as a series 
of accretions even less precisely distinguishable from each other 
than the steps of physical development. Yet the changes are visible 
when viewed as they are here over periods of years. 


Man is essentially a social being. That no man is an island is 
not just the insight of the poet and preacher; it is a psychological 
fact. The personal security which makes it possible for a child to 
live and grow can come only from a social relationship. From the 
cradle he develops in close interaction with other people. Their 
love is essential to his growth—as essential as food and shelter. He 
naturally responds to love with his own form of love. He soon 
learns that love entails obligations. The expectation of carrying 


out obligations to others becomes an integral part of his life as he 
develops habits of helpfulness and consideration of others. This 
rudimentary conscience is basic to his developing social sense. 


The child develops a considerable array of personal convic- 
tions long before going to school. Far from being a social cipher, 
the six-year-old is a bundle of convictions deeply felt if little un- 
derstood. Those convictions necessarily reflect the social living that 
has occurred within his home and neighborhood. As he moves 
through his early school years he deepens his awareness of his con- 
nections to others. From a secure base in his relations with family, 
he enlarges his personal world to include companions, teachers, 
and others who come within his ken. 


Adolescence brings drastic changes in body, interests, and 
responsibilities. It also endows the young person with a wonderful 
capacity to grow in social responsibility. The adolescent is flexible 
and capable of deep tenderness toward others, and he reveres good 
performance. Thus, he attaches himself to models of near perfec- 
tion and passionately emulates them. His image of perfection leads 
him to set for himself and for others far-flung goals of achievement 
and high, often unrealistic standards. At the same time, because 
of great changes he is undergoing, the adolescent does not know 
himself well. His uncertainty makes him acutely conscious of his 
limitations, producing a sense of imperfection to counterbalance 
his desire for perfection. It also facilitates deep involvement with 
others, leading him to seek his values and status from others. Thus, 
his sense of personal stability and security comes to be based on his 
relationships with others. He often tends to lose himself in a group, 
bases his ideas of right and wrong on the standards of the group, 
and is uncritically hostile toward other groups. 


This adolescent loyalty is not necessarily limited to adoles- 
cence. Its caricature is the individual who gives his all for dear old 
Siwash. It may be found also in athletic teams, combat groups, or 
the Komsomol organization. It may extend to a nation. There are 


8 


educational systems whose major purpose is to develop in the indi- 
vidual an uncritical life-long acceptance of the ways of his own 
nation. Totalitarian nations in particular often act on the convic- 
tion that they need many citizens of this type. There are voices in 
most nations which exalt blind loyalty. 


There is no doubt that great enterprises have been carried out 
by groups bound by unthinking loyalty. But the fact remains that 
it is a low order of social responsibility, based on subservience rather 
than freedom. 


Moreover, uncritical loyalty to a group does not necessarily 
entail loyalty to the values it represents. It may therefore provide 
no support or guidance if the group dissolves. A more reliable 
loyalty is that of the person who perceives the values that are mani- 
fested by the group as worthy of his support for their own sake. A 
permanent loyalty can be based only on a reasoned understanding 
of one’s own values. 


Nevertheless, uncritical group loyalty has its uses during 
adolescence. In the American culture it assists the adolescent to 
maintain control of himself in a period of decreased reliance on 
his home and of adjustment to new physical and emotional needs. 
It also seems to be a necessary stage in the development of social 
responsibility. 


There is reason to be concerned with the fifty-year-old ado- 
lescent at the football game who identifies himself with the team. 
But his seventeen-year-old counterpart, behaving the same way, 
may be taking an important step toward full membership in society 
by widening the scope of his loyalties. 


Even as the adolescent is finding security in his allegiances, 
he should be developing new self-reliance. The richer his experi- 
ences with his group have been, the more strength he will have 
to develop more rational loyalties. As he matures further, his atti- 


9 


tudes come to be determined less by social pressure, tradition, fear 
of ostracism, or ignorance of alternatives, and more by thought. 
In the pluralistic society, the mature person does not accept spe- 
cific attitudes or values merely because he has been taught them. 
Rather, he becomes aware that what he does and what he fails to 
do affect others, and that it is reasonable to act in recognition of 
these truths. A mature social responsibility requires the exercise 
of reason. 


The attainment of enlightened responsibility requires the in- 
dividual to make deliberate, reasoned choices. He must gain some 
insight into the processes of his own group and view objectively 
those things which he has habitually admired or taken for granted. 
This process may not be painless. As idealists, young people want 
the objects of their devotion to be perfect. A young person reacts 
sharply to the discovery that an idol was false. As critical sensi- 
tivity develops, however, he comes to realize that groups which 
have commanded his allegiance do not necessarily have ideals 
which he, after reflection, is prepared to support; that a group’s be- 
havior may be inconsistent with its own ideals; and that mature 
allegiance consists precisely in helping the group move toward those 
ideals which the individual considers valid. Thus, whether refer- 
ring to a local endeavor or a nation, social responsibility is not a 
mere matter of adjustment to the way things are. 


Another common hurdle in the development of mature social 
responsibility is the stage of almost complete relativism of values. 
It occurs to many intelligent young people that since values seem 
relative there is little to choose between different courses of action 
and no one of them deserves the full commitment of one’s precious 
self. Yet in the mature individual, criticism and loyalty go hand 
in hand. Precisely because his dedication to certain purposes and 
values is sincere and reasoned, he can choose those actions most 
likely to further them, and he does not permit the imperfection of 
the available alternatives to serve as an excuse for inaction. 


10 


The mature person’s need for involvement in life can no 
longer be satisfied through purely personal contacts with a family 
or a group of friends, though these continue to be important. His 
social conscience extends beyond the immediately visible and con- 
veniently available. His loyalties expand to include men he will 
never meet. He also desires understanding of his own values and 
ideas and those of other men, and he seeks to establish connections 
between values and behavior. He therefore develops reasoned 
loyalty to ideas, values, and institutions as well as to groups. 


The values toward which the individual develops loyalty are 
part of the cultural heritage of the society. They can be intellec- 
tualized and treated in the abstract, but it takes experience to 
breathe life into them. For example, a concern for the welfare of 
others, if it is not experienced in life, remains an abstraction; and 
it is unlikely to lead to socially responsible behavior. Thus, even 
when the individual is mature enough to intellectualize his values 
and treat them in the abstract, the process of developing loyalty to 
values continues to require a group experience. 


It is possible to define the general characteristics of the ex- 
perience which contributes to social responsibility. It is a form of ac- 
tion which has deep meaning for the individual; it offers a personal 
challenge and has its own rewards. It reflects socially responsible 
values, and they are experienced in a real context. Just as social 
responsibility is manifested in behavior, so it grows through be- 
havior. The role of the school, to which we now turn, is to nurture 
that behavior and to give it intellectual significance. 


1] 


The Role of the School 


It has always seemed reasonable to look to the school as the 
primary instrument for shaping the citizen. It is the most nearly 
universal of all social institutions; it is in fact the sole social insti- 
tution which seeks contacts with all young persons. Further, it 
reaches them during those periods of their lives when they are 


most susceptible to influence. And its very purpose is to help them 
develop. 


By the time the child reaches school age, however, many basic 
attitudes have taken firm hold. And, in general, he continues to 
spend much more time outside school than in it. The role of the 
community, and of the home in particular, in developing character 
can hardly be overstated. If parents do not provide the personal 
security on which healthy social attitudes are based and do not set 
examples for children to live by, the school’s ability to develop the 
citizen is sharply curtailed, but its share of the responsibility for 
doing so rises. Another limitation of the ability of the school is the 
existence in the culture of many citizens, some of them in respon- 
sible and respected positions, who show a decided lack of social 
responsibility. 


The difficulties of achieving goals relating to character have 
long been recognized. In the nineteenth century the school placed 


13 


its principal reliance on the study of literature to form the citizen. 
At that time, it was widely believed that practice followed precept. 
The schoolbooks of that day were replete with patriotic slogans 
and citations, on the assumption that those who could recite them 
would be patriots. Since many of these pupils developed into fine 
patriots, the assumption was considered valid, and even today there 
is pressure to teach this way. 


But in the twentieth century the experience of the public 
school has fully demonstrated that the goals sought require con- 
siderably more than memorizing of precepts. Qualities of ethical 
character can benefit from academic learning, but it has been all 
too clearly demonstrated that it is possible for a person to be learned 
and evil. 


As the need for good citizenship became more evident, espe- 
cially following the Second World War, the complexities of char- 
acter development became more fully understood. A number of 
special efforts were launched to help schools develop the citizen. 
During the 1940’s and 50’s they became so numerous that in 1954. 
the American Association of School Administrators devoted its 
annual yearbook to a description of them. As a result of this wide- 
spread experimentation and of careful evaluation of its outcomes, 
it is possible to describe the general characteristics of schools that 
successfully develop social responsibility. 


Development of a sense of identity with society requires a 
complicated series of learnings. It develops upon the total environ- 
mental background, upon satisfactions and frustrations experienced 
in a variety of settings, and upon considerable knowledge about 
the society and the values which have shaped it. The school aims 
to produce in pupils an ability to think about and to assume social 
obligations. The route to that end involves many experiences that 
are not primarily intellectual and many which take place outside the 
school, although they may be directed by the teacher and planned 
within the school. They may involve civic participation and social 


14 


service, or they may be designed to strengthen the basis of personal 
security which makes rational social attitudes possible. 


A rational appreciation of one’s role in a free society can 
emerge only where there already exists a confident acceptance— 
although not necessarily a total approval—of the environment. 
Building the child’s confidence is a necessary step. If the environ- 
ment seems friendly, he gains in confidence. As he finds satisfac- 
tion in his social relationships and enjoys some measure of success 
in group enterprises, he discovers his individuality and its worth 
in a social context. 


The friendly environment is not the lax environment. It of- 
fers challenges to which the child responds. He profits from the 
natural tension between what he knows and what he would like 
to know. Good teaching is challenging, not frightening. The 
teacher who challenges the child to perform well is the one whose 
respect the child senses. But the term well must be defined. Good 
performance is not achieved simply by adherence to such standards 
as high grades or the teacher’s approval, which derive their value 
not from the child’s perception of their importance but rather 
from a relationship arbitrarily established by the authorities. Good 
performance, humanely understood, is achievement of inherent 
benefit to the child for his own sake. Furthermore, no single stand- 
ard of good performance can be established for all children. Ex- 
pectations which are placed on a child are those that are good for 
him. More than anything else, it is the ability of the teacher to 
set, from moment to moment, realistic though challenging expecta- 
tions for each child, and to help the child achieve them, that 
determines professional competence; and it is that ability which 
determines the humaneness of the school—its devotion to the 
dignity of the individual. 


The willingness to cooperate with the world rationally and 
the ability to resist it rationally are prerogatives of those for whom 


15 


reality is tolerable. Most children appear to have this good fortune. 
But for some, life is so difficult that the fostering of understanding 
will not promote security. Children who are victimized by home 
and community conditions and by prejudice may react with hos- 
tility or apathy to the environment. Such children, it is commonly 
said, are not willing to “listen to reason.” If, as a result, their be- 
havior is seriously detrimental to themselves or others, the school 
may have to resort to authoritarian means. It may thus obtain the 
desired result in external behavior, but the attempt to base action 
on subservience rather than understanding does not seriously ad- 
vance the child’s dignity, confidence, ability to contribute, or social 
responsibility. 


An educational environment for children with severe handi- 
caps requires small classes and able teachers. The teacher must, 
above all, be capable of respecting all children for their humanity 
and for the potentials which have been submerged within them 
by a hostile environment. Many children have never seen reason 
to hope for a better future, and the child without hope will not 
strive. He has little stake in the social well-being. But the child 
who senses the teacher's respect can have the self-confidence to 
work hard. The school has the tremendous obligation of giving 
hope to all children, and the deeply humane teacher has the in- 
estimable capacity of giving that hope. 


The elementary school usually provides the child’s first ex- 
tended experience with society outside the home. For him the 
school is the society. It provides him with group experiences of a 
new sort. For the first time he finds himself working or playing 
with many other children and relating to an adult outside his 
family for a considerable part of each day. Since the elementary 
school is so large a part of the young child’s life experience, the na- 
ture of his experience there can have an important impact on his 
developing sense of social responsibility. 


16 


Fundamental to every development in the elementary school 
are the skills of communication and computation without which 
little information can be gathered or shared. The school that fails 
to develop these skills is likely to fail also with every other objec- 
tive before it. The elementary school therefore places development 
of these skills first on its agenda. 


Of equivalent importance in developing social responsibility 
is knowledge of social relationships. A significant understanding 
of the complexities of social relationships requires considerable 
mental effort, based on disciplined knowledge and exchange of 
ideas. Yet, in most elementary schools too great a stress on sys- 
tematic subject matter may lead to confusion rather than under- 
standing. The excellent elementary school teacher resolves this 
apparent dilemma by using organized subject matter not as an end 
in itself, but as the resource from which to draw examples which 
illuminate general concepts. 


The good elementary school, for example, seeks to develop 
understanding of such a concept as interdependence. To this end 
it draws on considerable factual matter from fields like geography, 
economics, and history, integrating them in terms of the pupil 
and his learning rather than in terms of the subject itself. Such a 
school makes no pretense of developing young geographers, econo- 
mists, or historians. It recognizes in those fields, however, indis- 
pensable means for developing understandings of concepts which 
are part of the foundation of social responsibility. 


The good elementary school, for example, seeks to develop 
lasting feelings about respect for other people, toleration of their 
ways and views, obeying the laws, the responsibility of being in- 
terested in the public welfare, and other ingredients of the social 
conscience. The school must lead the child to realize that the so- 
ciety is “we,” not “they,” and that, like others, “I” have the capacity 
to contribute to my family and community and to help other human 


17 


beings—or to hamper them. The teacher, through all his actions, 
can develop children’s sensitivity toward others. If the teacher truly 
respects all children, they respond not only with improved learning, 
but with the desire to requite respect with respect. The elementary 
school teacher has an opportunity—and a responsibility—which few 
people have to be an effectively inspiring model for young 
Americans. 


Special activities within the school, as well as the general 
experience of school life, can be effective in developing social 
attitudes in elementary school children. Even kindergarteners can 
participate, with as much profit as vigor, in establishing rules 
for playgrounds, hallways, and stairways. Elementary school chil- 
dren, under guidance but not dictation, can pass effective and wise 
judgment on the persistent violator. Keeping the adjacent streets 
clean can be a meaningful responsibility for them and can bring 
encouraging gratitude from local residents and merchants. De- 
veloping a list of good social qualities and the reasons behind them 
and then judging at intervals how well he measures up to them 
can help the older elementary school child understand and im- 
prove his relationships with other people. These are but a few of 
the many special activities through which elementary schools can 
foster the sense of social responsibility. 


The importance of the home requires that teacher and parent 
work toward the same end of fostering the social conscience. 
Teachers should discuss common problems with parents and, when 
advisable, plan to solve them cooperatively. 


While working with the parents, however, the elementary 
school helps the child learn to function outside the home and to 
relate himself to a larger world. The child first entering the elemen- 
tary school is always dependent upon his family. The school is an 
instrument by which he is liberated from complete dependence 
upon the home and learns to be effective in wider social settings. 


18 


In teaching the child to act independently of the home, the ele- 
mentary school makes one of its major contributions to his sense 
of social responsibility. It gives him a secure environment for learn- 
ing and practicing the skills of social interaction. 


With the onset of adolescence, the intellectual and social abjli- 
ties and the needs of young people increase in depth and scope. 
The task of promoting intellectual growth and social responsibility 
is therefore of a different nature at the secondary level. 


At the outset of discussion of the secondary school, it is neces- 
sary to stress again the overwhelming importance of the home in 
shaping the general development of each child and, in particular, 
his social development. For example, an important element in so- 
cial responsibility is the open mind. When parents are convinced 
that most matters, however complex, have only one side, they can 
negate the school’s best efforts to develop the skills of honest in- 
quiry and of withholding judgment. Yet these are among the most 
important skills of social responsibility, and the school must in any 
case seek to develop them. 


At the secondary level the pupil increases his social knowledge 
and develops his ability to think seriously about it. Understanding 
social organization is essentially a rational process involving factual 
knowledge, discovery of the connection of things, and sensitivity 
to philosophical assumptions. A major part of the secondary school 
curriculum is designed to enable pupils to acquire this knowledge 
and understanding, and the social studies and English especially 
deal directly with it. For example, American history portrays the 
working out in practice of the basic values of this nation. The social 
sciences in general should provide understanding of the prefer- 
ences—the value structures—that give coherence and distinctive- 
ness to this and competing social systems. 


Philosophical perspectives and skill in communication are 
essential to the acquisition and interpretation of social knowledge. 


19 


The study of English contributes to both. The school attempts 
continuous development of skill in communication, both oral and 
written. And English literature opens to the pupil the world of 
humane letters. 


It is vital that the student develop a sufficient interest in the 
society that he will be motivated to remain informed for the rest of 
his life. Only thus can he hope to be an effective citizen. Contro- 
versial issues are among those which are likely to elicit the most 
genuine participation of young people, as of adults. If the rigidity 
of the community and timidity of educators stifle analysis of such 
issues, the school loses one of its best tools for fostering serious 
social thought and concern. 


Other parts of the program can also contribute to the develop- 
ment of social responsibility. The natural sciences, for example, 
impart knowledge which is fundamental to an understanding of 
many of the nation’s greatest problems. By teaching scientific 
methods of inquiring, by demonstrating the importance of an 
honest relationship between data and conclusions, they contribute 
to the development of the rational powers. Like all subjects, the 
natural sciences should help students progress toward a life of 
thought, which is increasingly essential to effective social respon- 
sibility. The person who is helpless before the tyranny of self or 
of the environment can contribute little to the understanding or 
solution of complex problems. 


The ability to think with depth, enthusiasm, frankness, and 
freshness lurks not far beneath the surface in the emotionally 
healthy adolescent. The intense interest of adolescents in them- 
selves, their tendency to idealism, their deep need for the approba- 
tion and attention of others, their intense group loyalties, and their 
ability to love and admire other people intensely are rich resources 
for the skilled teacher. These qualities can inspire discussion of 
motivation to good and to evil and hence the consideration of the 


20 


meaning of good and evil. They can lead to thinking about con- 
formity, mediocrity, individuality, and excellence. They can lead 
to examination of personal motivations and values and hence of 
the relationship between values and action, between ideals and 
reality, between liberty and human nature. They can motivate 
consideration of the type of society one desires and of the ways for 
bringing it about. In and out of school, adults who attempt to utilize 
these resources of adolescence are repeatedly heartened and moved 
by the depth of the soul-searching that accompanies such discus- 
sions. 


Such experiences have the advantage of helping the school to 
draw out the potentials of the individual rather than promote his 
conformity to certain norms. Serious emphasis on problems to 
which there is no single correct answer is unlikely to lead to wor- 
ship of the standard answer. 


In addition, every effort should be made to increase the in- 
dependence and initiative of students in the planning and execu- 
tion of their studies and school activities. As pupils mature, they 
should have ever greater freedom of action. Self-reliance is essen- 
tial to social responsibility. 


The secondary school that successfully develops the social 
sense offers also a substantial program of pupil activities designed 
to supplement the ability of the school to reach all children. Some 
pupils, particularly those with a deep sense of exclusion from the 
affairs of the society, find little meaning in their ordinary school- 
work, yet opportunities to prepare for a vocation or participate in 
an avocation may seem to them worthwhile. These opportunities 
may be in vocational courses, clubs, or sports. Similarly, the suc- 
cessful secondary school consciously seeks to provide outlets for the 
developing sense of loyalty of its pupils. Programs of sports and 
clubs, for example, serve not only to focus the energies of dedicated 
participants; they may provide also experiences which generate in 
nonparticipants a feeling of being part of the school and of its ac- 


21 


tivities. These experiences are of more than passing consequence, 
for the feeling of belonging is the rootstock of loyalty. The success- 
ful school insures that every child shares this feeling. 


A prob‘em arises here because both sports and clubs may be 
misused. The case of overemphasis on competitive sports is com- 
mon; so is the case of clubs that become cliques. Those responsible 
for school policies should continually revaluate their sport and club 
programs to make sure that they do genuinely serve to generate a 
feeling of belonging. 


A more important means by which the successful secondary 
school generates the feeling of belonging to a worthy community 
and participating in its affairs is by the process of involving its stu- 
dents directly in the life of the community. Significant social ex- 
perience is necessary at every stage in the development of the sense 
of social responsibility. But the definition of significant evolves as 
the child matures. The closer the child comes to adulthood, the 
more he looks on his proper role in society as that of an adult. His 
sense of his role in the community, however, is likely to have out- 
run the community's concept of the adolescent role. The pupil, 
therefore, needs help in generating the means by which he may 
participate in the society in ways that have meaning for him. Every 


school is in a community, and the community can be a laboratory 
containing the raw materials of civic participation. The successful 


school uses its community as a laboratory. 


It is possible to achieve civic experience in connection with 
any course in any subject. Some subjects possess obvious overtones 
of civic participation. The course usually called modern problems, 
for example, is an effort to analyze economic, social, or political 
affairs in American communities. It has innumerable opportunities 
to make its learning real by reference to what is happening in the 
community outside the school. It may consider, for example, the 
local work of social agencies, in order to give the student a sense 
of the human problems that his society faces. 


22 


Opportunities for civic activities which supplement academic 
study also arise in the school. In American history courses, for ex- 
ample, the study of the Constitution can be illuminated if at the 
same time the students undertake to revise the constitution of the 
student government. Such an activity makes several cuxtributions 
to the growth of social responsibility. It enhances insight into the 
meaning of abstract terms, such as separation of powers and checks 
and balances. It provides opportunity to practice the skills involved 
in active citizenship. Its most important contribution, however, is 
in the fact that the participating pupil experiences directly some 
of the values which lie at the base of the American system. For 
example, a pupil involved in such an experience raises questions 
- about justice: what power ought one pupil have to decide another 
pupil’s affairs? Thus he is acquiring the extra dimension needed 
to internalize and personalize the values of the system. It then 
makes sense in the classroom to rationalize and abstract those 
values. It is from meaningful personal experience, however, that 
his possession of these values becomes of direct significance in 


his life. 


But even the best learning and activity within the school are 
not enough to develop a mature sense of social responsibility. Even- 
tually, the student must achieve a sense of constructive participa- 
tion in the significant business of the community outside the school. 
The hard discipline of free men is not mastered in the schoolroom 
alone. 


Entire inventories of tested suggestions for genuine civic par- 
ticipation are available to schools. But providing this kind of ex- 
perience poses obvious curricular and administrative difficulties. Of 
these, none exceeds the problem of time. The teacher who is skilled 
in planning experiences that take place entirely inside the class- 
room may have difficulty in planning activities to take place outside. 
He may lack knowledge of how to do it, and he usually lacks the 


23 


experience. He may be deterred by his expectation of public 
criticism. Even when he is accomplished at the task, however, its 
planning and execution require considerable time and energy. 
Therefore, if the community is to be used as 4 laboratory, the 
teachers concerned must be permitted to set aside time in their 
schedules for planning, much like teachers who work on television; 
the syllabus must include time for planning and execution of the 
activities on the part of the pupils; and classes must be small enough 
to permit the teacher to make the difficult and refined adjustment: 


that experience has shown to be necessary in community-involve- 
ment activities. 


Schools should also mobilize those agencies in the community 
which are their potential allies. In most communities there are 
groups whose purpose is to supply social experience to children. 
Schools have traditionally worked with scouting, social service, and 
church-related groups in seeking social experience. But there is 
much to be said for the wish of officials in service agencies that the 
schools would call on them still more often to offer suggestions and 
request help. It is not difficult to establish cooperative relationships 
with such groups, and all schools should seek them. Agencies which 
seek to serve youth are natural supporters of the school, and con- 


siderable benefit accrues to the school that takes full advantage of 
their services. 


In these ways the community-oriented secondary school can 
contribute fundamentally to development of social responsibility. 
Yet, for reasons beyond its control, it must leave an important part 
of the task undone. As the student emerges from the high school, 
he is normally still enmeshed in the emotional uncertainties of 
adolescence; he lacks the experience and the intellectual maturity 
to achieve a rational awareness of himself and his relations with his 
fellow man; he has not had time to accumulate much of the knowl- 
edge and understanding required for successful involvement in the 
important issues of the society. 


24 


The maturing of social responsibility does not come automatic- 
ally with age. It requires, among other things, an environment that 
stimulates deep thought about ethics in society, with each indi- 
vidual striving to reach his own conclusions. Ethical character re- 
quires an environment in which thought is used to free oneself as 
far as possible from abject submission to pressure for conformity. 
The necessary stimulus may elude students in colleges, but it is 
unlikely today to be found anywhere else on a mass scale. This 
consideration calls for radical expansion of opportunities for educa- 
tion beyond the high school, whether that education be supplied 
in colleges provided for older youth or in other types of institutions 
established for the education of adults. 


The college has traditionally attempted to foster mature think- 
ing. Here the student is led to consider himself, to learn that his 
preconceptions influence his perceptions. He raises questions about 
his environment and considers how he relates to his acquaintances 
and to the human race. He reflects on the meaning and condition 
of humanity. The age-old questions of man before God and the 
universe engage his interest. He examines his life: “Who am I>” 
“Why am I here?” “What is right, what wrong?” “What is true?” 
“How do I know truth?” These are the central focus of the liberal 
curriculum. How they are presented to each student necessarily 
varies. Some students are mature enough and involved enough to 
plunge into such questions without further preparation. Some have 
considered them even in high school. Yet most students, even at 
the college level, do not quickly or easily come to grips with such 
abstract questions. For many college students, problems of ethics, 
aesthetics, logic, or metaphysics, initially at least, are remote, un- 
interesting, or even trivial. 


No specific syllabus can be recommended as a universal solu- 
tion to this problem, and no specific method can be suggested to 
build the bridge from student interest to abstract learning. It is the 
highly creative teacher who can pose philosophical questions in a 


25 


manner meaningful to students of varied backgrounds and levels 
of maturity. What can be stated with certainty is that colleges must 
increasingly recognize the same problem of motivation with which 
the elementary and high schools have been grappling for decades. 
Some colleges may even have to seek contact with many students 
by vocational training, sports, or clubs. Through the intellectual 
content which can be infused into these activities, or through the 


time which they gain for the college, the student can be led toward 
a life of thought. 


The successful college also makes an attempt to build directly 
on the community-orientation of the secondary school. At this level 
even more than at the high school level, the opportunity for civic 
participation is rich. At the high school level the teacher and the 
pupils suffer from the fact that the adolescent is not accorded a full 
role in the American society today. In the main, leaders of the 
society do not consider high school pupils to be adults, and their 
teachers frequently share this attitude. But at the college level, the 
student is normally thought of as capable of accepting full respon- 
sibility for himself. It is therefore possible for him to participate in 
real civic activities without risking the same criticism as might be 
aimed at the high school adolescent. 


But the problem of time remains grave. As at the secondary 
level, it is necessary to make allowance in the loads and teaching 
schedules of college teachers for the extra effort required to intro- 
duce the community as a laboratory in their teaching. 


In addition to the civic experiences which he may provide, the 
teacher has an important role as a model for students in developing 
a sense of social responsibility. Evidence of this quality should be 
basic to selection of teachers, and its further development should 
be a major objective of teacher education. 


26 


Implications for Public Policy 


If the schools are to be the society’s main agent for the devel- 
opment of social responsibility, circumstances must be created to 
enable the schools to do the job. Part of the needed support is finan- 
cial; part of it must be in the form of improved opportunities for 
social participation outside the school. 


Obviously, the strength of a school, like the strength of a 
nation, depends on a multitude of human factors, and not merely 
on money. But it is equally obvious that even the most dedicated 
and talented personnel cannot do an adequate job with inadequate 
resources. The teaching of social responsibility is demanding of 
time, skill, and energy. If classes are too large, it is not possible for 
teachers, however skilled and devoted, to plan the individual ex- 
periences for pupils without which little progress can be made 
toward social responsibility. Thus, as class sizes increase, the part 
of the school program that provides experiences outside the class- 
room goes by the board, and the experience of civic participation, 
which is essential to growth of social responsibility, becomes im- 
possible of achievement through the school. Further, it should be 
noted that unreasonable teaching conditions tend to be most preva- 
lent in the very areas where, because the home contributes least to 
education, the teaching job is largest and most difficult. The 


27 


common tendency to save money by increasing class loads there- 
fore results in making it impossible for schools to achieve the ob- 
jectives set for them. 


Under these circumstances the alternatives must be clearly 
recognized: either the public must expect less of the schools or it 
must make better results possible. 


Yet even in the case of the best-endowed schools, it is neces- 
sary to consider what may be done outside the school to provide 
those types of civic experience that are reserved in our society for 
adults. For younger Americans, too, additional civic experiences 
provided by agencies other than the school are helpful and, if the 
school provides none, essential. 


The providing of civic experience in the form of direct par- 
ticipation in the affairs of the society has long been an objective of 
a large number of organizations serving youth and adults within 
the American society. It is therefore worth considering what these 
opportunities are in American life today, how they are made avail- 
able to young persons, and what may be done to increase the spread 
and depth of their services to young Americans. 


Many opportunities for social participation exist, and very 
large numbers of young Americans take advantage of them. The 
largest single category is probably found in the activity programs of 
most churches. The usual American church conducts a web of pro- 
grams designed to offer opportunities for persons of every age to 
involve themselves in beneficial forms of service. 


Opportunities for non-church-related involvement are also 
widely available. Young adults serve as tutors to needy children, 
work in public hospitals or settlement houses, counse! in charity 
camps, join the Peace Corps, and serve as political party helpers. 
The Scouting organizations enable over three million boys and 
two and one-half million girls, plus a total of almost three million 
adult volunteers, to involve themselves in their communities. Their 


28 


programs involve not only camping and outdoor activities but also 
a wide range of social services. 


The Commission on Youth Service Projects, a council of more 
than thirty church-related and private organizations, each year 
offers several hundred programs for young people as individuals 
and as groups to donate their time, energies, and resources to com- 
munity service projects, institutional service projects, and study and 
working seminars related to problems of the society. These projects 
allow youths to involve themselves in the basic problems of the 


society and to participate in a significant manner to help solve these 
problems. 


The Red Cross, Cancer Society, Heart Association, United 
Givers Fund, Community Chest, and many similar organizations 
use the volunteer services of young Americans, as do state mental 
hospitals, Veterans Administration hospitals, and other public and 
private institutions. There are also wide varieties of service oppor- 
tunities in Young Men’s Christian and Hebrew Associations, boys 
clubs, and the Salvation Army. 


A superficial examination of the organizations just enumer- 
ated conveys the impression that opportunities for youth involve- 
ment are great. The number of millions involved would confirm 
the impression. But a more thorough and more candid examination 
does not support that view. True, the Girl Scouts enroll more than 
two and one-half million girls, but more than half of them are 
under ten years of age. Less than five percent of the enrollment is 
in the fifteen-to-seventeen year bracket of Senior Scouts, and there 
is no regular enrollment above age seventeen. 


This same pattern is repeated in other youth-service agencies: 
high appeal for the very young, at least in the middle and upper 
income groups; decreasing appeal in adolescence; and disappear- 
ance of almost all interest in participation as the young people leave 
high school. This is an anomaly, for every recent study of their 


29 


needs and desires reveals that many young Americans are eager to 
serve. They possess high social motivation and hope to do good for 
mankind. These motivations do not find satisfactory outlets in the 
culture of today. The reasons for this lack should be examined. 


Partly it may be explained by blocks to adequate communica- 
tion. The young men and women may not know of the opportu- 
nities that are available. They may lack training required to fill the 
positions or may not know how to go about getting it. They may 
not know where to turn for information. Too often, however, they 
have accurate information, and it is precisely because they know 
what the opportunities are that they avoid them. 


One of the major causes of disaffiliation is undoubtedly the 
belief—often rooted in reality—that the things that young people 
will be asked or permitted to do are trivia, unworthy of their time 
and effort. 


Further, the size and complexity of social service organizations 
may be a barrier. If a service is of real significance, it necessarily 
involves an administrative framework capable of directing the ac- 
tivity in light of many considerations not visible to the participants. 
The youthful volunteer may look on this framework not as a means 
of accomplishing a worthy end, but rather as a lumbering bureauc- 
racy in which he may merely lose his way. He may be unwilling to 
accept the modesty of the contribution he is likely to make. He 
may, in short, be requited for his good intentions with the same 
frustration that befalls most Americans in a modern age: the aware- 
ness that they are small cogs in a vast and complex machine. 


It is evident that the American society has not turned sufh- 
cient attention to the problem of finding ways to involve its young 
citizens. When youth’s problem was considered to be intellectual, 
the society created a universal institution to deal with it: the public 
school. It has not seen fit as yet to provide any equally available 
instrument designed to give all Americans a sense of meaningful 
participation in the society. The school-leaving age thus becomes 


30 


the point at which the society cuts the young person loose. Many 
youth-service organizations deal with youth while in school—in 
effect they rely on the school to provide the institutional framework 
of their operations—and youth have no place to go when school is 
out. This practice assumes, contrary to fact, that the young person 
is fully educated when he leaves school. Youth who are- cut loose 
on leaving school thus quickly lose contact with social opportu- 
nities. The sole institution which pretends to deal with them on a 
universal base is Selective Service, and its contact is both transitory 
and unwelcome. For the young women, there is not even that 
agency. Whether they are employed or unemployed is not the 
responsibility of any agency. There is no guidance to help them 
find their way, no counsellor, no friend. They are truly our lost 
generation. 


Given these realities, it is little wonder that many Americans 
have an underdeveloped sense of social responsibility. If it is valid 
to charge that the American people are overly concerned with 
themselves—selfish and addicted to privatism—that is hardly a 
surprise. The barriers to civic participation by pupils are formid- 
able, and once a young American leaves school or college, he is 
expected to make his own way, establish his career and his family. 
As he dedicates himself, quite correctly, to these personal ends, the 
society offers him scant inducement to find time for consideration 
of its needs. He may of course choose service as a career. In that 
case he will usually find that the rewards in money and status are 
not great. 


The traditional assumption that Americans would have an 
adequately developed sense of social responsibility was rooted in 
another assumption: namely, that the school could develop this 
sense and that it would do so for most Americans. It is true that 
the school can make a profound contribution in this regard; indeed, 
the contribution of the school is indispensable. But the schools 
cannot provide all the necessary experience in the adolescent years, 


3] 


even under the best of circumstances. And in most cases, the school 
has not been permitted to do that large part of the job which, with 
proper support, it could do. 


It is important that the American society turn concentrated 
attention to this problem. The first and most obvious thing to be 
done is to find ways to intensify the programs and enrollments of 
the agencies that now provide opportunities for social and civic 
Participation. Some important part of the need can certainly be 
met by an intensification of the existing pattern. It would be pos- 
sible, for example, to call a national conference of leaders of youth- 
service organizations to plan concrete steps for expanding service 
opportunities and enhancing their appeal to young adults. This 
might be done under the auspices of the White House, as has been 
done on other cccasions. 


In the meantime, conditions which reduce the appeal of 
service opportunities should be remedied. For instance, many 
youth-service agencies have tended to treat young volunteers like 
children, concentrating in the hands of adult leaders the powers 
of choice and decision. A greater recognition of the leadership of 
the young persons themselves and a greater willingness to trust 
their judgment would undoubtedly improve many programs. They 
are less likely than their elders to choose activities they think of as 
trivial, and their participation is more likely to be enthusiastic and 
thus educational. 


Much can and should be done to expand and intensify the 
activities of the existing agencies. The critical policy question, how- 
ever, is whether this would be enough. The question can be stated 
this way: If all the voluntary private agencies did everything they 
might reasonably be expected to do, would meaningful opportu- 
nities for all American youth to Participate in the society’s affairs 
be available? 


By the testimony of many officials of service organizations, 
the answer is clearly negative. There is no reasonable prospect of 


32 


involving as many as half of the nation’s young adults in the sery- 
ice organizations as presently conceived. 


One of the basic reasons for this inadequacy—the voluntary 
nature of the organizations—cannot and should not be eliminated. 
Compulsion, it is true, is traditional for securing involvement in 
education and in military service. But in the arena of social partici- 
pation, voluntarism is essential. The desire to participate probably 
cannot be developed by making participation compulsory. And 
even if some participants would benefit from a compelled experi- 
ence, the added period of regimentation could hardly be defended 
as a matter of policy. Yet if there is no requirement to serve, only 
those who already possess a strong sense of social responsibility are 
likely to seek opportunities for service. 


It is therefore necessary to try to strengthen the present volun- 
tary framework. Two steps which immediately suggest themselves 
are centralization of recruitment in the community and elevation 
of the prestige of service through the public backing of community, 
state, and national leaders. 


One possibility is the establishment of experimental youth- 
service centers by interested communities. These centers would 
combine and coordinate, on a voluntary basis, existing youth- 
service agencies. They would provide guidance and training for 
persons wishing to serve others on a part-time or full-time basis. 
They could be staffed by full-time professionals supplemented by 
volunteers and could provide a focus for new ideas on service. 


The political leadership could lend its support to the centers, 
and educators could publicize their existence. If they proved to be 
an important asset to the community, and if the leaders in the com- 
munity publicly recognized them as such, the centers would ac- 
quire the prestige which would attract more and more young 
people. They would thus help to ensure that today’s young people, 
as tomorrow’s adult citizens, would demonstrate the will to make 
of their society all that they wish it to be. 


33 


Conclusion 


The continued health of the American society—perhaps its 
very survival—demands a high and rising awareness of social re- 
sponsibility on the part of the people. For the socially responsible 
person, the welfare of his fellow man is of deep personal concern. 
That depth of concern comes from a succession of social interac- 
tions, beginning in infancy, and from the ability to attack with 
understanding the complex problems that face the nation and the 
world. 


Development of the ability to think and understand is, over- 
whelmingly, the responsibility of the schools and colleges. The role 
of the schools and colleges in providing the necessary social ex- 
periences can be as large 2s the community is willing to grant and 
as the maturity of the students will permit. In most cases, however, 
the highest stage of social interaction—significant, adult participa- 
tion in the important affairs of the community and the nation— 
must await the post-school years. 


So far, public support has not been adequate to permit the 
schools to make their best contribution to either the intellectual or 
the social ingredients of social responsibility. And so far the com- 
munity has not provided the needed civic participation for most 
of its members. 


aie. 
3Y [35 


The American people must somehow be made aware of what 
is at stake in this matter. They must give greater financial support 
to their schools. They must yield to their young citizens a social 
role that will enable them to become the good citizens of the future. 
And they must find ways to elevate and improve the activities of 
those character-forming agencies which supplement the schools. 
If they do not do these things, the consequences of their neglect 
are not pleasant to contemplate. 


36