GENERAL EDUCATION IN THE PROGRESSIVE COLLEGE,

by Louis T. Benezet'36. Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1943, pp. VI +190. $2.35.

Some years ago a British psychologist said, "A principal part of education is to discover a bent and cultivate it." This prescription has been followed by progressive education in building a program which respects the interests and development of the student by means of individualized instruction. In this, his first book, Benezet has made a well-considered study of the progressive college programs for the improvement of general education.

Following a statement of the problem, general education is discussed in terms of its meaning, function and operation. Almost half of the book is devoted to three progressive college programs: Sarah Lawrence, Bennington and Bard. The Bennington program is accorded the fullest treatment. A fair and accurate picture is drawn of the development and structure as well as the aims and purposes of these college programs. Benezet also reports and summarizes his conferences with fifty members of the three staffs of these colleges. The opinions indicate convincingly the importance of emphasizing the development of the students' interest in harmony with socially integrated patterns. Mere subject matter is thought to be of lesser importance than vitality and enduring quality of the students' intellectual motives. In his summary and interpretation Benezet points out the need for colleges to formulate concrete aims and methods for developing social responsibility and concern. In the progressive colleges he finds that general education becomes an alive and sustaining value for the student. "The chief contribution," he concludes, "is the furnishing of methods by which the individual of college age comes to see drive and meaning in his study."

Benezet has prepared a significant, document for individualized and vitalized education. In view of the reorganization through which college education is likely to pass in the post-war period, his work promises to be a useful guide.