Tackling the Big Ones

The inauguration of a new "Great Issues" course at Dartmouth College, to be required of all seniors, is a significant extension of the trend of recent years away from exclusive emphasis on technical and specialized education, and in the direction of dealing with problems which confront all men as citizens of the nation and the world.

Financed with the help of a $75,000 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the course will bring to Dartmouth seniors lecturers of the caliber of Archibald MacLeish, Dr. James B. Conant, Alexander Meiklejohn, and other leaders in many fields. To be considered are such issues as modern man's political loyalties, problems created by science, international and domestic aspects of world peace, and values for the modern man.

These are big problems, which may seem poorly adapted to the college classroom. But it becomes increasingly evident that such problems must be the concern of education in this day. It isn't enough for our colleges to turn out good doctors, lawyers, engineers and teachers. The citizen of today can have no more than limited usefulness if he is not equipped to understand and meet these larger problems.

In inaugurating its "Great Issues" course, Dartmouth College points the way toward educating men for these responsibilities. Within the limitations which may be imposed upon them, other colleges and universities would do well to follow Dartmouth's lead in tackling the big and important problems of this age.