Arthur Bestor's Rationale for the Intellectual Disciplines

255 Pages·2016·9.87 MB·English

by  Robert J. Zimney

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Dissertations Theses and Dissertations
1976
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Robert J. Zimney
Loyola University Chicago
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Copyright © 1976 Robert J. Zimney
ARTHUR BESTOR' S RATIONALE
FOR
THE INTELLECTUAL DISCIPLINES
by
Rev. Robert J. Zimney, C.M.
A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School
of Loyola University of Chicago in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
........
.,
Doctor of Philosophy
June
1976
Rev. Robert J. Zimney, C.M.
Loyola University of Chicago
ARTHUR BESTOR'S RATIONALE
FOR
THE INTELLECTUAL DISCIPLINES
Arthur Bestor, professor of history at the University of Illinois,
lectured and wrote extensively throughout the 1950s to repair and restore
the teaching of basic intellectual disciplines in the schools. He
th~
declared the purpose of education to be mental training through the
intellectual disciplines. By the work of scholars spanning millenia,
all experience has been delimited, investigated, and analyzed in the
systematic structure of the disciplines to give man mastery over his
environment. The study of the disciplines trains the powers of the mind
in abstract thinking. The generalizations and the ability to apply them
to new situations remain with the student so that the disciplines are
the best broad and basic, although indirect, preparation for life.
Great historical figures, such as, the founding fathers of our country,
attest to their worth. Reserved for the aristocracy in former times
here and in modern times elsewhere, liberal and liberating education,
free in means and end, is the right of all our citizens.
The crucial period of liberal education is the years of secondary
school. Endorsing the scholarly pronouncements of the Committee of Ten
of 1894, Bestor called for a secondary curriculum comprised of courses
in the five basic areas: history, English, foreign languages, science,
and mathematics. These intellectual disciplines are the basic prepara
tion for life in modern society and the necessary foundation for higher
studies. They should be taught according to high standards maintained by
rigorous examinations, especially college entrance examinations. Un
promising students would be discouraged from continuing after the period
of compulsory schooling; superior students; especially the needy, should
be given aid for subsistence through competitive scholarships.
However, Bestor found that progressive education for life adjust
ment was the fundamental disciplines with functional education
~eplacing
responding to the felt needs of youth and the needs of society.
Vocational training and social conditioning were supplanting intellectual
discipline in the schools. vfuile the core curriculum failed against
systematic and cumulative learning, the social studies program was
deteriorating because of the intrusion of units dealing with contemporary
adolescent and societal needs. Professional educators, claimed Bestor,
were responsible for lowering the educational standards to the level of
mediocrity.
The educators argued that the schools had increased enormously in
attendance and catered to a vastly more heterogeneous student body when
compared with those of the turn of the century. The curriculum had to
be adapted to their needs and interests Functional education was
demanded by pragmatic members of the school boards. Bestor upheld the
educator's duty to promote the disciplines in the face of indifference
to avoid creating elite by offering liberal education to the few
a~
and a poor substitute to the rest.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Dr. Rosemary Donatelli has directed the author in the composition
of this dissertation with unflagging interest, sympathetic under
standing, and helpful guidance. It has been a pleasure to work under
her. To Dr. Gerald Gutek is due gratitude for proposing the topic and
for guiding the development of it along lines consistent with Bestor's
expressed theory. Dean John Wozniak has given encouragement and has
influenced the selection of certain facets of Bestor's doctrine. A
final word of gratitude is in order for Dr. Bestor himself for
facilitating the author's work in generously sending him a list of
bibliographical and biographical references.
PREFACE
The purpose of this dissertation is to define and describe
Arthur Bestor's theory for the teaching and learning of the basic
intellectual disciplines in the American educational system. The aim
entails an exposition of Bestor's critique of the philosophy of
professional educators and its practical application in progressive
education. It includes an evaluation of selected aspects of Bester's
position.
Essays of substance in support of liberal education are always
welcome to a student of Cicero's Pro Archia. Indeed, the ardent zeal
on the part of many authorities and students to expunge the classical
languages from the secondary curriculum in seminaries has been disturb
ing. A more general innovation is the preoccupation with the needs
and interests of youth and society reflected in changes in curriculum
and methods of teaching. The relaxed atmosphere and the practical
adaptation of studies to life are counter-balanced by less studious
habits and by pursuit of activities dubiously related to intellectual
improvement. At times it seems that the high road to learning has
been diverted into a cul de sac by progressive education.
At the suggestion of his professor, Dr. Gerald Gutek of Loyola's
School of Education, the author undertook the study of Arthur Bester's
critique of mid-century American education. Dr. Gutek had the
privilege of working under Dr. Bestor in earning his degree in history
at the University of Illinois. The author was sent the nucleus of his
iii
source material by Dr. Bestor himself in a select list of his writings
arranged in reverse chronological order. The hub of the learning of
the disciplines, the secondary curriculu, was of great importance in
Bestor's writings and has been of similar concern to the author during
his thirty years of teaching in secondary schools.
~fuile attention is given to the three Rs of elementary school and
the liberal education curriculum of the college and teacher training
institutions, the major portion of the dissertation treats of the five
basic disciplines in the curriculum of the secondary school. Writings
which Bestor cited and other authoritative sources of like conviction,
which have served to elucidate Bestor's theory, have been quoted and
commented upon. In contentious material, such as, views on the teacher
training program, an attempt has been made to represent both sides of
the issue. Although there are numerous differences with Bestor's
doctrine, whether given as a conclusion of the dissertation or as
exemplified in the works of other critics, the general tenor of the
dissertation is in agreement with Bestor's concepts.
iv
VITA
The author, Rev. Robert Joseph Zimney, C.M., is the son of Anton
Zimney and Nellie (Flannery) Zimney. He was born November 9, 1917, in
La Salle, Illinois.
His elementary education was obtained in St. Patrick's School of
La Salle, Illinois, and secondary education at St. Vincent's College,
Cape Girardeau, Missouri. In May, 1934, he entered St. Mary's
Seminary of Perryville, Missouri, and in June, 1938, received the degree
of Bachelor of Arts with a major in philosophy. On May 24, 1942, he
was ordained to the priesthood.
During the ensuing years he has taught Latin, Spanish, and
religion in St. John's Seminary, San Antonio, Texas, St. Louis
Preparatory Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, De Paul Academy, Chicago,
Illinois, and St. Vincent De Paul Seminary, Lemont, Illinois. On
October 27, 1949, he was awarded the Master of Arts in Latin and Greek
by Catholic University of Washington, D.C., and on June 8, 1969, he was
awarded the Master of Arts in Spanish by Loyola University of Chicago.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii
PREFACE iii
VITA v
Chapter
I. INTRODUCTION: CONSPECTUS 1
II. EDUCATIONAL THEORY • • • • 23
III. THE FIVE BASIC DISCIPLINES • 57
IV. PROCEDURE THROUGH SECONDARY SCHOOL • 84
V. COLLEGE AND TEACHER EDUCATION 119
VI. DEFICIENCIES OF EDUCATION FOR LIFE ADJUSTMENT 156
VII. CRITICAL REVIEW OF RATIONALE 199
BIBLIOGRAPHY 238
vi
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
CONSPECTUS
Arthur Eugene Bestor, Ph.D., is an authority on history and educa-
tion of international renown. His professional life has been spent in
the teaching of history in universities and complemented by numerous pub-
lications in books and periodicals, learned and popular. At present he is
professor of history at the University of Washington in Seattle; where he
1
has been since 1962. In the field of education he is a staunch supporter
of intellectual discipline through the basic subjects of the liberal arts.
He has lectured widely throughout the land on his convictions. His
defense of all phases of basic education for all has inspired a great
amount of controversial literature. Since 1952 until the present day he
has been regarded as one of the outstanding proponents of education in the
fundamentals. Even his opponents concede that some elements of his
critique of American public education have been of significant value.
Arthur Eugene Bestor, Jr. was born September 20, 1908 in Chautauqua,
New York. For thirty years his father was president of the Chautauqua
Institution (1915-1944). The younger Bestor grew up in Chautauqua,
Chicago, and New York City. In 1939 he married Anne Carr, who died in
1948. He married Dorothy Alden Koch, an assistant professor of English
1
Who's Who in America, 37th ed., s.v., "Bestor, Arthur Eugene, Jr."
This is from a photostatic copy of the original. Two pages of such ·
biographical articles and sources were kindly sent us by Dr. Bestor's
sectrtary,
1