The Higher, the Worser

Boston's pink-cheeked Porter Sargent is the Westbrook Pegler of education. He envisions himself as a kind of public conscience to the profession, and succeeds at least in being its common scold. Each year, in revising his Handbook of Private Schools, he writes a new introduction, and usually finds something different to attack. Last week, with the 31st edition of his Handbook, he took up the evils of wealth.

The independent school, said Sargent, has never before been so dependent upon big donations from wealthy people. "The inference sometimes left to the student is that it behooves him to be loyal to the ideals and standards of his benefactors. Nor is it likely that in such institutions the manner in which the money was accumulated will be dwelt upon . . ."

The same situation holds in higher education, and "the higher, the worser," says Sargent. Worst of all U.S. universities, he insists, is his own alma mater, Harvard. "There is a hopelessness, a futility about life, a transparent pretense on the part of the fat boys, a feeling of despair on the part of those who still retain some consciousness of an honest past . . ." The reason: "The Corporation through its stooges" has gradually taken control of the administration and faculty alike.

"[President] Conant has been left free to travel about the country addressing meetings. On these occasions, he manages with a 'bridled tongue' to boldly play safe. And he has had more freedom to write articles in which he shows the result of his acquired caution by avoiding disturbing statements [with] well-intended doubletalk . . .

"Faculty meetings [at Harvard] are a thing of the past. Two or three times a year a group get together to listen to instructions rather than to discuss measures . . . Many of the older men who were once outspoken liberals have withdrawn into their shells . . . Some have become bitter. Many have left or have been squeezed out. Some have had their appropriations from the university treasurer . . . reduced."

The Harvard Corporation (the five-man board which appoints Harvard's presidents) paid no attention to Sargent's latest squawk.

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