The Fourth R--Rigor

The new boss of the U.S. Office of Education had barely been sworn in last week when he ventured an opinion about U.S. schools. "Soft," "flabby," "lax," "easy," exclaimed Commissioner Sterling M. McMurrin, 47. "We have much less knowledge, much less creativity, much less moral fiber than we would have had if our educational process had been more rigorous." McMurrin set his goal as "quality and rigor in teaching"--strong talk for the Office of Education, which for most of its 94 years has been a tame source of statistics rather than of standards.

A Self-Effacing Bureau. As defined in the creating act the office's job was to "promote the cause of education." The aim was leadership, not anonymity, but Congress never provided sufficient funds. The commissioner now gets $20,000 a year, has a $13.8 million budget, one-third for research. Since 1953, the Office has been a minor branch of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. At times, it has seemed more responsive to Washington's big teachers' lobby than to the Government. Nobody was surprised when Lawrence G. Derthick, the last Eisenhower-appointed commissioner, stepped into the No. 2 executive job at the National Education Association.

"The time had come to bring in a new view," says President Kennedy's HEW Secretary Abraham Ribicoff. He set out to find "a philosopher who was not afraid of new ideas, and yet had administrative ability." Ribicoff quizzed "more than 150 people in the education world," got glowing reports about Sterling McMurrin, then academic vice president at the University of Utah. "He didn't even ask what the job would pay," recalls Ribicoff.

A Call for Brains. Son of a high school teacher, McMurrin worked his way through the University of Utah, made Phi Beta Kappa, took his Ph.D. at the University of Southern California. In 1948 he returned to Utah as a philosophy professor, became dean of the liberal arts and sciences college and later vice president. McMurrin showed particular skill in leading summer seminars among businessmen and educators at Aspen, Colo. "Inevitably," says one participant, "the consensus was in accord with McMurrin's views.

But he always made us think we had reached these conclusions by ourselves."

Commissioner McMurrin is a strong proponent of local school control, "but certain judgments must be made from the viewpoint of national perspective." Last week he promised to raise academic standards by calling not only on professional educators but also on the country's best brains--including that most caustic critic of U.S. schools, Vice Admiral Hyman G. Rickover. Said dispassionate Philosopher McMurrin: "I think Admiral Rickover's impact on American education has been essentially good. His demand for greater rigor and the pursuit of excellence has had an excellent effect."

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