A Word on Words; 0857; Harry Ashmore

a word on words a program delving into the world of books and their other tonight harry as ashmore talks about biography of educator robert bingham mccutchen your host for a word and words mr john sigg in public service as a ceo and editorial director of usa today good evening ladies and gentlemen once again welcome toward own words saving it is a great pleasure to welcome to this program on an old friend a distinguished former journalist and editor harriet more now again an awful lot of their beloved to be but it's good to get a head here to talk about unseasonable truths life of robert maynard hutchins you know i am i worry about our society i'm afraid that the young generation that is benefitting from hudson's courage creative approach to education

is willingness to weight in on converts to issues that are still relevant in our society i'm afraid that young generation that absolutely no idea this thoughtful pioneer once called the boy wonder of education was and how does impact still fell on our educational i think that's true i share your concern for the many of our difficulties stem from the fact that we seem to have no collective memory in this country that didn't happen this week that was in the headlines it wasn't on the six o'clock news has no interest in the fortunes of course has been that no more than fifteen years and he was and some of his life is great ears were in the thirties forties fifties about a pair of his apartment what color born in the blues when he was one of the household words is listed on one of the media stars of his own time the reason i did the book was swollen with two

outs associated with hutchinson the last third of his life i thought you deserved some kind of monument but the larger reason was because he was a prophetic voice of almost any conversation going oh mullet sir is conversation about education not only do people everybody's talking about the media reports of the media and about years talking about the problems that are reflected in that issue is before the supreme court puts it was a great scholar of a constitutional expert and he was talking about the same questions of fifteen years ago i mean not only was raising the issue is it was offering proposals to do something about them and it was unlike most of the law to intercept that you what role in the openly with you you know the current edition of bartlett's quotations and every year high school college ultimately has to a bar or something if they have any semblance of letters may

very well find it go patients were the subject of education from john doing the next edition of the targets without any doubt my mind will include legends as well the point being that questions are dru do use our direct confrontational they were at odds and then and different visions of what the system should be about and out and once at the practical applications well they will do that with the principal and gluttonous and what i think was a great intellectual debate that will move through the thirties and forties and were after all the considerable respect for trouble therefore little disagreement i think there was more the surface disagreement perhaps the most of the pilgrim available through agreement the blue present curriculum all undergraduate education wasn't serious disarray they both believe that there should be

what moussa called core curriculum hutchens was always emphasizing to fight the undergraduate education should be education for citizenship not special of life that brought a difference with a good bill was a great advocate of the scientific most money and insist the dirt below teaching and the social sciences as well as a pair of scientists should be valued for eu what were the troop options insisted that you had to start with a metaphysical bay's shu have to have a basis of audio that wasn't religion that if it always felt religion religious doctrine have no poison or dictation bobby blue book traditions income bumper up the whole has privileged world of ultimate from the greeks forward but the great minds of the age is it debated always questions only human nature and nature what were the story of what they're believers i do is with the spotting port

from which to them should be trying to assess their own contemporary society talk about core curriculum it is indeed going in that the budget cycle is this turned one more time when you look at other there we did first all of you out in an academic backgrounds fall a professor present berea brother committed an academic career no reason to expect that anybody coming out of that background which pretty unconventional act would then say gail last two which was pretty pedestrian and it's time to really revolutionize make it the great loss or at least want to regret last was but for his time he returned all the action was at yale during a dry during and just after the news they're brought in a man

who was build houses villages were nurses so the worst chicago that makes that a day or a higher education testing first law that i guess was the first to really try to blend law man economics and sciences that was a driver blew the yale law school who was you know all i did was bungalow wanted to be a rift of chicago law school we want a director's been above that what options was a great experiment was though he was an activist it was a moral as it always celibate but those had slaves was education was not an article about the slaves was a show about a lovable more on could be educated and so what the french don't know about roman the mustard the burden really lay upon the

educator before in the way that the re education up the right people and the moments where were you talk about the eu short collective memory the only bustling book on the education we've heard in the last few years is closing tomorrow is my most of the moment only i was riding out and borrowed it everest in chicago he heard the more those options great collaborator who bought a great books course and is presently at the university of chicago oriole pitcher and the committee on social thought with the creation of the true it becomes obama's book an impact most polluted specialization and the commercialization now and go while the others are in a cut throat character of the so much of university education and so in terms of touch and forty years ago fifty years ago he writes the book we've got one

world toward motion about those little introduction you normally propose is a solution all those exact right books curriculum which and the reinvention of a ladder only was challenged by others on the bus on the view and he said well i only regret that he heard about the book was that you forgot to mention that i am not a course a reason that became a bus on this is an interesting thing that the book that among other things that it include a lot of turgid philosophy but it's a polemic against affirmative action against women needed to produce all the new rules of the universe to the fact that we broaden the base and what everybody and i'm not out recruited blocs women and so forth affirmative action i actually bought the book the men who were in day and then invade against judges are like the course of the run across the bubbles bookers

are the leaders didn't like it really is just a contrast with touch and touch and always observe the slogan of youth all over again the best education really is the best education for all and he would make the point that the difference a new educational requirements in this country and the reason our universe to college system grew up in a different way from those on the cult novel the router but many of the tradition was because democratic theory was a but we have low ruling goliath sold citizens after a disappointing government for education couldn't be limited to just educating the people one with the oxford and cambridge of them romeo party of educate everybody here so this sort of broad base of democratic leaning of those couple were absolutely passionate defense of individual liberty which goes all without the village the woes of the very own

law professor of peru walsh who along with felix front for a lot of people leaning on the sock over dessert at a ghost bike for he was a mayor a civil liberties issue they're often throughout his life and lead the charge oden student theres of joe mccarthy and the blue zone accordions and was going to call it so that he was among the party came out of all of the classic new england it always fraud referred to him as a comma worley puritan father was a presbyterian minister of rumpled of the congregation's minister norway but there were preachers preachers so few about rituals aside about the missionaries and what to avoid i went out to do good you were old fatah allied troops have when you were when you think about it he did have that his critics said and they worked and they were verbal he track at our house on american activities committee and i say

no then he will have to employ economist and one would not recant even when chairman of the ford foundation has the popcorn was a lot and somebody actually view quotas dissenting were talking to save you if you want to do in the world of flavors of the other guys into million dollars set in afghanistan we understand you'll never come back how summers says producer award going to sort of use as a nutshell sort of was so hot so than an ill feeling that at some time jeremy he was accused of ar and he was accused of being elitist he was considered too can considered intellectual an end and not all pragmatic on the other hand he argued that said

education and having that you had to have practical applications yes indeed and i'm out of it was a marvelous administrator one of the things people forget you what lila rose to chicago he was inaugurated volatility in portland about three weeks left of the stock market but the actual know when he took over the university at a time when labor depression hit and it's an unbowed university was cut almost a third which made his budget was cut by almost a third so i'll also fund raising them became extremely difficult when all the banks were failing and people were jumping out a win lose will he raise money through that period the decoupling university all wake up what did you serve this is characteristically paid a great deal of attention to administration an airport and after about five years all the players was in pretty good shape use of that we had to reduce the fire part of october some of the above by putting an arbitrary retirement age of sixty

five of attrition take that number and it's a characteristically to the trustees we couldn't reduce the five foot about ten percent with a happy heart if we'd been able to pick the ones he was constantly harping on excellence in his harping on on picking people of the universe to the us of possible available most of the universe working relationship with a board of trustees or the chairman of girls with the big meatpacking fortunately were the tycoon can remain dry continent was others like today moon really couple nervously couple upset with what one of the things that he did he was controversy early was deliberately controversial view of the bees all reporter rubin for professional audiences and he always challenge the challenge the conventional wisdom constantly and the scientists ask about that tell you and that was the as i recall

i think this is accurate to you madam hi you had won a pulitzer prize as say you know tear the heart and so i was an actor the greatest road used that those that moment my own that favored civil rights struggle and in and in little rock yu liang i guess couple three years later at the founding the alleged comments that arises act like to reform our first asa first omnibus or more likable than nineteen forty i said he was speaking for the bottom of the first ominous or much more compact within the girl in the fifties he had gone to the ford foundation of flu university and their new instrumental in setting up a fun filled event with education and i headed up a study before the brown decision of doing school system in the south for the fun friends out of the education was true that collection of arcane knowledge and the tensions that

allure of twenty twenty they left the ford foundation took over the phone for the republic which was the civil rights branch of years ago for solid on the board of the phone when it was code switch with new york august nineteen fifty five meyer served on the board with him until i went out that santa barbara in nineteen fifty nine the joy and they created a sort of distorted with that and to say join him out there and he created the center left friday he was setting it up well of all mobile or on your bottom line i was getting ready to move on from which has the contract to do a book of four was postponed a sabbatical here i made a deal with them a real time basis or could finish this book i was going to do for norton and usually always likely to be like thirty billion eventful than as a reason to you or me out there he was a charmer the border voters of encyclopaedia

britannica middle looking for saddam became editor in chief of the encyclopaedia britannica muscle tissue hutchens continued the room when you had both now that the us as journalists that says one thing this country as needed from the beginning has been critics of israel will have to build buttons was was that it was quite provocative and computation that for the first meeting of lane that draws conference and a subsequent study at on the press which recommended a commission was a result of his own innovative and creative the mine you know we don't take criticism very well either end and and i'm i'm not the surprise that is that his critique of press brought to some outrageous what i'm

bless of fire it had a very promotional for years old pro assad was summed up by henry luce of time what will you close to it from the russians didn't like it i didn't like the result i've i was a basic theory of art and thought you would always save that an institution the great weakness of american institutions all of them as around the building to criticize themselves that they got their own vested interest to protect what was true of the universe to fire you said wanted every reform of american education the middle of that the waters of thousands of reflection of those girls are pitfalls was the case with libya the media most no capacity to do effective self criticism all all they criticized all other institutions up with what the first amendment was about and also those bicycle hutchens he had this commitment for him when he considered the problem of what ought to be done about reforming the media he began with a proposition of the first moments of absolute there can be no good for eye care

proposals and soldiers nor work that an institution that can effectively criticize them for more about solar should be set up a commission to review their performance mode of knowledgeable people who have no vested interest in the well being of the media and i was offered to do provide the camaraderie he also sold over and over one of his cuts for edges of the university in addition to its function of teaching and research should be a sober of them the poem that sort of criticism do you one time after the big scandals on wall street the department would wager money on the wall street of the board the stock exchange have always been governing body board of governors made up of its own members but in response to the scandal that brought an outside the perimeter bales of the job of a judge and then he won all those of as one of the new public moment actually lasted about a month

because the first issue that came before them was it you said and what about the numbers of those board who knew about witness before patients will also hear another report of the new era was never about iowa they'll vote they took a vote on the question as he tested only vote for her for making the investigation that's geithner including jp morgan and through the most problem numbers the most of our laws have both only one home and discipline those malls are broker who is involved in something and missing forty three hundred dollars or something which you've made good so he resigned and he said them thus demonstrates that the powerful members of an institution like that it's awkward shy but there was a lot going to remain the top producers of the notebook is is chock full of fun one tango commonplace in after another song first on in the year the difficulties that he had

them with his first wife talented highly erratic her art is that it's another aspect of his life it's in there i think that at the yankee enemas the most to a parent because he's so reticent to speak about that but then you give you give you up he even if you just think to day of single issue that song the public mind you know all that and if you think of the unwillingness of some many people as a son speak out and the controversial bonuses public trying to challenge public opinion going to the polls know of very few people in education very few people nobody in politics and there is no voice my conscience today and that's why i think this book unseasonable from this is so so or open season of truth which i

guess was an old spice in wellington ha ha ha ha ah yes that the title comes from oil lottery wrote the fort while the other utterly was a great first in front of the mosque on the roll call so that i could find that they had always had this aura reserve about when they wrote the wall of her memoir undecided well it was the area discovered and seventeen sixty eight the kirk of scotland and considering that revising the catechism and taken up the question of the mine and it concluded that there's such a thing as telling the truth out of sleazy it is that you recognize as a sellout and i really don't like it was a it was a controversial is that it deliberately slowly with attacking conventional wisdom he wouldn't lobby and when people would slide to unlock a few of those are little compromising a public affairs firm it was always going on missile and was that took it from william the ball charles a solid who would serve that is not necessary to hope in order to undertake

or to open or the person they're but if you knew a lot to be done your obligations to go and try it and whether you succeeded or not was sucked under consideration and that got him in a lot of trouble i must say is serving as his executive are good many years it was a little bit difficult to play that role because he would be completely on compromising that you have this are all about and so that nobody ever really blamed him finally for the decision solely with michael it was odds are the mob the digital image that you know you would those have not been and have the trouble you don't know if you've been small only yeah we're probably just too much ah the controversy within four seconds and arrested at the end

developing and in the curve the requirement to be charming and witty and i'm with and ford's why it just couldn't do it and he's going to talk about public education and he unloads on well bob how much you're alone about a lonely was always extremely backers of oliver's sobel well i think most people who dealt with inflation flares came away is also under the name the eo he was he never really was that whole moment on the number or he would never pull adverse were about the worst of his critics of innocent images of the book with the assad regime he was witty and the people who didn't have much sense of humor the frequently misunderstood and he was alarmist about summer and that's always a very dangerous and blue pedigree when you do have publicly honestly i don't think that he ever deliberately or wounded

anyone but we were the good really importantly only a controversy haunted in the stock and it in twenty at the end we saw to avoid i mean he wanted to get out the vote for other than a moose to say to you and others get a big fight with movies like saying you know you can get really i mean he has to come in the anthrax in the audition out of eleven and a deep deep trouble he was such a dominant personality disorder was really created in his image of hot that you deliberately tried as it was getting older withdrawn institution lot of it so we gotta get that thing sewed up sort of a crystal gilded supporting obama who's brought up and i was able to build up the loose so jealous of that entity left almost was our idol and the world is still the most abundant the universe to bring foreigner endo most up and never took georgia just

appeared in little eva mentioned the man's lawyer weighs go on to take himself out of the picture above uptown new orleans federal level would be a little more than two years but it was interesting at the end of his life a lawyer stonewall overdo it works over it which is was going to which we're overdue sober odd jobs during world for that and we're monitoring that he had been against american over the age of the world war two but afterwards because he had been responsible for splitting the atom of the university of chicago they'd taken this very apocalyptic view of going out for a government of some kind because of mercer to preserve the peace i said well i'll do look but gomez says a production's his bar production july can never come true you can possibly the role he then quoted some professor at the university of chicago had several us about the french revolution worried voters of his durable ha ha ha ah

that's right no the answer of their towns when alice plead guilty of the charge of the out of the sense of that i did it and it can be remembered it at all because that bachmann says a legal flip now there's some revival of it drift of senseless on the tour of the university of chicago was weak and bow where it's a drifting through narrow laws as well as writing the book almost nobody who knew him actually exposed about a neutral or before against in that form when you you know terry as ash or roughly of a dictator robert hutchins as ben our guest on the word on words featuring done this program was produced in the studios of wbez and television nashville tennessee