Hunt Compares Soviet, American School Programs

Russians, unlike Americans, have a "total commitment" to public education, Herold C. Hunt, Charles Eliot Professor of Education, noted at a dinner meeting of the educational conference last week.

Yet beyond this point, Hunt declined to draw further comparisons, since the purposes of educational systems in the two countries are so divergent. Committed to molding "willing and unquestioning" servants of a totalitarian state, Soviet schools offer rigidly prescribed courses of study he said, with languages the only elective courses.

In spite of this, however, Hunt cited several worthwhile features of Russian education. Free schooling is offered up to the age of 45, the pupil-teacher ratio is less than 25 to 1, and up to 15 per cent of the national budget is spent on education.

Students Highly Motivated

Students, Hunt noted, are highly motivated and the schools place great emphasis on instruction in the languages and sciences.

In his analysis of this country's educational needs, Hunt asserted that the importance of learning must be made evident to American school children, as it has to Soviet youths. In this vein, scientific scholarship and leadership must be developed.

Calling for the adoption of a curriculum more cosmopolitan in scope than at present, Hunt urged that American schools expose their students to the numerous ideologies, particularly Marxism, which have assumed significance in the modern world.

At the same time, he added, the United States must press upon its students the spiritual aspects of the liberal democratic ideology.