- Lack of objectivity may result from desire for personal gain; from ignorance, laziness and inerita; or from fear of loss. One may wish for economic gain, or to gain social or professional prestige, or to increase the powers of his office, or to best an opponent, or to help a friend. Not having the knowledge or skill required in a case at hand, one may act by guess or at the suggestion of interested persons because he is too lazy or too indifferent to study the problem as objectivity would require. One may decide in terms of group pressure or of the wishes of influential persons for fear of having such influences turned against him. That most administrators have a personal interest in achieving the best in administration there is no doubt. It is when these finer impulses are interfered with by selfishness that we see personal interest destroying objectivity.
- Thought here is of democratic societies; societies held together by force from without would in time build up a very different set of values. Perhaps the value of having a great master to care for the people and to tell them what to like and dislike would correspond to the spontaneously developed common wants of all for good schools in a democracy. But how unlike the effects of the two would be upon the people.
- Since there are many things of value in our world that are not plentiful enough for all to have them, it is by nature assured that there will be competition. This is a fact of life that we have learned to meet, not by destroying our competitors or by suppressing competition by law but by establishing rules of competition. With us the rules are co-operatively formed and co-operatively enforced. In a relatively large area of our lives we have learned too, to applaud, not to despise, the winner in competition. Thus, the biological urge to compete, plus the above fact of scarcity of objects wanted and prizes to be gained by competing, when controlled by civilized ways of competing, bring the thrill of adventure into our lives, and provide a valuable stimulus to individual effort. That is, we have learned how to achieve the fruits of co-operation and at the same time to enjoy the stimulus and thrill of competition, of adventure, as a part of our way of life.
- It is necessary at times, finally, to deal directly with matters of a personal nature because, to those involved, they have become so identified with their sense of personal honor or personal rights that they are primary considerations, at which stage they are firm facts.
- The principle of unity, effected through hierarchial organization, is so well established that it is assumed here without explanation.
- In our kind of government the power of command can flow downward only but the power of knowledge can and must flow freely in any direction.
- Law can be made far-reaching through board rules, through carefully formed curriculums, budgets, contracts, salary and wage schedules, accounting records, marking systems, calendars, work programs, building programs, official decisions and like board enactments.
The Educational Forum
Volume 17, 1953 - Issue 3