24 / CHRONICLESnheld back by discrimination.nDiscrimination, given free rein and unchecked by anyntranscendent morality, may run to extermination, as it didnfor the Jews under Hitler. Is it permissible to suppose thatnthe contemporary, almost worldwide denigration of then”whites” — the Caucasians, “WSP’s,” or “Anglos”—nreflects a similar suspicion on the part of “minorities” thatnthe WSP is superior and must be handicapped by quotas,naffirmative action, etc., to prevent him from getting ornstaying ahead? Is it alarmist to suspect that, just as anti-nJewish prejudice always carries the germ of extermination,nantiwhite prejudice might carry a similar infection? Thenracial, not religious or cultural, nature of this discriminationnis shown by the fact that those who do get ahead are namednWASP’S whether they like it or not. The epithets “WASP”nand “Anglo” are applied promiscuously to Catholics, tonSlavs, even to Jews, while genuine European Spaniards arencarefully excluded from the “Hispanic” category.nThis phenomenon applies across the board in America,nEducation for ServilitynFor the first hundred years of ournRepublic, Americans generallynminded our own (and our neighbors’)nbusiness without the assistancenof any of our various governments.nHow an independent citizenry becamenthe subjects of the imperialnstate is a long and difficult story, butna central chapter is the developmentnof public education.nIn recent years revisionistnhistorians—leftists and libertariansnalike — have constructed a convincingnnarrative of the rise of governmentnschooling as a product ofnwarmed-over puritanism, nativistnpanic, and the self-interest of industrialists.nUnitarians, by giving up onnChristianity, were compelled to findnmeans other than religion for imposingnthe Mathers’ vision of socialnorder on a hapless people, and HoracenMann, throughout his long andnmaleficent career in Massachusettsneducation, did his best to deify thenstate. While Mann alarmed the orthodox,nthe Protestants’ attentionnwas distracted by the arrival of sonmany Catholics, whose childrennwould have to be converted by thenschools. The illiterate and undisciplinednimmigrants, of course, werenonly a little worse than the lowerclassnnatives: neither group was capablenof providing responsible workersnbut perhaps the current travails of my own theologicalnseminary in Illinois may illustrate the problem. With overn1,000 students, our seminary was founded by a denominationnthat historically might be called WSP (white ScandinaviannProtestant). There has never been racial discriminationnhere, but the demographic realities of the constituency havenled to a certain blandness (or blondness) of the students andnfaculty. Anderson is the most common name among thenstudent body. Notwithstanding, the five-man theology departmentnincludes two Christians of pure Jewish race. Thenseminary has been given reason to fear losing its accreditationnif we do not promptly hire a “minority” professor. Ourntwo Jewish Christians, statistically a small minority of a smallnminority, but not Minority, do not count, as they havenapparently been subsumed, in the eyes of authority, amongnthe Anglo WSP’s and can no longer aspire to Minoritynhonors. A Puerto Rican would count, we have been told,nbut an Argentinian would not do.nIt does not require great imagination to discern thenREVISIONSnfor New England’s factories.nProgress in education has been,nuniformly, progress in social engineering,nand it was in the nation’sncities that the great leaps forward firstntook place. The past hundred yearsnof urban education is traced in thenlast volume of Lawrence A.nCremin’s history of American education:nAmerican Education: ThenMetropolitan Experience, 1876-n1980 (New York: Harper & Row;n781 pp.; $35). It is a magisterialnessay on the full force of culturalndevelopment, and nothing is so indicativenof education’s revolutionarynrole as the range of topics Creminnaddresses: the development ofnthe YMCA and Bible institutes,nthe careers of Margaret Mead,nThurgood Marshall, Al Smith, andnMorris Raphael Cohen, populistnmovements and the apprentice system.nAnd running like a bright rednthread through the many-textured,nmulticolored fabric is the theme ofnprogress.nCremin is no revisionist, althoughnmuch of his earlier worknpaved the way, and his hero — ornrather heroine — seems to be MargaretnMead, especially in her laternyears, when the social revolutionary’snfanaticism had mellowedninto a more cautious and pragmaticnconcern for the actual welfare ofnreal people. It is, nonetheless, hardnnnto read this lucid and intelligentnwork without a growing sense ofndepression. The U.S. was in a sadnstate in 1876. After two decades ofnReconstruction, the South still laynin ruins, and the Northern citiesnwere having to face the results ofnrapid growth and the vast migrationnof peoples with little if any sympathynfor the American way of life. Andnyet the closing years of the lastncentury witnessed an outpouring ofnefforts from philanthropists, localnreformers, missionaries, and clergymen,nmost of them working withinntheir own cities or within their ownncommunities of faith.nBy the 1960’s, however, the focusnhad shifted decisively to massivengovernment projects and, what is farnmore serious, to efforts at globalnrelief Spaceship earth and the globalnvillage are no longer the slogansnof a few dopers wearing faded lovebeads.nEven cynical hustlers likenTed Turner know they can makenmoney off universal compassion.nWell, we have done it to ourselves.nConsiderations of sex, birth, region,nand national origin can no longer benincluded as part of our moralndecision-making; and if our schoolsncontinue to make their accustomednprogress in teaching the global democraticnrevolution, we may all findnourselves the peaceful subjects ofnthe global village. (TF)n