Looking Backwards: “Have We Kept the Faith?” by Norman Foerster

Abstract

Looking Backwards: “Have We Kept the Faith?” by Norman Foerster Jeraldine R. Kraver In their Introduction to this special issue of The CEA Critic, guest editors Lauren DiPaula and Tammy Winner conclude that, taken together, the collected essays ask us to consider how we, through the study of our various disciplines, can teach peace, examine oppression, and heal trauma. These ideas seem particularly appropriate at the present time. Whether legitimate or not, the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting economic crisis have inspired comparisons to the Great Depression and World War II. As a result, in selecting an essay from The Critic’s past to share in this issue, I looked to the war years and selected Norman Foerster’s 1942 piece, “Have We Kept the Faith?” in which he urges his readers to consider (or reconsider) the place of education in a world at war. Featured in the January 1942 issue of The News Letter of the College English Association (vol. 4, no. 1) was a report about the surprising turn-out the previous month for the Annual Meeting of the CEA: “In spite of war and a deeper national crisis than was anticipated when plans were made, a total of 141 persons—from Nova Scotia, Texas, Wyoming, Florida, Alabama, and less remote regions—registered their attendance at the CEA annual meeting in Indianapolis” (1). A respectable 20 percent of the organization’s members were in attendance. In stark contrast, the 2020 Annual Meeting of the CEA was not quite so fortunate, cancelled as a result of the Covid-19 crisis that is still raging as this issue of The Critic goes to press. At that 1941 meeting, Howard Lowry1 was elected CEA President for 1942. Not present was outgoing president Foerster,2 but his address was read to the assembly by Lowry. Foerster was a leading proponent of the New Humanism, and the principles of that movement are evident in his talk. The editors of The News Letter thought Foerster’s comments so significant that they decided to “break our rule concerning the length of contributions and print it entire” (1). Although Foerster is not speaking directly about “peace” in his comments, he opens his discussion acknowledging a “national emergency.” He proceeds to refute the notion that “a nation at war needs a kind of education different from that of a nation at peace.” Rather, he asserts, “Education makes democracy strong in peace and makes it strong in war. It follows that if we teachers of English should now undertake to do something new [End Page 99] and different, it is only because we should have done it long ago” (1). The “something new and different” is the focus of his comments. Having not lived during a time of a war of the magnitude of World War II, I hesitate to draw comparisons between the current pandemic and that international crisis. Nonetheless, conversations across all elements of society—from political to economic to academic to social institutions— have suggested that, on the other side of this Covid-19 crisis, things will be “new and different.” For those of us involved in education, perhaps we can find direction in Professor Foerster’s words. As a New Humanist, who more than Professor Foerster would appreciate our looking backwards for inspiration? Jeraldine R. Kraver University of Northern Colorado Have We Kept the Faith? Norman Foerster Upon accepting the honor of the presidency of our Association, I was informed that my first duty was to offer, through our News Letter, some sort of message to the members. In that message I suggested, as our primary aim, that we should inquire “how our organization, founded in a time of inhumanities, might best set out to serve the humanities.” To make this aim more specific I suggested that we adopt, as our theme for the 1941 meeting, the question to which part of the 1940 meeting had been devoted, the question “What Can Teachers of English Do to Help Preserve the Democratic Tradition in America?” This question is now before us. There may be many good ways of answering it. I shall give my own answer, as briefly as I can. Whether it...