The Expansion of Educational Opportunity in Europe: Measures Taken to Democratize Education

Abstract

IN THE current debate on education, a reform persistently advocated is the adoption of one or another of the practices that differentiate European schools and universities from our own. In fact, an occasional zealot will insist that we take over the entire European system. Persons seriously concerned about American education today should, therefore, be familiar with at least the rudimentary facts having to do with educational programs in Western Europe, especially at the secondary-school and university levels. They should, at the same time, understand the function of education in a free society such as ours, and the nature of our educational commitments. There are undoubtedly certain respects in which we can profitably emulate the Europeans in our efforts to strengthen American education in the fundamental disciplines. In at least one highly significant respect, however, the Europeans are vigorously engaged in adopting an American practice involving basic educational policy. Our system of colleges and universities is frankly oriented toward the widest possible, or mass, attendance. Education has served us admirably as a means of realizing our ideal of equality of opportunity. We hold that every youth is entitled to the kind and amount of schooling from which he is capable of benefiting. Although we do not advocate a college education for all, we believe that all who are qualified have the right to attend a university regardless of financial or social status. In contrast, the educational systems of most European nations prior to I940 were caste systems reflecting the cultural pattern of a class society. Five per cent or less of European youth attended universities, and fewer than one in five were given the secondary education that an American high school provides. These privileged few were predominantly from upper-class families. Today, however, every European nation outside the Iron Curtain is discarding tlhis class system in favor of a democratic one such as that which prevails in the United States. The increasing dedication of the