Part One 



Long-term Plans 



1. The Desirability of and Neces- 

 sity for the Proposed Plans 



We are convinced that there is no 

 possibility that too much abihty of 

 the highest order can be discovered 

 and developed : the needs of our com- 

 plex social organization for brains 

 and character at the highest level can 

 never be surfeited. Moreover, it is 

 appropriate to point out, when con- 

 sidering the need for scientific train- 

 ing, that the first-rate scientist and 

 engineer cannot do his work effec- 

 tively unless he has a few good ones 

 in a secondarv role at his disposal as 

 assistants and sometimes a great many 

 as hands and as instruments for the 

 execution of his ideas. 



We have only to look about us, 

 from the point of view of citizens, to 

 know that the current need for crea- 

 tive brains is not being met: there 

 is too much wrong with the world 

 and with our country to have doubt 

 about that. As scholars and admin- 

 istrators of scholarly affairs we also 

 know out of our own experiences 

 that there is a deficiency in the sup- 

 ply of first-rate scientific workers. 

 All of us know of problems in science 

 whose solutions are urgently needed 

 for indi\'idual and the collective wel- 

 fare. The limiting factors, all along 

 the line, are brains and character. 



In Appendix A attached to this re- 

 port, some startling figures are given 

 as to the number of young people 

 who drop out before completing high 

 school. The country may be proud 



of the fact that 95 percent of boys 

 and girls of fifth grade age are en- 

 rolled in our schools, but we cannot 

 help being concerned with the fact 

 that with each succeeding grade the 

 percentage falls. For every 1,000 stu- 

 dents in the fifth grade, 600 are lost 

 to education before the end of high 

 school has been reached, and all but 

 72 have ceased formal education be- 

 fore 4 years of college are completed. 

 While this report is concerned pri- 

 marily with methods of selecting and 

 educating high school graduates at 

 the college and higher levels, we can- 

 not be unconcerned with the poten- 

 tial loss of talent which is inherent 

 in the present situation in our pri- 

 marv and secondary schools. 



The Nation's students may be dia- 

 grammed as a pyramid. At the base 

 of the diagram are the students be- 

 ginning the first grade. As we keep 

 looking at this body of students, they 

 drop out more and more rapidly and 

 the sides of the diagram slope in 

 sharply, making a pyramidal figure. 



Students drop out of grade and 

 high schools for a variety of reasons. 

 The reasons which concern us in this 

 report are only those which relate to 

 the highly talented. Many of these 

 indi\'iduals of great promise who are 

 lost in the process are academic cas- 

 ualties undoubtedly to be charged 

 against the inadequacy of the local 

 secondary education available to 

 them. Studies of the situation in 

 different States show that the prob- 

 lem is by no means the same through- 



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