The Philadelphia Society turns twenty

National Review, June 1, 1984 by Timothy J. Wheeler

THE PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY TURNS TWENTY

KEYNOTE SPEAKER John Silber, the president of Boston University, set a cheerful tone for the Philadelphia Society's twentieth-anniversary meeting. "A man who would go to Philadelphia,' he announced, a la W. C. Fields, "is a man who would on principle strike a child.' Thus the mystery deepens why a group that calls itself the Philadelphia Society convenes every spring in Chicago.

Twenty years! I wonder how many of the 250-odd members and guests attending this year were at that first meeting, organized by Don Lipsett in the thick of Barry Goldwater's year-- I'll guess thirty, or perhaps a few more. But the Philly Soc prospers in its impecunious fashion; the membership is now 321; and Don is still at the helm.

The first meeting was not, as you might suppose, devoted to setting up shop (Don had already seen to that); rather, it sprang full blown into heated debate: For it was our business to knit together, as best we could, and steered only by good will, the seemingly irreconcilable strands of conservative thought, from libertarian to traditionalist. Indeed, in the early meetings (invariably aided by the failure of the hotel air conditioning), the debates were often acrimonious and, I think, hugely enjoyed. The wonderful thing about having a regular forum was that a question, answered unsatisfactorily in one year, would be instantly re-posed in the next. But good will ever prevailed, and the wrangling turned into fast friendships, now gladly renewed at each meeting. Whether any of the ideological disputes were ever properly resolved, I cannot say. But the reconciliation sought is long since a fact, in the personal bonds and memories shared.

Nowadays the national meetings are a bit more formal, the matters to be discussed are broader, and the debates are more subdued. The society has more than tripled in size and umptupled in prestige. Perhaps it is geography. Over the years, in quest of better air conditioning, we have inched northward along the Miracle Mile, at last arriving at the Drake, most sumptuous and northernmost of the hotels. Here the pampered membership has decided to make its stand, and it can probably hold out for years. Better facilities or no, however, the society is little changed at the core, remaining precisely a society of the like-minded, who convene to cross-pollinate each others' efforts to restore the moral foundations of liberty. (Or, in the vernacular, to compare notes on riding the latest death wagon.) That these efforts bear fruit is evident in improving conservative fortunes, from Goldwater to Reagan. A number of members have boldly entered the enemy city of Washington to serve in or near the Administration and have resisted all temptations to "go native.'

The Lemming Factor

MEMBERS AND GUESTS met, per custom, at a Friday afternoon reception. An excellent dinner followed in the ballroom, and it was a contented group that settled back to enjoy John Silber's keynote remarks on the quite astonishing similarities between the American educationist establishment and the Norwegian lemming. Driven by its instinct for "change' and overpopulated with mindless "innovations,' public education is swimming out to sea.

Ever since Dewey declared that "education is a science,' classrooms have increasingly been used as social laboratories, at the expense of--education. Mr. Silber described the present situation as "no-fault pedagogy,' and cited many indices of educational disarray. One horrendous problem is that students at ed schools average an incredible eighty SAT points lower than those in other studies. So, our future teachers are themselves "just at the borderline of educability.' Mr. Silber suggested that if one courageous governor would buck the ed-school monopoly and do away with teacher certification, i.e., put teaching back somewhat on a market basis, reform would be swift and far-reaching--although, in devotion to the ideal (which within living memory was frequently a reality) of high-quality public schooling, he would not nudge this market process along by means of tuition tax credits or a voucher system.

Formal business concluded, members adjourned to a hospitality suite for the no less important business of reunion. Far, far into the night.

Back to Basics

ON SATURDAY, we had to drop the evening meeting and squeeze four sessions into the time usually allotted for three. (Another convention was coming into town and hogging all the facilities.) Thus, beginning at nine in the morning, things moved briskly all day.

The first session, chaired by John Howard, returned to the problems in education. Chester Finn of Vanderbilt University spoke of the growing back-to-basics movement in public schools. Its evident successes, he said, result from decentralization, leadership by laymen (mainly parents), and a focus on results, not theories; for which heresies it is hotly opposed by the educationists. The NEA's own idea of reform, recently debated in all seriousness, as Finn noted, is: "Is it time to give up on grammar?' Eileen Gardner of the Heritage Foundation argued eloquently that education must be based on values, and looked to the restoration of its moral foundation as the most needed reform. Allan Carlson of the Rockford Institute attacked the "pluralism problem.' Public education was established to Americanize, but it has done a complete about-face, now favoring ethnic and cultural diversity. The answer lies in reconstructing a distinctive and unified American culture to which education can be geared.