TALENT, EDUCATION AND DEMOCRACY A Foreword

There is currently a tremendous upsurge of concern throughout the country over our future supply of what is variously termed "high ability manpower," "specialized talent," or "leadership." Our rapid economic growth and technological advance, coupled with new opportunities and grave perils we face internationally, have sharpened our awareness of how heavily this Nation's future progress and security depends upon competent and creative individuals.

The issue has been dramatized by the shortage of scientists and engineers, but investigations reveal that this deficiency is merely part of a general shortage of specialized talent which affects virtually every aspect of society. This over-all shortage results not from a decline in supply but from a tremendous growth of demand. A static or declining society would not have the problem, but in our own dynamic society it must be assumed that the demand for talent will continue to outstrip the supply. We will need more of every kind, not merely more nuclear physicists and engineers, but more first-rate biologists and doctors, teachers and politicians, economists and ministers, poets and philosophers.

Fortunately there is great opportunity to expand our future supply of well-developed talent, first, because our youth population has grown tremendously and, second, because we are presently wasting a vast amount of potential talent. Despite the great strides made by American education over the last 50 years, we are still far short of the goal of enabling and encouraging every young person to develop to his full potential. The resulting waste of rich human resources is enormous and is deeply rooted in our educational system, right down to the earliest grades. We must