The Program of thk United States Armed Forces Institute1 LIEUTENANT COLONEL HERBERT G. ESPY Information and Education Division, Army Service Forces
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HE United States Armed Forces Institute was established in April, 1942. It wasintended to provide for enlisted men in the h y suitable opportunities to continue school careers intempted by war, to undertake special studies to increase their efficiency as soldiers, to maintain those personal interests which would help them later to assume their responsibilities as citizens. In the beginning the Army Institute, as i t was then called, was merely a correspondence school of a type which had long demonstrated its usefulness in this country's military services. Its offering included 64 courses in subjects having obvious usefulness for military men-mathematics, applied science, and technical courses for the most part. In addition it helped men to enroll for hundreds of regularextensioncorrespondence courses offered by some 80 colleges and universities cooperating with the Institute. Since that time, the Institute's services have so expanded and developed as to merit the full attention of civilian educational leaders. The Institute was first established because research studies of the desires of enlisted men showed that they earnestly wanted to use some of their time for study. Those who had received the most schooling were those who desired more--and who were most likely to be discontent if educational opportunities were withheld from them. Some military men reacted to this demand with a certain amount of misgiving. They feared that it might be dangerous to meet the strong interest in education. They believed that men given the opportunity to use their off-duty time for study might be distracted from the urgent necessity of learning to be soldiers. These anxieties were, however, soon dispelled. Soldiers given the free opportunity to study subjects of their choice showed their overwhelming preference for subjects which would help them meet the challenge of their military duties. Month by month as the Institute's enrollment mounted, a t first slowly and then more rapidly, the figures showed that the courses the men were seeking in largest numbers-arithmetic, clerical training, technical subjects-were those which their own commanding officers would probably have recommended. Although the Institute was developed to meet the personal needs of young soldiers, and although its mere
existence gives recognition to the soldier's sense of personal worth, many of the Institute's problems have been physical. In the beginning there was the task of setting up facilities for handling correspondence courses promptly, so that men might use them on the farthest islands of the distant seas. Since that time numerous branches have been set up in all the oversea theaters of operation. Even in these now conveniently located branches the major problems continue to be problems of physical supply. In several of the branches the demand for USAFI courses is so great as simply to exceed the available supplies of course materials. These problems of supply persist in spite of the fact that the main branch of the Institute is purchasing and shipping materials as rapidly . . as today's limited supply .. . of manpbwer permits. Why is there such strong demand for USAFI courses? Are they more interesting than other courses? Are they materially superior to courses offered in other schools? The answer is simple. Many a man in the Army wants to study, perchance because he is so sitnated that he can find no more profitable use of his own leisure time. Particularly if he is remotely located, far from other means of pleasant occupations of leisure time he may be keenly desirous of opportunities for study. He is so gratified with a course in a subject which interests him that he is often not very critical of its quality. Actually, some of the Institute's courses are not of superlative quality. They are the best courses which are available, and the Institute's editorial st& of civilian experts are continually alert to find the best possible texts and course materials. Many of the country's outstanding colleges and universities have been most generous in making available the cream of their courses for incorporation in the USAFI offerings. The fact remains, however, that some of the Institute's courses are in no wise extraordinary in quality. But the Institute acts on the belief that i t is better to give its students the best available courses in subjects they want to study than to offer them better courses in subjects they do not wish to study. It must be remembered that' the members of the armed services have a very great variety of interests and that as individuals they are presently not free to attend the schools of their own choice. The Institute is therefore under obligation to be generous in the range ' Praented before the Division of Chemical Education of the of subjects which it offers and not too conservative in American Chemical Society. 108th Meeting, New York City. its conce~tionsof what is suitable for its students. It September 12, 1944. 26
provides.correspondence courses and texts to men who wish to study subjects like refrigeration, Diesel engines, or machine shop practice. Many enrollees for such courses do have some opportunity for experience in the field with the equipment their courses cover, but there are some who undertake this work without anything resemblmg the shop or laboratory practice which would be helpful to them. The vast majority of USAFI students show their good judgment by enrolling for study in courses in which correspondence study and the use of good textbooks are effective. It is indeed na mere accident that USAFI's most popular courses are fields like mathematics, bookkeeping and accounting, English grammar, and American history. It should be pointed out also that for the most part there is nothing novel about USAFI courses. The texts selected for use are ordinarily those which are widely established in civilian use and strongly recommended by many civilian experts. They are typical of the most successful products of America's educational publishers, who incidentally have given to USAFI a very high level of cooperation. But there will not be found among them any to make glad the hearts of educational progressives or innovators. This middle-of-the-road practice rests on no arbitrary policy of the War Department. It rises from the necessities of the war. The simplest way of meeting the educational interests of young people in the Army is to obtain for them the kinds of materials which have won wide acceptance in civilian use. An Army, moreover, is not well situated to make sound innovations in the general education of young citizens. For the sake of accuracy. there should perhaps be mention of a t least two fields in which the Army Information and Education Division has developed definite innovations in teaching practice. Because of the widespread demand for courses which would actually teach a soldier to speak a foreign language, the Army found it necessary to utilize the most up-to-date contributions of America's linguistic scientists in the development of a new system of teaching spoken languages. Not only do the Army's language courses teach a man to speak the language, they are also self-teaching, that is, they do not require the services of a s k i e d teacher. The Institute Editorial Stafi has developed many other self-teaching courses which are proving to be most useful even in locally organized off-duty classes in Army posts and in the Navy's educational service centers throughout the world. Not even the best selfteaching course is properly comparable to instruction under a good teacher, but the wide use of self-teaching courses does give many a soldier a chance to study what he is interested in studying. The Institute now offers its students some 200 correspondence courses in high-school, technical, and college subjects as well as a large number of texts for class use. These courses are all regular USAFI courses conveniently available to armed forces personnel throu~houtthe world. For those individuals who have convenient access to regn.. lar mail service, the USAFI also recommends to ;ts
students some 700 high-school and college courses offered by the more than 80 cooperating colleges and universities with which it has special arrangements. Its courses are without doubt its most important service to all students, but no less important from the standpoint of civilian educators is the USAFI program of accreditation service. Remembering the unhappy results of the "blanket credit" policy which so many colleges followed after the close of World War I and foreseeing the need of an adequate accreditation service for service personnel in the present war, the USAFI civilian advisory committee has devoted many months of study and work to the development of sound policies and procedures for the Institute. The Committee has sought and had the active cooperation of the country's leading national and regional accrediting associations of high schools and colleges. Acting on the recommendations of all of these organizations and with the interest and advice of many educational institutions and individuals, the Institute has developed a very complete program of accreditation service. This service will have dual benefits. It will help the service man to present reliable evidence of his educational development and achievement while in service. It will help the educational institution to obtain reliable evidence of educational achievement and to intermet i t nronerlv. * . , There are two important aspects.of this accreditation program. The use of special accreditation examinations developed by the USAFI Examinations Staff and the provision of standardized application forms on which individuals applying for school and college credit are required to present such information as can be properly interpreted by the colleges. Perhaps it should be stated a t the outset that the USAFI accreditation examinations are as thorough and as dependable as it is possible to make them. They are prepared by experts with the consultation and approval of competent subject-matter experts. (For example, examinations in chemistry have been developed with the very close cooperation and approval of the Committee on Examinations and Tests of the Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Association.*) Once the examinations have been completed by the Examination Staff and approved by experts in the subject-matter field, they are standardized by being administered to typical student populations in representative schools. The norms thus produced provide a standard against which the test scores of military personnel can be checked. From the standpoint of service personnel these tests are of the utmost importance. They give the capable individual an opportunity to present meaningful evidence of his achievement and they enable the officersof schools and colleges to avoid giving unwisely generous recognition to others whose lack of proper background or ability only dooms them to discouragement or failure if they are admitted to advanced standing. It should be borne in mind also that the USAFI acmeditation examinations are of two types-tests of 3 See T ~ r JOURNAL, s 21, 386 and 507 (1944).
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General Educational Development and tests in the usual school and college level subject fields. The G. E. D. Tests will be particularly suitable for use in the case of individuals whose schooling has been long interrupted and whose educational development has probably increased considerably beyond the level a t which they left off their schooling. I t has gratified Education Officersto observe that many a mature man who takes a G. E. D. Test is amazed and pleased to learn that his work, his reading, and his informal experiences in everyday life have given him a general level of educational competence and maturity far above that which he had attained when he left school. I t is of the utmost importance that educators recognize the potentialities and the practical dependability of the G. E. D. Test. It provides a standard measure for assessing the readiness of aspirants for adult education; i t indicates the general grade level a t which a returning veteran should be readmitted to school or college. These facts should be brought persistently to the attention of school and college admission officers,particularly those in the more backward institutions. In addition to the USAFI G. E. D. Tests which indicate an individual's general level of educational competence and which should be the primary concern of general admission officers in the colleges, the USAFI program provides suitably standardized tests in the subjects in which there are substantial enrollments in civilian institutions and in which the curriculum content is well enough standardized to permit establishment of adequate norms. The USAFI subject tests will be particularly useful to authorities in specialized departments who must determine to what degree an individual veteran meets the department's special requirements. In this case particularly the department will probably prefer to judge a man's performance on the tests in direct comparison with the performance of its own students or trainees. In other words, the admission or placement of an individual in a college must be based on his prospects of success in that particular college, and not so much in relation to his prospects of success in any one of hundreds of colleges throughout the country. In order to facilitate such use of the tests, and in recognition of the tiaditional propensity of college faculties to set their own standards, the USAFI has done everything possible to make the tests suitably available. Specifically, arrangements have been made whereby the American Council on Education publishes. and distributes torecognized educational institutions the USAFI accreditation tests. Tests thus obtained by the colleges can be given to enough students to establish local standards of achievement and they can be given conveniently to returning veterans who seek evaluation of their educational status and educational counsel regarding their plans for further education. The USAFI does, of course, administer its test on request to individuals while they are in the service. This service is provided primarily to help the individual who must immediately establish his educational status
in order to qualify for special training within the armed forces. In other cases, the best place and the most convenient place for administration of the tests is a t the college or university which is considering his acceptability and advising him about his educational program. Even the best possible accreditation tests, used to the best possible advantage, do not wholly cover all aspects of accreditation service. A wise admission officer will wish to take into account also aspects of personal background and individual educational objectives which are not ordinarily revealed through pencil and paper tests. The educator needs detailed information about a man's former civilian education, about his military training and experience, his job assignments in the armed forces, his off-duty educational work while in service and, perhaps, his opportunities for intensified education during the period when he may have been looking forward to separation from the service. Moreover, the admission officer and his academic colleagues wish to be able to interpret these facts reliably. To meet these needs the Institute has collaborated with the American Council on Education, the American Association of Secondary School Administrators, and other leading educational organizations in the provision of adequate and convenient channels through which the individual service mamand his chosen school or college may determine his educational status and plan his further education. One major problem for the schools and colleges arises from their lack of precise and complete information about the training courses in the armed services and about the service occupations a t which they are aimed. Because these courses are so numerous, because their titles so unfamiliar, because their time schedules are so variable, they are enough to baffle even the most perceiving educator. He has had no way of knowing how to evaluate such subjects as "fire control," "balloon handling," or chemical warfare. He suspects that some of them are not exactly comparable to the courses in his own institution and doubts whether all of them are appropriately tested by standardized tests. Even if he knows the content and scope of a service training course, the college admission officer lacks precedent to guide him in assigning credits to it. To lessen these difficulties, the American Council on Education is now preparing a handbook for use by schools and colleges. This handbook is designed to describe the salient features of service training courses, and to help educators to evaluate them in relation to their own curricula and their own educational standards. The four military services are lending all possible assistance to the American Council by supplying accurate, official descriptions of service courses. It is hoped that the handbook will enable educators confidently and properly to evaluate any service training course reported on a service man's record of educational achievement. The handbook would be of little value alone. It must be complemented by accurate and complete records concerning individuals who apply for credit. In order
to help the service man who seeks academic recognition of his achievement, the USAFI has developed a very complete standard accreditation form. On it there can be recorded the most significant elements of his civilian educational background, his service training and occupations, his plans for further education. This form, which is certified by an officerand which is sent directly to the school or college concerned, has been developed in full accordance with the USAFI principles which have already been so generally accepted by educational institutions. In brief, the report provides all possible information and offers the assistance of USAFI in administering examinations which may be required. Moreover, it emphasizes the responsibility of civilian educational institutions themselves to determine their own awards of academic credit and cautions others against undertaking to dictate or to recommend to them what their credit award should be. The American Council handbook and the USAFI accreditation service together go a long way toward solving the accreditation problems in the educational institution. There can be not the slightest excuse for any school or college to indulge in a repetition of the unsavory "blanket credit" practices after the last war. But there is a very important essential still to be provided. There must, of course, be adequate means whereby educators can learn what they need to know about the persons who seek their credit. I t is, however, no less important that service personnel may learn about the educational opportunities which will be ready for them and about the requirements which they must meet to avail themselves of these opportunities. It must be remembered that there are now in the services most of the young men who would otherwise have gone from high school to college, that they have been cut off from the contacts through which they would normally have been learning a t least a little about what schools and colleges have to offer them. Very active steps are now being taken to set up effective channels through which men and women in service may obtain up-to-date and accurate facts about civilian opportnni-
ties for education and training. This is in many ways the most difficult part of the task. It is made difficult in part by the fact that many schools have decided to postpone as long as possible any definite planning of their own postwar programs. It is obviously hindered also by the fact that so many young men are so remote and so mobile as to hinder communication with them. The USAFI will, however, do all i t can to bring to the attention of interested service men the facts they need to help them plan suitably for the part-time continuance of their education while in service or the resumption of their schooling after their war service. Repntahle educational institutions which are developing educational programs of interest to men and women in the Army and which undertake to bring them to the attention of service personnel should bring this to the attention of the Army Information and Education Division, which directs the program of the USAFI and which channels information through USAFI Branches overseas to Education Officers around the world. Those Americans who are old enough to remember the educational problems which arose a t the end of the last war, both while men waited in France to come home and after they returned home, are naturally concerned about similar problems which may arise again. The scope and complexity of this war hinder direct comparisons with the first World War. To indicate now the time and shape of a post-hostilities educational program would be as inappropriate as to try to indicate now the time and manner of the end of the war itself. Just as the Army must as far as possible be ready for any eventualities, the Army education program has been developed so as to be ready to meet situations as they arise. Indeed any education program which has been forced to develop the materials and the organization to serve the unexpected and particular needs of individuals and the mass needs of troops, to minister to men in the emergencies of combat as well as to those who work and wait on the alert for months on isolated outposts has most of the resources needed to meet the demands of the future.
0 Tomorrow's world will be a strange but practical place in which to live, in the view of 40 youthful scientists who are the authors of "Scientists of Tomorrow," recently published and obtainable from Science Service, 1719 N St., N. W., Washington, D. C. Through the eyes of these youngsters-finalists in the third annual Science Talent Search-the world of the future will be a planet on which: Armies will employ a mystic invisible light to ascertain the position of their enemies at night. Use of flammable materials, such as were the cause of the Hartford circus holocaust, will be considered barbarisms. Our Western desert lands will blossom with productive plants and ocean liners will be equipped with their
own fresh garden vegetables through a type of gardening known as soilless culture. Fresh fruits stored for a year or longer--especially apples-will taste as fresh as though they had just dropped from the trees. That modern genie, the atom, will be tapped to release its untold energy into power which man can put to a thousand and one uses. Pleasure boats of synthetic resin-bonded plywood will haye cabins of molded plastic and sails of nylon. The 40 authors-ranging in age from 14 to 18 and averaging 16 years, 9 months at the conclusion of the scholarship competition-were selected from among 15,000 high-school senicrs who competed for Westinghouse Science Scholarships.
