University of Virginia Library

Joseph F. Kett

Youth Need Relevant Education

Profile

By FRANK WILLIAMS

"You probably know that
the Puritans named their
children after virtues; my
favorite of these names
is Free Love," says history
professor Joseph Kett, who
teaches intellectual and
cultural history of the United
States.

He taps a pipe and
continues, "But doubtless it
didn't mean the same thing
then as it does now."

Beneath a cartoon of Mary
Queen of Scots and other
dignitaries, Mr. Kett says he
worries about the children.

There was a time when a
young man would say he was
committed, which would mean
he was hard at work with a
career. Now, Mr. Kett says,
children are
thoroughly domesticated

"I don't like the current
lock stepping which forces
children of the same age to go
through year after year of
school, learning irrelevant or
undesirable material.

Court Jesters To Parents

In high school, Mr. Kett
observes, they are no more than
court jesters to their parents.
"What once was a work spirit
has now been called school
spirit, and exemplifies itself in
pep bands and football games."

Nor is the answer to be
found in so-called liberal
curriculum reform, he says, but

rather in relieving students of
the rigid system of
lock stepping, and opening up
more individualized programs.

Fulbright Scholar

Citing the fact that the hero
of the battle of Lepanto was in
his teens, and that Pilt was
Prime Minister of England at
age twenty-four, Mr. Kett has
ample faith in the potential of
the young.

But he fears the "rah-rah"
colleges foreseen by one of his
favorite authors, Stephen
Leacock. At Leacock's
Shucksford College, the paper
is the Daily Shuck, and all the
students are called shucks.

Although admissions are
very strict, the average Shuck is
required to think about three
courses. There are no lectures.
Training dogs and fishing are
part of the academic
curriculum. The school runs its
own distillery. And so by
analogy, Mr. Kett says he sees
little need for sex education or
other trifles.

Faith In Potential Of Youth

Mr. Kett is from New York
City. He received a B.A. from
Holy Cross in New York, his
M.A. and PhD. from Harvard.
Taking a Fulbright Scholarship
to study in London, he was
working at the time on his
thesis, a study of American
medical history before 1860,
which he later published.

He taught at Harvard from
1964 to 1966, coming to the
University in 1969. He likes this
quiet university town.