| December 10, 1975 | | | | the middle-class ethos of the classroom. |
| | | | When these limits are exceeded, the ghetto |
| In our continuing series of Great Recants, | | | | ethos prevails." |
| that pronounced recently by former Ohio | | | | |
| Governor John J. Gilligan has to rank near | | | | 2. On deficit spending - by New York Mayor |
| the top. | | | | Abraham Beame as America's largest city |
| | | | neared bankruptcy. He now says, "The very |
| The once-vocal champion of labor-liberal | | | | practices I advocated 10 and 20 years ago are |
| causes startled his fellow Democrats at a | | | | responsible for our present difficulty. The |
| recent National Issues Convention in | | | | borrowing of money to pay debt was a mistake. |
| Louisville, Kentucky, by blasting a trio of | | | | It is a bitter lesson." |
| popular programs - a national health | | | | |
| proposal, federal involvement in | | | | 3. On federal control - by U.N. Ambassador |
| environmental protection, and federal housing | | | | Daniel P. Moynihan, then assistant secretary |
| and community development. | | | | of labor under President John F. Kennedy. |
| | | | He now says, "American liberals are guilty of |
| "Heretical as it may sound to some, I am very | | | | over-protecting the good name of the poor, of |
| reluctant to see the federal government | | | | over-selling underfinanced programs and of |
| launch a nation-wide health insurance program | | | | avoiding evidence of poor results. In |
| simply on the grounds that in the decade | | | | particular (we liberals) have paid too little |
| since Medicare and Medicaid have appeared, we | | | | heed to the limited capacities of government |
| have poured millions into the health care | | | | bureaus to bring about social change." |
| delivery system without improving materially | | | | |
| either the level of health or its | | | | 4. On new math - by the California State |
| availability for most American families," | | | | Board of Education which a decade ago started |
| said Gilligan. | | | | the education fad. The board now says, "Not |
| | | | everyone needs conceptual theory. The |
| He went on to suggest that most of these | | | | ability to balance a checkbook or add up a |
| federal programs could be better handled on a | | | | grocery list is basic." |
| state or regional level. Inasmuch as this | | | | |
| position is exactly that of Presidential | | | | 5. On permissive behavior - by Dr. Benjamin |
| Hopeful Ronald Reagan, the convention | | | | Spock, baby care specialist and Vietnam War |
| delegates were flabbergasted. | | | | objector. He now says, "We have reared a |
| | | | generation of brats. Parents aren't firm |
| "I guess it is a departure from some of my | | | | enough with their children for fear of losing |
| previous thinking," Gilligan said, "but there | | | | their love or incurring their resentment. |
| are many things I believed in ten years ago | | | | This is a cruel deprivation that we |
| when I was in Congress that now have proved | | | | professionals have imposed on mothers and |
| not to work." | | | | fathers. Of course, we did it with the best |
| | | | of intentions. We didn't realize until it |
| The aplomb with which dogmatic opinion | | | | was too late how our know-it-all attitude was |
| leaders whirl 180 degrees when their | | | | undermining the self assurance of parents." |
| assertions fail never ceases to amaze me. | | | | |
| | | | Let us concede that those who espouse hard |
| Yet we must acknowledge the intellectual | | | | work, self sufficiency, thrift, simple |
| courage such reversals require. | | | | skills, craftsmanship and all the other old |
| | | | fashioned virtues may know what they are |
| If only those clearer thinkers who tell it | | | | talking about. |
| like it is could be accorded the same | | | | |
| consideration as the self-appointed oracles! | | | | As we search the list of beautiful social |
| | | | theories of the last few decades, what has |
| We delay or destroy good causes at great | | | | succeeded? |
| expense and travail simply because those who | | | | |
| advocate caution are vilified. | | | | Not the New Deal, nor the Square Deal, nor |
| | | | the New Frontier, nor the Great Society. |
| We are justified in questioning the remaining | | | | |
| pie-in-the-sky proposals still being thumped | | | | Not public housing, rent subsidies, campus |
| up by activists with much rhetoric and little | | | | rioting, black power, isolationism, foreign |
| logic. | | | | aid, sexual freedom, affirmative action, |
| | | | welfare, hiring quotas, free tuition. |
| Regular readers of this column will recall | | | | |
| some of the other Great Recants of recent | | | | Social Security, Medicare and unemployment |
| years: | | | | compensation survive at great expense but |
| | | | stand in jeopardy. |
| 1. On school bussing - by Dr. James Coleman, | | | | |
| sociologist for the University of Chicago who | | | | In view of the long and sorry record of error |
| launched the integration tool with a federal | | | | on the part of yesterday's theorists, we |
| report in 1964. He now says, "Only under | | | | would be better served by a new generation of |
| certain specific circumstances does | | | | pragmatists. |
| integration improve black classroom | | | | |
| performance - when the number of blacks | | | | Better to count small blessings than recant |
| introduced is not sufficiently large to alter | | | | large mistakes. |