Where is biology taking us?

We in the United States have always held institutionalized education in high respect and, second only to our Soviet friends, have looked to it to solve all manner of individual and social evils. As it becomes more and more capable of actually doing so, its prestige must necessarily increase concomitantly. What, then, are the probable consequences of the increased prestige of institutionalized education? No doubt there will be a considerable number, but I should like to look particularly at its effect on more traditional ways of transmitting accumulated experience to a new generation and to lay before you my reasons for believing that, as public recognition of formal education continues to rise, the prestige and influence of the family will continue to decline. As you will see, many, if not all, of the reasons have a strong biological cast. Whatever the reasons, if the conclusion is approximately correct, we would do well to try to predict and prepare for the consequences-some of which will be of biological and all of which will be of great psychological and sociological importance. The principal reasons for expecting a decline in the prestige of the family may be briefly listed: 1. The family, which is a fine mechanism for transmitting conventional wisdom in a relatively static society, is relatively poor at assimilating and transmitting new knowledge essential to survival in a rapidly moving world. 2. Growing awareness of the population problem and of human genetics weakens the prestige of the family as the basic unit of reproduction. 3. Increasing knowledge of the plasticity of the human nervous system in early life will encourage further invasion of the home in the name of ensuring equality of opportunity. Let us now explore the first of these propositions