The MISSING DIMENSION in Education
Plain Truth Magazine
April 1969
Volume: Vol XXXIV, No.4
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The MISSING DIMENSION in Education

It's resulted in a sick, sick world. But seemingly incredible, one college is now supplying that vital Dimension WORLDWIDE!

   THERE HAS BEEN a tragic Missing Dimension in modern education. Ambassador College is pioneering in providing that Missing Dimension.
   This institution, therefore, is unique. It operates on a much larger scale than the three-campus liberal arts college limited to 700 students on each campus. It presents a far broader scope with educational activities worldwide.

Education's Stern Responsibility

   Ambassador College recognizes the significant relationship between education and world conditions — and the responsibility of education for these conditions.
   Statesmen and scientists of world repute say publicly they are frankly frightened. The destructive forces exist today that could quickly erase humanity from this good earth! The number one problem before the world today is the question of SURVIVAL!
   Ambassador believes this state of affairs is the chief concern of modern education. The building blocks of civilization are found on the campuses of the institutions of higher learning. The architects of the pattern of society receive their training on these campuses. Therefore education must assume in very large degree responsibility for world conditions. Today's tragic state of affairs has emerged as a result of this Missing Dimension in education.

A Serious Look at TODAY!

   In fifty years the world has undergone a violent transformation.
   Today spiraling crime is rampant, even in residential areas. Morals have plunged into the cesspool. Permissiveness has replaced respect for authority — in the home, in the school, on campus. We have polluted the air we breathe, the water we drink, the soil that grows our foods. A tenth of us are now mental cases. We face a fatal population explosion. This fifty-year violent transformation has brought humanity to the very brink of Cosmocide!
   
   Modern living patterns have produced alarming increases in unhappy marriages. There is a fatal breaking down of family life. Increasingly, wives are away from home and children, and employed. The divorce rate has expanded rapidly in the Western world. Some psychologists are even predicting that the institution of marriage and the family HOME life will soon be a relic of the past!
   The youth — tomorrow's leaders — are given no hope for the future. They are told they must adjust to living in a world of gigantic problems with no solutions. So we have the beat generation of youth in revolt. Everywhere there is unrest, discontent, protest, angry mass demonstrations, racial strife, riots, looting, VIOLENCE!
   And today campuses in 22 countries are in the grip of a crisis little short of chaos! Campus moral standards have collapsed. Campus suicides have escalated. University officials appear to be powerless!
   This new crisis is merely the climax of this Missing Dimension and the fatal drift of education into materialism. Many educators have recognized with alarm the trend. Yet they protest their helplessness to reverse it. They have simply been caught in the clutch of an established system from which this all-important Dimension is missing!

The CAUSE

   How did we come to this debacle of civilization?
   For every effect there has to be a CAUSE!
   The architects of our pattern of society were educated on campuses where this vital Dimension was missing! The very BASICS of essential knowledge were ignored.
   Those basics are these: the knowledge and teaching of the true meaning and the purpose of human life on this earth; a discernment of the true values from the false; the teaching of the very principles of right living — of the WAY to peace, happiness, abundant well-being; the building of right character, with a right sense of moral, spiritual and intellectual values. These BASICS are missing from on-campus education generally.
   Colleges and universities have been concerned primarily with the intellect. They have fallen into the grip of materialism. They have been training students for positions with industrial and commercial corporations, for specialized fields in science and technology, for the professions — for earning a living, rather than in learning how to live. Character building has not been their concern, generally.
   There is one other building block that must also be in the FOUNDATION of a healthy and prosperous society. That is the HOME, and the FAMILY RELATIONSHIP.
   This is a sick, sick world, regardless of denials by some politicians. The CAUSE of this acute sickness is the fact that this vital Dimension is missing, on campus, and in the home! Education has neglected not only the moral and spiritual values on campus, but also IN THE HOME. Absence of putting this Dimension into practice in the HOME has been leading to the breakdown of the FAMILY structure. And when the FAMILY INSTITUTION breaks down, civilization is doomed!

Restored at Ambassador

   Ambassador College came on the world scene in 1947 free from the shackles of tradition. We were not bound in the grip of precedence. Ambassador has dared to recapture the TRUE values — to apply that Missing Dimension in the TWO spheres of needed education — at the same time retaining all that has proved sound and good in educational experience.
   There is developing, here, this New Dimension in education. The results are a joyful thing to behold — now affecting millions of human lives!
   The very absence of this Dimension on campuses generally, necessitates, now, its installation in the homes. It is too late merely to infuse what has been so sadly lacking into campus education alone, hoping to correct the evils in the succeeding two or three generations. We are now too near the brink of total chaos. Adult education, in the home, supplying the Missing Dimension, is also imperative.

The TWO Vital Spheres

   This vital Dimension is DOUBLY missing — in TWO vital spheres:

(I)

   The Campus Sphere: On the campuses the leaders of tomorrow receive whatever intensive education is provided, in course programs of two, four, five or more years. Yet in the organized system that has devolved on our present, the very foundation of all knowledge is absent from curricula. That BASIC knowledge involves the meaning and purpose of life — life's true destiny and how to achieve it. To know what we are and why we are is basic knowledge missing in higher education, generally. Vital basic knowledge involves also the discernment of the true values from the false, and knowledge of THE WAY to achieve them; in other words, to know the way to peace, happiness, prosperity, security, abundant wellbeing.
   Since the HOME and a tightly knit FAMILY STRUCTURE is the foundation of a healthy and lasting society, vital BASIC knowledge includes also on-campus instruction on the sanctity of marriage, instruction in a right and healthy type of dating leading to a right mating and happy marriage; instruction in the laws that make for a happy and enduring marriage; instruction on child rearing, child discipline, and the responsibilities of parenthood and a happy family life.
   Just as important in this Missing Dimension is personality development, character building, a right knowledge of spiritual and moral values, and respect for law and authority.
   But this Dimension — teaching students not only how to earn a living, but HOW TO LIVE — has been ignored. Education has gone materialistic. Emphasis has been on the intellect alone. Students have been left to form their own moral codes. Permissiveness has resulted in a flouting of authority.
   On the three Ambassador campuses the Missing Dimension is restored. It is given equal emphasis with development of intellect. Ambassador prepares its students to earn a living — and also, with right knowledge of how to live.

(II)

   The Home and Family Sphere: In a healthy and happy society, education must begin in the home! It must put major emphasis on the necessity for FAMILY life. Yet in our Western world — particularly the United States — the FAMILY system is breaking down. Few parents have themselves been taught how to start education in the home. Few have adequate knowledge or ability to teach their below-school-age children.
   This breakdown of our family system is inscribing the handwriting on our national wall! The need of right education in this sphere is far more vital to the very question of SURVIVAL than is recognized!
   It is worth taking time to note a few astonishing facts.
   Minority group studies have revealed significant occurrences. These factors throw a new light on, and have a vital connection to problems confronting education now. We take space here to record them briefly.

Where Education Begins

   The studies involve four United States minority groups. All four have suffered discrimination and prejudice. Three of these groups have attained status and, in general, emerged from the former discrimination. These are the American-born Japanese, Chinese, and Jews. With Japanese and Chinese there was also the color barrier.
   These three groups gained status and recognition, not by police and military enforcement of laws, not by marches, demonstrations, threats and violence, but by self-improvement and achievement. In the United States, status is attained through the educational and occupational structure.
   But the studies show that much, if not most of the foundation for this achievement is a STRONG FAMILY SYSTEM. These three marry in their own ethnic groups, and maintain a tight family relationship. In all three groups there is also family thrift — with the parents willing to make great sacrifices for the education and advancement of their next generation. The very hallmark of Jewish life is the close family relationship. Parents take great pride in every evidence of advancement, superiority and accomplishment by their children.
   Compare these three minority groups with the American white majority, where the divorce rate is taking an alarming rise, and families increasingly are falling apart.
   The 1960 census showed some significant facts. More than half the children of American-born Japanese and Chinese families, between the ages of 18 and 24, were college educated. A B'nai B'rith study shows more than 70% of children of Jewish families in these ages were in college or university. And while the 1970 census will show higher percentages all around, due to the general increase in college and university enrollments, barely more than 20% of children of the white American majority in the same age group were being college educated!

Ambassador College Hall of Administration with Egret Sculpture in foreground. - H. Clark — Ambassador College
   But when we consider the fourth minority group, the facts are the more significant. Family cohesion is lowest of all among United States Negroes. A Department of Labor report, titled "The Negro Family — The Case for National Action," issued March, 1965, stated that, roughly, one Negro family in four is fatherless. And, that, despite the rising divorce rate among U.S. whites, was approximately three times the white total! And, in the ghetto areas, and among lower-income blacks, the problem is worsening. More than half of all Negro children 18 and under have lived at least part of their lives in broken homes.
   But what are the percentages of Negroes in college or university? In October, 1963, only 5.2% of males and 4.1% of females!
   Undoubtedly this is the most serious social problem in America. It is of vital importance in relation to the Missing Dimension in education. In this connection, there are vital factors little understood by American whites.
   The real root of this problem, a vital factor in campus riots and racial violence, was the evil effects of American slavery.
   A hundred years ago the Negro was given freedom from slavery, but not equality. Most were totally illiterate. Few could read, write, or even sign their names. Many southern whites did not consider them to be human. "They don't have souls," was a common expression. The fact that they were souls was not understood.
   After the emancipation, the Negro FAMILY relationship was in an atmosphere markedly different from that of white families. The Department of Labor report puts emphasis on the fact that keeping the Negro "in his place" meant, primarily, keeping the Negro male in his place. The female was not a threat to anyone. This situation prevented the emergence of a strong "father figure" as the head of a family.
   After generations of degeneration in utter illiteracy, it is generally assumed to require at least three generations of education to bring intelligence quotients to normal levels. Schools for Negroes, at first, were far from white standards. Little progress was being made toward a middle-class standard of living.
   That is the background.
   What is the condition today?
   Today, individual Negroes, after three or more generations of education, are able to reach the highest peak of achievement. For several decades, now, educational opportunities and standards have been improving. There is now emerging a middle class, but it is far from the majority class.
   In the crowded urban ghettos, and among the vast numbers of the unskilled, poorly educated city Negro working class, the FAMILY STRUCTURE 1S crumbling — so says this government report. The "fabric of conventional social relationships has all but disintegrated." This is the unmistakable postwar trend. It is the nation's most dangerous social problem.
   This government study points out that a deceptive factor is the gradual emergence of a stable middle class and a more successful group. But this group, happily increasing, is, unhappily, the minority group of U.S. Negroes. This minority, too, is building a firmer FAMILY STRUCTURE.

The LOMA D. ARMSTRONG ACADEMIC CENTER comprising the new Science Hall, the new Fine Arts Hall, Ambassador Hall, plaza with fountain, and the formal Italian sunken garden. - H. Clark — Ambassador College
   But the Department of Labor study points out that the black community in America is, in fact, dividing. This emerging middle-class group is progressing — growing steadily stronger and more successful. But there is the increasingly disorganized and disadvantaged lower class. And it is overwhelmingly the majority group! In this majority group the family structure is deteriorating, not improving.
   Unfortunately many of the U.S. Government statistics lump all Negroes together in one statistical measurement. Therefore the conditions in this rising middle-class minority are better than the reports show. On the other hand, conditions among the lower-class majority are worse.
   One serious result of the splintering Negro family state, and militant agitation, is the crime situation in the U.S. Crime committed by black juveniles in proportion to population is shockingly higher than crime committed by whites of the same age.
   Partial responsibility for this tragic racial situation may be placed on pre Civil War slave owners. But they are no longer among us to help correct the condition and solve the problem. And it must be corrected, if the nation is to survive! The time for emotional name-calling and blame-placing is long since past. The responsibility for correcting the condition is ours today — both white and black.
   The further that studies are made in these areas, the greater emphasis they place on the supreme importance of a close-knit and Solid FAMILY RELATIONSHIP. This necessitates intensive in the home education.

Conclusion of Minority Studies

   These minority-group studies show two decisive facts:
   1) The stronger the family ties, the higher is the rate of education, self-improvement, achievement, and social status.
   2) The more broken are the home and family ties, the higher is the crime rate, and the lower the education.
   So we repeat: the HOME and FAMILY relationship is the BASIS of a healthy, happy and enduring society. This must be made a special concern of education.
   If society is to be saved, education must be carried into the homes. There must be education on the imperative NEED of a right FAMILY relationship — education on the sanctity of marriage; on intelligent and proper teenage dating; on intelligent mating for marriage; on intelligent child rearing; on family relationships; on respect for authority.
   There must be instruction sent into the homes, as well as on college campuses, on the meaning and purpose of life; on recognition of the TRUE values; and the LAWS that lead to — are the CAUSE of — peace, happiness, real success, abundant well-being.
   These are the very BASICS of education — these are the Missing Dimension!
   On-campus education prepares tomorrow's leaders. They will be tomorrow's parents. The vital Missing Dimension must be supplied on campus. At Ambassador it is.
   But tomorrow will be too late! The trend of disintegrating family relationship, even among the vast white majority, must be checked and reversed TODAY, if society is to be saved alive!
   The concentrated on-campus higher education is not enough! The Missing Dimension in education must reach TODAY'S adults and parents IN THE HOME! The Ambassador worldwide EXTENSION PROGRAM is pioneering in this area of education. Already it is reaching into millions of homes. Already it has made significant changes in thousands of lives. Its impact is increasing at the phenomenal rate of 25% to 30% each year.

An Unheard of FACT

   Ambassador College was founded to supply the Missing Dimension in education to coed students at the university level in residence on campus.
   The Missing Dimension is not missing at Ambassador. Each year from 50% to 65% of incoming male students and around 40% of females come to Ambassador from other colleges and universities. These hundreds of students from other universities — from all over the world — many with degrees — have entered Ambassador as undergraduates to receive this all-important knowledge tragically missing even at the world's most famous universities.
   They come to learn the true values. They come to learn the true meaning and purpose of life. They come to learn not only how to earn a living, but also how to live!
   Meanwhile, the supplying of the Missing Dimension in the HOME and FAMILY sphere has continued and expanded. With campus-based radio studios (and now the superb television studio at Pasadena), and campus-published magazines, books, and a correspondence course, Ambassador has continued to disseminate this New Dimension education. Not only on campus, but through the expanding Extension Program, into multiplied millions of HOMES, domestic and worldwide.
   From the founding of the college in Pasadena, branch colleges abroad were envisioned. In 1959 property was purchased for the campus in Britain, some five miles from the outskirts of Greater London, in the beautiful Green Belt. Nineteen miles north by northwest from Marble Arch, the English campus, near St. Albans, was opened to students in 1960. The Texas campus opened in September 1964.
   As the College Extension Program has been enlarged through the years, the campus printing plants have continued publishing materials useful to teenagers, parents (especially on child rearing), and businessmen.
   On campus, students found the practical, workable approach to life. This has resulted not only in financial rewards, but also in wholesome, happy, useful and abundant lives. Nearly all students have desired enthusiastically to continue in this field of education, restoring the Missing Dimension, now worldwide.
   Today approximately 150 million homes feel the impact of the Ambassador College Extension Program, worldwide. From Ghana to Tasmania, from Okinawa to Argentina, Hawaii to India, one can find Ambassador College publications.
   This is the story of an educational activity whose value and importance is beyond description — something never done before — a huge, major-scale operation, worldwide, seemingly incredible, yet in fast-accelerating operation today.
   This is AMBASSADOR COLLEGE!

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Plain Truth MagazineApril 1969Vol XXXIV, No.4