At a meeting of the Commission on Trends held at Atlantic City in the winter of 1950, its members agreed, according to the report of Dean Thomas Clark Pollock, then its chairman, that the commission's “function was not operational, i.e., conducting educational investigations, but what we may for want of a better term call philosophical, i.e., the discussion of educational trends or conditions affecting areas represented in the Modern Language Association of America, and the preparation of reports or brief statements presenting its views on these trends or conditions.” During the period of Dean Pollock's chairmanship no statement on educational trends was issued, since other business proved more pressing; but at a meeting held at MLA headquarters on 21 and 22 April 1952, members of the Commission agreed to discharge their obligation by compiling jointly a report on developments and issues in the academic world which could be presented at the association's winter meeting. To this document, for which the chairman must acknowledge editorial responsibility, contributions were made by Dean John S. Diekhoff, Professors John H. Fisher, Helena M. Gamer, Kathrine Roller, Gordon N. Ray, and Francis M. Rogers. The materials surveyed were extensive—books, educational journals, bulletins, reports, college catalogs and announcements, newspapers, magazines; and in addition to their wide-ranging reviews, the contributors undertook a few special inquiries. They do not, however, in publishing their findings, make any pretension to scientific thoroughness, to close statistical accuracy, or to complete disinterestedness. The scanning and digesting of the literature currently available on the subject of American education is a very large task; the selection and appraisal of what is important must depend to a considerable degree upon the judgment and experience of the collaborators. Published accounts of projected innovations, or of educational processes, do not always reveal the genuine objectives, the actual character, of the activities described, or the kind of implementation achieved; indeed an adequate knowledge of these matters cannot often be gained by any means short of direct observation and inquiry. Such opportunities were not often open to members of the commission, who have had to record, along with the facts they have collected, some impressions and educated guesses. Since, however, the commission includes in its membership deans, department chairmen, a former officer of MLA who spent many years at headquarters, and graduate teachers of long experience—all persons who have had considerable practice in gauging the state of education in several parts of the country, and all persons responsible for predicting future developments—this composite view may prove useful. The collaborators have occupied themselves chiefly with the trends apparent in higher education in the United States, and in particular with those affecting the humanities.
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