The Indispensable Men

In spite of its traditional horror of the word "elite," the U.S. is finally facing the fact that there is such a thing as the superior student and that the nation needs him badly. Last week Rear Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, father of the atomic submarine, had some sharp things to say about what to do with him.

"To put it bluntly," said Rickover, "our schools do not perform their primary purpose, which is to train the nation's brain power to the highest potential . . . We shall not do justice to our talented youth until we seek them out at an early age--no later than ten or eleven--and educate them separately."

To take care of the gifted, Rickover suggested that industry set up perhaps 25 secondary schools to serve as models for similar schools in the future. The schools would be staffed by teachers who "place less emphasis on training in teaching methods and more on graduate study in their fields. [The schools] would start with the fifth grade so as to have the pupils ready for college at 16."

Unfortunately, concluded Rickover, "the very thought of recognizing differences in intellectual ability is repugnant to our equalitarian philosophy . . . We are committed to the basic assumption that there is no person who can claim to be an indispensable man. We proceed from this entirely correct assumption to the incorrect conclusion that neither does a democracy have indispensable men. This is obviously erroneous ... No society can function without its indispensable men."

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