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September 1953           3
Workshop Told Aviation Must Be Understood 

A people lacking in aviation education may not realize that freedom belongs to the strong, and hence may let democracy down, Chester D. Softenberg, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force, declared in a speech before the more than 150 teachers and Civil Air Patrol leaders attending the second annual National Aviation Education Workshop held last month on the University of Colorado campus.
"Our very existence," Softenberg said, "depends primarily on our understanding of aviation. We must have continuous development of its capabilities and possession of sufficient air power to guarantee our survival if any aggressor is rash enough to challenge us." 
Softenberg told the Workshop participants they "could not afford the luxury of the ignorance of aviation. We also must realize that as the cost, in money and manpower, of military aviation becomes so great, we must rely more and more upon the air reserve, air national guard and the CAP to attain requisite air strength within our economic capacity." 
"The understanding of aviation," he went on to say, "has become a citizenship responsibility today. Nations must adjust their thinking to a changing world. You here are hastening the process in the United States. In such a democracy as ours, the informed citizen is the ultimate judge of our national policies...The real challenge of aviation education is to help the youth of today to understand, evaluate and relate the capabilities of aviation to the rest of their environment." 
The Pentagon official was one the many top aviation figures to address the five-week workshop held under the joint auspices of the University of Colorado and the Civil Air Patrol.
Another speaker, Gill Robb Wilson, editor and publisher of Flying magazine, emphasized that lack of understanding of the part aviation plays in the modern world is the greatest single threat to our national security. 
Using a recent development as in illustration of the lack of understanding on the part of the American people today, Wilson declared: "Less than 90 days ago the entire education budget of the Civil Aeronautics Administration was wiped out at a time when we need aviation more than ever. This occurred without a single protest on the part of Mr. and Mrs. Average American. Little did 
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As It Should Be 

By Keith Saunders 
Aviation education is still a long way from being as widespread and effective as it might be, but an upward trend is clearly indicated, and there at last is good cause to hope that this keystone of the industry's continued progress and long-range well-being is being buttressed extensively. 
We see signs of this on almost every hand, and the most encouraging aspect of the increasing attention to air age education is the fact that less and less of it is coming from tax-supported Federal agencies and more and more is originated with private industry and private citizens. 
The roster of aviation industries and related businesses that now contribute annual scholarships for pursuance of aeronautical studies grows steadily — companies such as Boeing Airplane Co., Lockheed Aircraft, Douglas Aircraft, Link Aviation, Bell Aircraft, Hawthorne School of Aeronautics, and American Aviation Publications. 
The airlines too, are displaying an increasing awareness of the importance of instilling in the nation's youth a broad knowledge and clear concept of aviation's impact upon them, their community, and the world in which they live. Delta Air Lines, now Delta-C&S, offers annual scholarships. Trans World Airlines and United Air Lines employ aviation education specialists and spend tens of thousands of dollars annually in the preparation and dissemination of air age education materials. Other carriers are carrying on educational activities of one sort or another in the cities on their route systems. 
Organizations, associations and clubs are doing their part, also. Scholarships are being given by such groups as the Women's National Aeronautical Association, Zonta International, and the Flying Farmers of America, and many other organizations are furnishing perhaps less tangible but nevertheless effective assistance in furthering the nation's progress toward an awareness of aviation's potentialities. 
Worthy of special mention, of course, is the Civil Air Patrol, which, through its cadet program, its Aviation Education Summer Workshop, and its annual International Cadet Exchange, is doing one of the really outstanding jobs in aviation education today. Also noteworthy is the support the Aircraft Industries Association and the Air Transport Association are giving to such projects as the annual Aviation Education Leadership Institute and the Aviation Education Association's Materials of Instruction program. 
It is not very surprising, in the face of all this, an economy -minded Administration saw fit to include in the Civil Aeronautics Administration's budget for the current fiscal year no funds for its aviation education division. For, with private individuals, organizations, and industry apparently willing to carry on and finance aviation education projects, here is one field in which the Federal government might as well step aside except for such assistance as CAA's Office of Aviation Information and the aviation section of the Office of Education can furnish in the way of booklets, films, statistics, and other materials of an informative nature. 
This trend is healthful and encouraging. May it continue and accelerate. 
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they realize what was being taken from them." 
Directing a challenge to the more than 150 secondary school teachers attending the Workshop, Wilson said: 
"Aviation is the only yardstick with which you can measure the future. You can't do it unless you understand the impact of this third dimension — air travel. Our young people must grow up with the understanding that they no longer are alone in the world. There is no such thing as isolation. They must be prepared to meet and deal with life in the air age. We owe them that." 

Education Notes 

Boeing Airplane Co., which has plants at Seattle and Wichita, has announced the award of a number of scholarships to six schools in the states of Washington and Kansas, as follows:
University of Washington College of engineering will receive two graduate student scholarships of $1,000 each, plus four grants of $500 each for junior or senior students and two freshman scholarships of $250. College of business administration gets one $700 graduate student scholarship and two $400 grants for junior or seniors. 
Washington State College has been awarded three scholarships at $500 each for junior or seniors in college of engineering. 
Seattle University gets grants of $500 and $300 for juniors or seniors in college of engineering and school of commerce and finance, respectively. 
Seven scholarships totaling $3,400