125 61 20MB
English Pages 274 [276] Year 2017
Freedom and Education
University of
Pennsylvania
Schoolmen s Week
Schoolmen s Week
Meeting
October 9-12, 1963
Freedom and Education Fifty-first Schoolmen s Wzek
Proceedings
Edited by
HELEN HUUS
Philadelphia UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS
© 1965 by the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania Published in Great Britain, India, and Pakistan by the Oxford University Press London, Bombay, and Karachi Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 61-311
7455 Printed in the United States of America
Editor's Preface of education in the development and maintenance of a free society has been recognized in the past, but events of the last few years have focused attention anew on the interrelationships between democratic principles and their application by an enlightened people, as underdeveloped countries struggle with newly-gained independence and as Peace Corps volunteers return and report their experiences. The concern in education with creativity and divergent behavior is, perhaps, another reflection of attempts to preserve individuality in the face of conformity and external control. That education shall truly "lead out" the individual and free him to think for himself, to make decisions on the basis of information, and to arrive at convictions he is willing to defend is the overarching goal of teaching. It was with some of these ideas in mind that "Freedom and Education" was chosen as the theme of the Fifty-first Schoolmen's Week, which was held at the University of Pennsylvania from October 9 to 12, 1963. These Proceedings contain some of the papers presented during this conference and are organized under four main headings. The first section contains two papers on the conference theme— one by Dr. Harold Taylor, former president of Sarah Lawrence College, which emphasizes the role of literature and the arts in freeing men and giving direction to society; the other, by Dr. Edward D. Eddy, Jr., president of Chatham College, which approaches the topic through a description of the college students of today as effective "barometers of the times." Section II, entitled "Pupil Needs," discusses problems of children who have too much in our affluent society—or too little—who have learning problems or emotional problems, or who leave school as soon as they legally can and form that group known as "the dropouts."
T H E IMPORTANCE
The several papers collected in Section III, "Curriculum Trends," give attention to continuing problems, such as phonics and new approaches like the linguistic in teaching children to read; to a recent revival of interest in geography as a school subject; to individual differences in science and the inclusion of nuclear physics in the high school curriculum. A discussion of changing concepts in industrial education for contemporary times completes this group. The fourth and final section is composed of four papers relating to higher education. The first traces the development of higher education as a discipline or field of study, while the second describes how the litigation involving institutions of higher learning has helped define the role and function of higher education today. The last two papers in the section, and the volume, describe universities in two emerging areas of the world: Pakistan and Africa. Unfortunately, all of the papers presented could not be included in these Proceedings. We are grateful to those who submitted their manuscripts and regret our inability to include them all. However, the complete program of Schoolmen's Week, showing its breadth and depth, is contained in the Appendix. The major task of planning and carrying out the program was accomplished by the three co-ordinators: Dr. William W. Brickman, professor of education, who was responsible for the sessions in higher education; Dr. Mary Elisabeth Coleman, associate professor of education, who prepared those in elementary education; and Dr. Albert I. Oliver, associate professor of education, who co-ordinated the secondary meetings with the help of Mrs. Jean Daly, assistant in secondary education. Their ideas, their efforts, and their co-operation in maintaining the high standard those in attendance have come to expect of Schoolmen's Week are greatly appreciated. The physical arrangements and over eighty exhibits were administered by Dr. Richard S. Heisler, assistant to the dean of the Graduate School of Education and executive secretary of Schoolmen's Week, who merits special commendation for his meticulous attention to minutae that resulted in a smooth-running conference. Thanks are also due to all those who served on committees, who accepted responsibility as chairman or speaker, or who contributed in any way to the success of the undertaking.
Much of the work of Schoolmen's Week is carried on day by day, behind the scenes. Mrs. Alice Lavelle, the administrative assistant, deserves high praise for her patience, good humor, and accuracy in co-ordinating the numerous details and in gently prodding recalcitrant individuals. The interest and care with which the final typing of the manuscript was executed by Mrs. Bette Wright, Miss Mildred Matlack, and Mrs. Eleanor Bennett are acknowledged with gratitude, and their checking on form and style aided immeasurably. The continuing moral and financial support of the University of Pennsylvania, the co-operating organizations, and the more-than-sixty school districts that make Schoolmen's Week possible is an example of group effort that, we hope, returns to them in the form of improved education. HELEN HUUS Associate Professor of Education General Chairman of Schoolmen's Week University of Pennsylvania February, 1964
Contents Editor's
I
Preface
Freedom and
5
Education
Freedom and Education—Harold Taylor The Safety of a Permanent Alibi: Another Look at the American College Student—Edward D. Eddy, Jr. II
Pupil
31
Needs
Do Children Have Too Much?—Philip Mechanick, M.D. Programs for Children with Limited Experience: A State Program to Reduce Dropouts—Ercell I. Watson Dunbar Preschool Enrichment Program, July 2-27, 1962— Nancy B. Fairfax Gotwals Preschool Enrichment Program, July 2-27, 1962— Mabel Vashon Proctor Education's Major Problem—The School Dropouts—Daniel Schreiber Residential Psychiatric Treatment of Children at the Eastern Pennsylvania State School and Hospital—Hubert Nestor, M.D. III
13
Curriculum
43 48 51 59 66 81
Trends
Basic Conflicts in Current Reading Procedures—Albert J. Harris Linguistic Approaches to Reading—An Evaluation—Arthur W. Heilman English for the Slow-Learning Adolescent—Elizabeth Lloyd Warner Children's Misconceptions in Social Studies—Richard Dale Buckley 9
91 103 110 118
10
CONTENTS
Sociology in High School Social Science Program—Everett S. Lee How His Environment Has Influenced Man: The Public School and the Image of Geography—Gerald J. Karaska Geography and the High School Social Science Curriculum— Joseph E. Schwartzberg Individual Differences in Science—Harold E. Tannenbaum Nuclear Education in the High School—Grafton D. Chase Industrial Education and Changing Concepts—William R. Mason IV
Higher
127 131 139 143 151 158
Education
Higher Education as an Emerging Discipline—Willis Rudy The Courts and the Colleges Since Midcentury—M. M. Chambers On University Education in Pakistan—Robert C. Hammock New African Universities—David G. Scanlon
182 196 211
Appendix—Schoolmen's Index
231 271
Week Committees and Program, 1963
169
I Freedom and Education
Freedom and
Education
HAROLD TAYLOR * I WISH to speak first of some familiar items in the American national agenda which, when pursued at sufficient length, will bring us straight back to the condition of man and the condition of his freedom in the United States and in the world. THE CRISIS IN EDUCATION
American education at present is in crisis deeper than it knows, a crisis many of whose elements are hidden from public view by an intellectual and moral lethargy within the culture itself. These elements are obscured by a driving national ambition for the development of technological, military, and economic power. Other elements of the crisis are quite overt and have exposed themselves in radical form just recently. For example, the education of the Negro people has now revealed itself as a national scandal, and the evidence of years of neglect is now exploding into public consciousness. It is also clear that at least one-third of the entire population of the United States, black and white, is receiving a third-rate education, suited to a poor and backward society. Thousands of young men and women are now roaming the slum streets of our big cities uneducated, unemployed, and unemployable. The favored youth of the suburbs drift on a tide of affluence to the twin ports of status and security. The general level of teaching in our colleges and universities is such that the best students are bored with it and the rest suffer from intellectual malnutrition. * Educator, Author, and former President of Sarah Lawrence College. 13
14
LACK OF PROGRESSIVE
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
REFORM
Why should this be the case? The answer goes deep into questions having to do with the state of America in the world. This could be summed up by our saying that national attention has been diverted into matters which have really nothing to do with the development of our culture. There is a lack of social criticism, a lack of sustained, lusty, and progressive reforms in the body of American society, a growth of reactive mechanisms on the part of politicians to the problems of society. Certain sums of arithmetic may reveal the present situation. Recently it was announced that after considerable discussion and debate over two years, 190 million dollars was to be appropriated to continue the absurdity of the civil defense program and put us all under dubious and dangerous shelter. Recently the news has been reported that, in spite of the fact that we have a test ban treaty, signed and ratified, we have on hand 55 million dollars to keep the Christmas Island and Johnson Island testing sites in shape, with 500 million dollars in reserve in case we want to do more testing. Also came the news that five and one-half billion dollars has been allocated for the next development in the moon shot and that it costs us 64 million dollars just for one space ride. When we look at the budget for education for the arts, we find that we who are citizens of the United States are going to be privileged to raise 30 million dollars for our own culture center in Washington, that is if anybody wants it, and that two and a half million dollars is all we can afford for our entire cultural program abroad. A serious imbalance of values is represented by this arithmetic. PUBLIC APATHY
The contemporary crisis in education reflects a deeper crisis than even the above and arises from the fact that we have let the events of modern life outrun our ability and our concern to keep up with them. We have had to wait until the roof falls in before we notice that
Freedom and
Education
15
the rafters have been shaking. We waited until race riots broke out in the South before we realized the situation of the Negro has been for years intolerable. We have had to wait until the brink of war before we realized that the world will have no safety until it is disarmed. We have had to wait until the Russians put a man into space before we even began to notice our educational system. We simply accept the pollution of the atmosphere by fallout as if it were a patriotic gesture to get oneself contaminated. We pollute our streams, we ruin our landscapes, we overcrowd our cities, we consciously develop our slums, we create huge centers of ugliness all in the name of technological and economic progress. The fact is that somehow we have managed to get ourselves on the side of people who kill Buddhists and put college students in jail, and that we now must justify signing a test ban treaty, not on the grounds that it will save mankind but that it will help us keep ahead of the Russians, because we are a whiz at testing underground. T H E W O R L D COLLEGE
For six weeks I had the privilege of working in a World College with students and scholars from everywhere in the world—from Africa, Asia, the Communist countries, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East. This was an experimental project to see what the world needed by way of education in world terms, not in the terms of any national group. The professors in the World College project were from Japan, India, Poland, Great Britain and Africa. Their backgrounds, their culture, their politics, their attitudes to life were as different as the full variety of the world's differences could be. What did education mean to us as we worked together to build a new kind of world education? Was there a common body of knowledge which we all had and which must be passed on to the next of the world's generation? There could not possibly be such a body. We were all too varied for that. What the Africans had learned as children, the Latin Americans had not learned. What we had in common and what we needed in common when we worked together was a sensitivity to ideas and to each other, a sensitivity deep enough and delicate enough so that we could learn from each other, since there were so
16
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
many things that each had to give. This was true of the Communist students, the non-Communist students, the Buddhists, the Muslims, the atheists, the Protestants, the Catholics, the whole lot. The search which we conducted together was in fact a search for ways in which we could become free; free of the provincial views each of us carries with him in the world, free of the stereotypes each has of the other. But we also came to grips with the basic issue between the Communists and ourselves—the issue of personal freedom. The representatives of Communist countries said flatly that it was more important to solve the problems of unemployment, of industrial production, and of economic prosperity than it was to allow masses of uninformed people to vote; more important to have a stable, orderly, one-party society than to worry about whether a painter could put eccentric colors and lines on a canvas or poets could write whatever the spirit moved them to write. They meant it. (One member of the college defended at great length what he called Mr. Khrushchev's courage in denouncing abstract expressionists. It seemed to this particular member of the college that Mr. Khrushchev was acting courageously in denouncing contemporary art on the grounds that he was more concerned for the agricultural program than for the freedom to be exercised by the painters. It was more important to them, said the student, to have an orderly, stable, one-party society in which the leadership was chosen by the present leadership in office than it was to live in the disorderly mess of a democratic system.) This kind of democratic freedom was to them not a delight but an interference with the workings of the social order. To most of the rest of us in that college, this kind of freedom was crucial. But we learned that it was also crucial to take account of the fact that in other countries freedom can, and does, degenerate into a chaos of warring factions and private ambitions, as it has in South Vietnam, unless it is accompanied by a deep sense of social responsibility by the leadership. That sense of responsibility can be developed in no other way than by education. Time after time, in our discussions of world affairs, we were drawn back to the issue of freedom—in religion, in race, in politics, in personal life.
Freedom
and
17
Education
THE
MEANING
OF
EDUCATION
Education in this true sense consists in making people sensitive to the conditions of their own existence and to the situation of man in the world. The study of physics, for example, is the way in which one becomes aware of nature. Physics is a language which describes something which otherwise could not be understood by humanity at large. In this it is no different from the study of poetry or the theater. These are also ways in which one becomes sensitive to existence and to the situation of man but a different segment of man's experience is there identified. Yet the perversity of educators is such that they refuse to conduct education in ways which can heighten the sensitivity of youth to the true values in life. They destroy the beauty of physics and mathematics by turning them into "hard subjects" which screen out students who cannot make grades in them. They separate some of the loveliest things in the world—poems, novels, plays, works of music, and paintings—into something called departmental courses in the humanities which have to be taken like medicine in order to cure the disease of youthful ignorance. What is the reason for studying the arts and sciences? For the sheer joy of it. For the insight it brings into the secrets of nature. For the use and benefit of mankind. Here is a poem which I have lately come to enjoy, by William Stafford, who has said something about this in a quite indirect way. He was born and brought up in the Midwest, and learned his poetry by loving it, writing it, and teaching it. Last year he was granted the National Book Award for his book Traveling through the Dark. He describes himself as a teacher in a poem called "Lit Instructor": Day after day up there beating my wings with all of the softness truth requires I feel them shrug whenever I pause: they class my voice among tentative things, And they credit fact, force, battering. I dance my way toward the family of love,
18
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
embracing stray error as a long-lost boy and bringing him home with my fluttering. . . -1
What do you know when you have learned what Stafford has to say? You know something about truth, about students, about teaching, and about life. But what you know is no one's business but your own, and of course that does not matter very much, except that that is all that really matters. These are the things that educators do not seem to understand. They would not wish to give you credit for knowing what William Stafford has to tell. They would like to examine you on it, grade you for your answer, and have you say something about why Stafford uses the image of a bird fluttering its wings, or whether or not you think it was a robin or a sea-gull.
CONTRIBUTIONS
OF
VARIOUS
DISCIPLINES
What then are the other sources of things worth knowing which the educators have ready to give us? I have been doing an informal private survey of the sources of modern knowledge available to the American student to make him free and to make him enlightened. Let us turn first to the social scientists. I have before me a new account of a report on happiness by a group of behavioral scientists who have done what is referred to as a "pioneering study" on the average American in pursuit of happiness. The report has to do with lack of joy in America, and the report concludes that happiness depends on the positive satisfactions in life and not on the absence of negative experiences. "It is the lack of joy in Mudville" says the report, "rather than the presence of sorrow that makes the difference." Then the news becomes more specific: College-educated persons with income $ 7 , 0 0 0 or over a year are happier than persons with 8th grade education or less who make less than $3,000 a year. But when income is the same, the highly educated are less happy than the poorly educated.'William Stafford, "Lit Professor," Traveling through the Dark (New York: Harper & Row), p. 38. Copyright © 1958 by William Stafford. Reprinted with the permission of Harper & Row, Publishers, Incorporated. a Robert C. Toth, New York Times, July 16, 1963.
Freedom
and
Education
19
This should be a lesson to us all. These are the things which social scientists can tell us about life. I say to them they can keep it. Next let us turn to the psychologists and physiologists who have turned their efforts from us earth-bound creatures toward space travel and, under the influence of our national obsession to put a man on the moon before the Russians do, have been at work for government and industry on projects having to do with space capsules. That is where a major segment of our research is going. One group of psychologists working for a corporation holding defense contracts points out that when a man is inside a space capsule he can look at knobs, dials, and other things, but when he leaves the capsule his eyes "will have a tendency to roll without his knowledge. . . . The approach we will take to solve the eye-rolling problem," say the psychologists, "involves the stimulation of the human vestibular system by electric impulses. No one seems to have attempted this to date." Translated into English, this means that the psychologists will insert electrodes into the sides of the human head and, with the correct amount of current, will keep the eyeballs staring straight ahead. My own eyes roll wildly in ecstatic anticipation of being wired into stability by the knowledge of modern science. What then do the philosophers have to tell? We can expect more here, since the philosophers of the past have frequently given us the pronouncements on mankind and human destiny which have turned the course of history. Here is a statement from a recent issue of the Journal of Philosophy in an article entitled, "Ability." The article comments on a philosopher who is considering the statement, "I will move my finger if I try," and who then says, " 'Our entire criterion for saying what he wanted (or tried, or intended, or whatnot) to do, is what he in fact did; we do not infer the former from the latter on the basis of what we have in fact found, but we regard the former as something entailed by what we now find, namely, just his moving that finger.' " 3 T o those of you in this audience who are either interested in, or have problems about, moving your finger, I refer you to the contemporary philosophers. "Arnold S. Kaufman, "Ability," Journal of Philosophy, LX (September 12, 1963), 547, quoting Richard Taylor, "'I Can,'" Philosophical Review, LXIX (January, 1 9 6 0 ) , 86.
20
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
What about religion? What messages do we find here for our spiritual comfort? What are the trends? I draw another example from a public source, the Saturday Review, in which a new television-radio commercial has been announced, sponsored by the United Presbyterian church and produced by Stan Freberg, who does amusing advertisements for tomato-paste and other foods. A chorus of fifteen singers and an orchestra of thirty devote themselves to the following lyric "Doesn't it get a little lonely sometimes, out on that limb without Him?/ Why try and go it alone?/ The blessings you lose may be your own." 4 This religious message is to be broadcast along with the other commercials on a radio station in St. Louis from which it will spread to seventy-five other stations across the country. We already know what the technologists can do for us—briefly, they have arranged things so that we can blow ourselves off the planet after poisoning ourselves with insecticides, fallout, and smog.
CONTRIBUTIONS OF PROFESSIONAL
EDUCATION
Let us now turn to the educators for insight. In the argument over how to make the country strong and free through education, it is assumed that this consists of having everyone in the country study a foreign language for four years, plus four years of science and mathematics, American history, and English composition. Anyone who cannot manage to do well in all these subjects at the same time at once should be dropped from the educational system of the country as being unworthy of further attention, or else turned into a waiter, a cook, an auto mechanic, or some other as yet unautomated vocation. I have just completed reading a new book by James Conant entitled The Education of American Teachers, in which he reveals the problems of bookkeeping and credit-counting which obsess the educators these days.5 Mr. Conant produces the conclusion that the education of the American teacher should consist of a straight-forward, 4
Quoted by Robert Lewis Shayon, "TV and Radio: Transistorized Mission," Saturday Review, XLVI, N o . 34 (August 24, 1 9 6 3 ) , 36. ' J a m e s Bryant Conant, The Education of American Teachers ( N e w York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1963).
Freedom and Education
21
all-required curriculum composed of introductory, intermediate, and advanced courses in the regular academic areas. For elementary school teachers and for high school teachers who do not necessarily want to teach physics and mathematics or one of the country-strengthening subjects, there is a catch-all division in education called foreign languages, art, music and physical education. As far as the arts are concerned, that is it. No theater, no dance, no painting, poetry, sculpture, nothing. Just some educational exercises in art and music which thus become the educational equivalents of a foreign language and physical education. Mr. Conant further advises against graduate study of art and music on the grounds that graduate work in these fields is not sufficiently well developed to merit further study. In other words, it has not yet been made into an academic discipline. In a way, I suppose this is correct. Until now the educators have not found a way actually to prevent students from painting, sculpting, composing, acting and writing, except by refusing to give them academic credit for it. I cite the views of Mr. Conant, not because they are unusually wrong, but because they represent the general view of the educational establishment as to what should be studied, how it should be studied, and what education is for. Mr. Conant is a good example. He has had long years of experience in education, his views are typical, and his methods of research are typical methods now in use. That is, a staff is assembled of at least half a dozen persons, a large grant is provided, and visits to a variety of institutions are arranged in order to discover and record facts which have been in general circulation for some time but which have, until now, been ignored. CONTRIBUTION OF THE ARTS
One of these days I would enjoy enormously reading a book on education which simply started with the idea that the way to save and to strengthen the country is to have every one from kindergarten to the end of college study the creative arts, on the grounds that theater, dance, music, painting, sculpture, poetry, and philosophy are more important than anything else in learning to understand life, society,
22
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
and oneself. Therefore, these are the things which should be central to the curriculum. We would allow a little bit of science, mathematics, engineering, law, and other things. These could be added as electives if there were any time, since as far as understanding life is concerned, they are frills. If we really want to make the country strong we must make it free; if we really want to make the country strong and really want to compete with the Russians, we should educate a new generation of poets and artists, some of whom can also handle the sciences. That would scare the Russians to death and take their minds off the nuclear threat. In fact, when we look at the structure of a given society, to take two societies at random which are presently in the news, the United States and the Soviet Union, we find that the most powerful elements in these societies for shaping their future are not the technologists, the engineers, and the scientists, but the poets, the writers, and the artists. In the Soviet Union, the inner force toward freedom, which is now loosening up the Soviet conception of what a true Soviet society should be, is not to be found among the scientists and technologists. They are going along doing pretty much what they are told to do. The force there is to be found among the painters, poets, and writers who now speak to the people about individual truth, who speak of human imagination and the need for it to expand, the need to breathe the pure air which our intellectuals must breathe if we are to have freedom in world society. Pasternak is the man to worry about, or even Yevtushenko. Not Gagarin, or Titov or the other astronauts. If it is true that the moral force, the social dynamism and the clearest images of life are to be found among the artists and writers, we need to look at our own society, where the arts are not controlled by direct action of political parties, to see where the source of the power and change for freedom can be found. CONTRIBUTIONS OF
INDIVIDUALS
Who creates the image of ourselves which we then pursue? What scientists? What technologists? The answer is, few scientists, no technologists. The one who pointed out what we are doing in polluting the environment by insecticides was Rachel Carson, a writer who is
Freedom
and
Education
23
also a scientist. The one who showed us what we are doing to ourselves in the treatment of the Negro was James Baldwin. The ones who have shown us what our lives have become are Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, David Riesman, Erich Fromm, Ben Shahn, Jackson Pollock, and Paul Tillich. These are the men whose ideas are fresh and interesting and important and whose opinions cannot be manipulated by political attitudes. They develop the ideas which work within the society, at a level below consciousness as well as above it. Would it not be wise that we, in this protean, vital, powerful, extraordinary society should once more pay attention to those aspects of our lives which have to do with the decision as to what we shall become? Is it not time that we turn to the concern for ideas, ideals, possibilities, imaginings, truths, and destinies which lie within the humane pursuits of the arts and the imagination? For it is from the human imagination that all the fruits of life may grow, and our society will continue to be half-educated, half-trained, and half-hearted if we do nothing in our educational system to bring to our children the inspiration of the arts and inspiration of human action in the service of the public welfare. An example comes to mind in a recent incident in Rutherford, New Jersey, where a company of actors was denied the use of the local auditorium to produce Gide's "The Immoralist." The Rutherford Board of Education ruled against the acting company after hearing a Roman Catholic priest tell it that "recreation should be wholesome and uplifting, not depressing and unsavory." It voted after hearing one of its members say, "If the play's controversial, I'm against it," and after refusing to see the play in order to make a determination about its quality. Fortunately a Unitarian minister volunteered the facilities of his church in order that the community might see the play and experience such insight as Gide could provide to the citizens. Unless we have in our schools and colleges those lovers and critics of the creative arts who can make sure that such community decisions cannot be made, we are not going to have a viable culture. This blustering attitude to culture runs through the schools in Texas where we have many incidents of vigilante groups refusing to allow authors like J. D. Salinger or George Orwell on the bookshelves, and other instances where librarians have been so intimidated about the books
24
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
they may buy that many of the books in common distribution for the important reading which young people must do are not even purchased by the libraries.
THE ISSUES TO BE
FACED
Where then are the serious issues we must face if we are to keep this country free and give it the kind of moral and social energy which can convert its resources of freedom into full creative growth? We need to look at the facts, and we must consider the relation of those facts to the needs our educational system must fulfill. There is no doubt that our need for scientists, engineers and technological experts is very great. No major power can sustain either its economy or its place in world affairs or its freedom without a strong and growing technological force to man its industrial establishment. But we must do something more than urging ourselves into high school and college curricula which emphasize the sciences and technologies. Our latest figures indicate that there are at least a million youth between the ages of sixteen and twenty who are out of school, out of work, and potentially unemployable. Why? Because they have not been taught to do anything which makes them employable, and because their society has found no room for them except on the streets. The latest statistics from the military services indicate that one out of every four Americans called to service was rejected by failure to pass the mental tests, mainly because of illiteracy. One out of three fail to pass the minimum standards for peace-time military service. Where are these men to go? No jobs, no military service, no education. One way has been suggested—to turn the military services into a gigantic illiteracy program in which every one is accepted and every one is given the education he failed to receive as a civilian. The argument is plausible only because the one place we seem ready to put our money and our energy is into the military effort. But consider what this tells us about the structure of American society and its freedom. It tells us that our educational system has
Freedom and
Education
25
failed to live up to its democratic commitment to provide opportunity for all. It tells us that the sons and daughters of the rich and moderately well-to-do are getting the education. The rest are being neglected. It also tells us that we are willing to build on a massive scale the instruments and talents for war, but unwilling to put our hearts and our money into the efforts for peace and for a free democratic society.
FINANCIAL
SUPPORT
The estimates made by authorities as to the sum of money necessary to put our public schools in order range from eight billion to thirty billion in extra funds each year. The money to deal with these problems is in the country. It is simply being spent on other things, from cosmetics and cigarettes to funerals and missiles. Some of the extra money must come from the local communities. Some must come from the states. Some must come from the federal government. No one source can be sufficient; all sources must now be tapped. Otherwise the American technological society will never create a mind to match its body. The meaning of freedom in education has its financial clause. Free education of quality for every one, in kindergarten, in elementary school, in high school, and up to the point at which our youth become employable and at which each boy and girl has an opportunity to work at something for which he is needed—this must be our goal.
EDUCATION FOR WHAT?
But the money, the buildings and the equipment are merely the apparatus with which education has to work. They do not guarantee the kind of education a democracy must have. When we see the children of white well-to-do parents snarling and sneering at Negro children who come to their schools, when we know that those early integrationist Negro children who went to the Little Rock School had ink poured on their dresses, had personal affronts daily and hourly as they went to school, we know there is something wrong with the moral values which dominate the school community. When we see
26
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
the children of the rich, up all night at a debutante party, drunken and destructive, breaking 1,000 panes of glass, throwing furniture out the windows at nine o'clock in the morning, we can marvel at the decadence of such family life and the lack of instruction in common decency in our schools and colleges, both public and private. 6 We find also that the laws of justice do not apply to the rich. Imagine what would have happened if 120 young people who were being referred to bluntly as juvenile delinquents from the poorer areas of Long Island had broken up a house and sent the dining room furniture out to sea. I assure you that that particular group of young men would have been classified as juvenile delinquents and their leaders jailed. As for the group I am talking about—nothing so far has been done about them except to say, "Isn't it a pity that the orchestra stopped playing so soon." In our haste to search for academic talent and to give our rewards to those who can pass all the tests with the highest scores, we have neglected the real meaning of freedom and the real meaning of education. What point is there in testing for ability and aptitude children who have had no education which could prepare them to meet tests which are irrelevant to the discovery of their talents? If the search for talent is merely to discover talent already developed among the privileged in privileged schools, for white, middle- and upper-income families, it is bound to divide the society into an élite of the educated and a mass of semi-illiterates, when many of the latter are brimming with talent if it could be developed by wise and generous teaching. Instead of facing the central question of education for all, we have been diverted into the mechanics of education and have been seeking cheaper and faster ways of putting children through their academic paces. We have become fascinated by the possibilities of technological invention in speeding up the learning process, without thought for what is being learned and for what process. Teaching machines, record players, films, television classes, objective examinations graded mechanically, the use of computers in record-keeping, speeded-up ""A Fun Party," Newsweek, LXII (September 16, 1 9 6 3 ) , 31-32; "A Wanamaker Debut Begins—and Ends up in a Rampage," Life L V (September 20, 1 9 6 3 ) , 30-35.
Freedom and Education
27
schedules, all these are devices to hasten the coverage of subjects and curricula. EDUCATION
FOR
FREEDOM
But what is all the rush? Where are we going in such a hurry? What is education for? What knowledge is of most worth? Why do we wish to have students in school all year round? Has anyone thought through what they will do at the end of that period? This is where the serious issues in education and society exist, and it is to these issues that the country's educators must address themselves if there is to be vitality and strength in the American democracy. There is no doubt that children in the elementary schools and in the high schools have the ability to do more than they are usually asked to do, and that there are a great many structural faults in the system as it now works. The trouble is that major emphasis among educators is not on changing the system to one which distinguishes among individual children and gives to each the teaching he needs, but it is an emphasis on retaining the system and pushing the children through more material faster. Students must have time to learn. They need the experience of reading books of their own choosing; they need to attend concerts, to talk to their friends, to write stories, to write papers which have depth and are not merely obligatory tests; they need to enjoy the community life of school and college, to join political organizations, and to grow into their full intellectual maturity by having a chance to be by themselves without pressure of constant social and academic obligations. This is what being a student really means. It is a period in one's life in which one can look for meanings and for ideas which have no direct practical consequence, a time when one can think about the possibilities in life and can think and seek and find the personal guidance one needs, both from others and from oneself. During the end point in the World College program to which I have already referred, we had a visit to the campus by ten young Negroes who had just come from the jails of Birmingham, Georgia and Mississippi, from the streets of those cities where they had been beaten and
28
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
punished simply for demonstrating peaceably. They were members of the Student Non-violent Co-ordinating Committee who had been invited to Long Island near our campus by a generous-hearted family who felt that these young people needed a vacation from struggling for American freedom and invited them to come up for a visit; and we had the good fortune to have them visit with us. Their ages ranged from fifteen to twenty years. They were unpretentious. Some of them had dropped out of school intentionally, to work on the problem of American freedom, having found that inside the system of education it was impossible to work on such problems. They had been joined by white students from the North and the Midwest who went to the South under the impulse to fulfill a basic moral need in American society. The Northerners joined the Southern Negroes in their demonstrations, in voter registration, and acted as tutors to high school and college students who had been expelled by reason of their jail sentences. The facts about conditions in the Southern States were revealed before our eyes and before the eyes of those representatives of the world who were present in our College. The young Negroes were introduced to the World College students, and in simple ways spoke of the lack of their freedom in America, not in a complaining way, not in a dramatic way, but in about the same tone of voice that one would have asked of a friend, "Where have you been last week?" In this case the answer was, "I've been in jail. I've been beaten; I was put with 200 others in a room built for 25; I was taken out and beaten and put back in; I was released after two weeks; I was then jailed again." These were the stories they told. Such young people are exactly those who need the kind of education our country can give, and as they spoke to their fellow students from around the world, a deep sense of intimacy and community developed among them all, since many of them had been jail in their own countries. They had known violence and had come to America for their education because they believed that through education their countries could become free. The unity of the world was present in that room by the time the whole college rose to sing, "We Shall Overcome." What was being overcome there was not simply a private, local problem of a few states in the Southern part of this country. What was being overcome there
Freedom and
29
Education
was the set of destructive forces which are preventing the world from achieving its freedom. These problems we have within the American community relate directly to the problems of the whole world, and we can take pride in the fact that through such liberal instruments as the United Nations, we are working for the freedom of the world by our support of what it does. We can take pride in the fact that without President Roosevelt's enthusiasm and energy in helping to establish the United Nations with the support of the American government, we would not have had the United Nations in its present form. When we look at those forces which can be compelling in the creation of a new kind of world freedom, we are in fact looking at the very simple questions which come up in every classroom every day. We are concerning ourselves with the ways in which one can teach one's children and one's pupils how freedom can be achieved. Alexander Meiklejohn once said, "It is, I believe, the function of the teacher to stand before his pupils and before the community at large as the intellectual leader of his time . . . If the leadership is taken from him and given to others, then the very foundations of the scheme of instruction are shaken." 7 I believe this to be true—that each of us as teachers must stand before our pupils and before the community at large as persons who take responsibility for the freedom of our country and who teach our pupils what it means to be free. This means an infusion of moral values into the center of the school and college curriculum. It means dealing with the controversial political and social issues directly, with boldness, with an effort to change a society into something lively, creative, and interesting. I suggest that we return to the American tradition of democratic life, to Mark Twain and the image of Huckleberry Finn, the boy who had time for rafts and a Negro for a friend, to William James, the philosopher and teacher who kept his office door open in order to welcome all students and all ideas, to Emerson who went into the world to show how thoughts could be put into action, to Robert Frost who wanted to know why we build walls, and to Walt Whitman who said to all of us: 7
Alexander Meiklejohn, Freedom Co., 1923), pp. 155-156.
and the College
( N e w York: The Century
30
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
Listen! I will be honest with you, I do not offer the old smooth prizes, but offer rough new prizes These are the days that must happen to you. 8 6
Walt Whitman, "Song of the Open Road," Stanza 11, line 140, Representative
Selections,
with
Introduction,
Bibliography,
and Notes
ed.; New York: Hill and Wang, 1961), p. 104.
by F l o y d S t o v a l l
(rev.
The Safety of a Permanent
Alibi:
Another Look at the American College Student EDWARD D. EDDY, JR.* of "Freedom and Education" is nearly as broad and as sweeping as one can achieve. It would be so easy, so comfortable, and such a waste of time to confine a discussion of this topic to pleasant banalities and urbane trivialities. In an attempt to avoid such pitfalls, I shall turn to the one subject about which I have any pretensions of knowledge: the American college student. The following discussion includes the hopes, the dreams, the quarrels, and the values of a generation of young Americans who are the consequence of both freedom and education. This is not quite so ill-considered an approach as may at first seem. The college student is one of the best barometers of the times. He is an effective instrument for measuring pressure and thus helps predict forthcoming explosions and fizzles. In other words, much can be learned about the condition of freedom and the contribution of education by looking closely at the concerns of youth. T H E THEME
THE
COLLEGE STUDENT'S
BACKGROUND
Today's typical student was born in the closing years of World War II. He may have known some of the dislocation of the days of war, but the chances are that it was not sufficently severe to leave a lasting imprint. Rather than being a child of war, he is a child of the aftermath. And in this nation, the aftermath has been good. As a result, the great majority of students today have grown up in a time of unprecedented affluence. The tune they hummed through adolescence * President of Chatham College, Pittsburgh. 31
32
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
was a theme for their attitude: "Que sera, sera—whatever will be, will be." And why not? For them, there was convenience and a kind of comfortable culture in that which was. There was also change. Despite the stability of their growing suburbia, the children of the aftermath could not escape a rapid revolution in parts of their world. It was a revolution, however, which surprisingly did not directly involve them. Russia was first their friend, then their bitter enemy, and now increasingly their cautious ally. Man went into space; China slid away; and Africa came bouncing forward in a burst of nationalism. America's Telstar found a way to share with the rest of the world the fruits of democracy, possibly, but hopefully not including the Beverly Hillbillies. All seemed just too right with the world. Seven years ago, in the midst of the fifties, Jacob described the student in these words: A dominant characteristic . . . is that they are gloriously contented both in regard to their present day-to-day activity and their outlook for the future. Few of them are worried—about their health, their prospective careers, their family relations, the state of national or international society or the likelihood of their enjoying secure and happy lives. They are supremely confident that their destinies lie within their own control rather than in the grip of external circumstances. The great majority of students appear unabashedly self-centered. They aspire for material gratifications for themselves and their families. They intend to look out for themselves first and expect others to do likewise.1 This was the student of the apathetic, often pathetic, fifties. There was a sterile stillness, a cultural and intellectual doldrum which seemed to make a mockery of education. THE
GREAT
AWAKENING
And then, to our great delight, something strange and wonderful appeared to be happening. Youth began to stir. The past four years 1
Philip E. Jacob, Changing Values in College: An Exploratory Study of the Impact of College Teaching (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1957), p. 1.
Another
Look at the American
College Student
33
might well be called a period of intense rejuvenation, both in American education generally and in the values and attitudes of American youth. The causes of this rejuvenation have not been terribly subtle. First, for these young people, the serenity of suburbia was disturbed by the pending, awesome revolution in higher education—not so much a revolution in content or method but in accessibility. Going to college was no longer a "right" guaranteed by citizenship and annual, parental contributions to the alumni fund. Going to college increasingly became a privilege for those who had the right scores, the right savings account, and the nervous system of a well-fed alligator. Second, youth invaded Washington. Even those in the new administration who could not really be called "young" seemed to have both the dedication and the brashness of youth. The college student could not help but feel some identification with a commander-in-chief who had to have a special hair cut to make him look the part. But more important, this new president seemed to believe that youth could be useful—and he made the Peace Corps the most successful political instrument in the Cold War. No longer could the older generation "tut-tut" over the irresponsibility of youth, because youth was demonstrating a rare kind of understanding and courage by jumping smack into the life of an African tribe on the other side of the world. Here was a new facet to the practicality of American idealism which America had never before put to the test. In some quarters it would be acknowledged only begrudgingly. There is a third sign in that the recent rejuvenation has been marked also by fear. There was no question in the minds of American youth: they had no desire whatsoever to allow a bomb to call a halt to mankind. Their dedication to the United States as a nation in, of, and by itself was not that consuming, but the perpetuation of mankind seemed a great deal more important than the continued existence of a particular nation. This attitude was not a denial but a widening of the validity of the democratic idea. Then another factor emerged with sudden urgency. When a nation is affluent, when it can rest comfortably on its laurels, having saved the world twice for democracy in less than thirty years, it has time and inclination to be pontifical. It is not struggling for bread or for free-
34
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
dom. It tends to be loquacious, self-righteous, and sometimes tragically omniscient. In the years following World War II, the United States of America pontificated. It pointed with horror at Hungary; it shook its shaming finger at South Africa. And then suddenly it heard a small voice within itself begin to ask, "But what about us?" And, in the plight of the American Negro, the college student began to sense the hypocrisy of affluent pontificating. An international dimension may be requiring the assistance of youth through the Peace Corps, but now a domestic dimension needed humane amelioration, if not immediate solution. Nothing has quite shaken the American college student as has the struggle over civil rights. At the same time an elderly man and an ancient institution on another continent began to show a new spirit which triggered the imagination and the respect of the entire world. The Pope of Rome made it clear that the R o m a n Catholic Church was prepared for change. Many non-Catholic American youth who have been encouraged, in effect, to look upon all Catholics with grave suspicion found a new humanity in John the Twenty-third. For the first time, too, the American college student seemed willing to talk openly and honestly about a subject which previously had been treated with a kind of sneering curiosity. The subject was morality, and the concern was personal. But, for that matter, the entire world for the college student had become personal. The student had a potential, personal stake in South America or Africa through the Peace Corps, a personal stake in the lives and the health of his children through the intelligent use of nuclear power, and a personal stake in the world-wide accusation of hypocrisy because of the way his nation had been treating the Negro. In addition to all this, the college student was accused of not being ashamed of his standards of morality. Some were saying that he was just as dishonest and as promiscuous as his elders—and furthermore, he did not care. That last charge was too many. The college student began to say, "Nonsense." He began to be ashamed, not for himself alone but for all those who straddled so ingraciously the double standard in morality. And he began to worry about the world in Brazzaville and in Birmingham, and the danger of indiscriminate nuclear testing,
Another Look at the American College Student
35
and all the other problems which were haunting and sometimes changing his suburban microcosm. Now it would be pleasant to stop here. I wish that I could report in all honesty that this intelligent liberalism of the new generation, this lack of severe privatism, was continuing to spread and, indeed, to engulf. Unhappily I must voice my doubts. Several years ago I joined the glad chorus which hailed the new student. I made the bold prophecy that "a small but growing minority of today's students is foreshadowing a revolution which could sweep all higher education." Plainly and with some disappointment, it just has not happened that way. The minority has grown but it has not developed into the anticipated majority, nor has it succeeded in overcoming the unfortunately widespread tendency toward privatism among college students. T H E PARTIAL
DISENCHANTMENT
Before it is too late, before the gains of the past four years have been lost, we must assess realistically the state of freedom and of education as reflected by American youth. Obviously our earlier predictions have gone askew. Perhaps there was too much hope and not enough reality mixed into them. In any case, several signs indicate a possible change in the wind. It is admittedly difficult to comment upon these changes, lest part of the comment be misconstrued as political. My purpose here is only to observe the passing scene, not to render judgment on those who have been a part of it. "The new student" is now a partially disenchanted student. Perhaps the most obvious and possibly the most transitory sign is youth's decreasing sense of identification with the Kennedy administration. It is accompanied by an inability to identify with any substitute political group. In the case of Kennedy, obviously the student generation's hopes were too high; youth failed to temper the campaign oratory with sufficient realism. Because Senator Kennedy was young and looked younger, many young people felt that there was more hope in what he promised because maybe he could do it. The older men in the past who had promised as much had been given their chance and had been found wanting. Maybe youth would succeed this time.
36
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
The change in attitude began with the sudden, furious Cuban crisis. In all their years of affluent living, this generation of American young people had never been as close before to disaster. They will not soon forget the near hysteria into which their world in particular was thrown. Those of us who had seen and experienced a crisis in the past were amazed to discover the shock and the terror suddenly appearing in the eyes of youth. We had forgotten how good the world had been to them. A part of this decreasing sense of identification is a curious little twist in national affairs and national attitudes. For young people the simple outline of the hero was blurred by the surrounding presence of brothers, sisters, mothers, and cousins. The hero might have his own good reasons for wanting help from his family—but he couldn't expect youth in particular to be terribly enthusiastic about that help. And why would this be true? If one thinks about it, the reason becomes obvious: College students are never very enthusiastic about reliance on the family; indeed, this is their age for asserting independence. They could not understand, then, why the hero would not also break his ties. Somehow the President failed to make young peope as excited about the whole Kennedy family as they were about Senator Jack himself. In a way, it is almost amusing to see how personally the college student viewed his identification. The student was eager to join a cause but held back when the cause involved a clan. Now it would be false to leave the impression that the American college student has written off the President. The college student is not suddenly ready at this point to climb Birch trees, nor is he ready to raise high the flag of Arizona in the place of the standard of Massachusetts. It is only that the American college student has become politically cautious. Typical of this reaction is the intercollegiate conference planned for the spring of 1964 by the students of Occidental College in California. The intent is to bring students together from all over the country to dissect and discuss " T h e Kennedy Years." The conference aims to "examine Kennedy's effectiveness as President" in five areas: the politics of prosperity, American economy, civil rights, the New Europe, and the non-Western world. Not all college campuses, however, are such citadels of cautious assessment. Some have merely fallen back into the old, smooth grooves
Another
Look at the American
College Student
37
of indifference. One student government in a college which shall mercifully remain nameless has established a bus trip to the New York World's Fair as its major project for the year. Other groups of students are earnestly involved in discussing the meaninglessness of life—"La Dolce Vita" and "Lord of the Flies"—as if it were a fascinating octopus drawing in a youth screaming from helplessness, but secretly bored because nobody needs him. The lack of continuing identification with the Kennedy administration or with life itself is only the first and most transient cause of the reversal in rejuvenation of the college campus. A far more pervasive trend involves the present imbalance in education itself. As college degrees become even more desirable, as college admission becomes more difficult, as academic work becomes more central, youth is beginning to retreat behind excellence. Scholarly effort, especially as measured by grades and admission to good graduate schools, becomes the sole rationale for life. Education, then, lies in grave danger of becoming, in Leonard Woolf's phrase, "the safety of a permanent alibi." In this way the scholar detaches himself from the passing scene. Culture becomes amoral; and knowledge is an end in itself. The pleasant notion that there is "safety" in the "permanent alibi of scholarship" is a dangerous sign for democracy. The existence in this nation of a scholarly élite, whether it be among students, among teachers, or among such professional groups as the National Education Association or the American Association of University Professors, would present a far greater danger than any existing beyond our borders. Frankly, then, one must call attention to the distressing tendency among teachers to isolate themselves, to remain aloof, apart, away in another world which will endure while the transient world decays. For example, one fails to hear any clear, insistent voice from the NEA or the AAUP regarding civil rights. These are but two of the hundreds of professional organizations in education which might be expected to use their talents and their time to achieve a national solution. The academic world cannot separate itself from reality. Mind you, this is not a plea for controversy for the sake of controversy. That is idle nonsense in education. Instead, this is a plea against the tendency to hold to the first and fatal policy of deadening neutrality as educa-
38
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
tion's response to the great issues of our times. Educators as such have no corner on the market of understanding and widsom, but we do have youth in our corner while it is malleable. In that one fact alone lies an obligation to prepare students to deal intelligently with the great issues. It is too easy and too pat to assign such a task to the teachers of citizenship and the professors of the social sciences. This abdication is much like the old saw that only the teachers of English are responsible for grammar and punctuation. Even the mathematicians are members of the human family. THE
NEED
FOR
A SOCIAL
CONSCIENCE
What, then, does freedom require of every teacher in this day? In a single phrase, it requires a burning social conscience, a searing, sometimes torturous regard for the condition of man. It requires a rejection of the concept that life without a cause bigger than self is actually worth living. Thus education today needs to teach youth the depths of pity and compassion arising from a sense of justice, the power of hate arising from an understanding of love, and the importance of saving that hate for issues which truly matter. The American nation was not built on materialism. It became strong because of its sense of responsibility for the condition of others. The keystone in our heritage is that precious, surprisingly unique assumption that in this nation one is, in fact, his brother's keeper— and he will not really prosper as a free man until his brother is, in truth, better kept. This is the essence of our community life, whether it be in the town of two hundred or the city of two million. This is the essence of our national being—not to remain secure for the sake of security, but because we can better speak to the whole human potential. The encouragement of a vital social conscience remains one of the missing essentials among all the great gains in education in recent years. It is missing because the teaching profession finds it is comfortable to avoid confrontation and because school boards, trustees, and even the Congress of the United States do not really trust the teachers who shrink from their duty.
Another
Look at the American
College Student
39
The present situation is not yet desperate. It would be misleading to pretend that it was. But it would also be misleading to believe that student interest in issues of genuine consequence will continue unabated if the interest meets nothing but pleasant platitudes from the teaching profession. Of course the teacher must be protected in the voicing of his own convictions. This goes almost without saying. True freedom allows the expression of all points of view; its only condition is that no one point of view shall deny another such opportunity. Within such a context of education, hopefully, the future American citizen will not look upon foreign aid as a device for effective protection but as an opportunity to share with less fortunate members of the human family what this nation has found to be good and true. Properly inspired, the future citizen will resist the summertime temptation to wreck Southampton mansions in preference to joining those at work at home and abroad in depressed areas. The young people of America are ready for a domestic peace corps even though the thought of it is repugnant to many of their elders. The college student needs the culminating laboratory for the practice of idealism instilled by education. Freedom means nothing until it is an exercise of human volition. In addition to all that we are now doing, American youth need— and, I think, ask—one thing more: the safety of a permanent conscience. Tragically, I fear, without such a conscience, our students, our schools and colleges, and we ourselves will merely stand at dead center.
II Pupil
Needs
Do Children Have Too Much? PHILIP MECHANICK, M.D.* to examine whether our children have too much, we must first turn to the question as to whether or not our society has too much. We are indeed faced with the dilemma of an affluent society in which, for the first time in history, a broad section of the population is so endowed with material goods that it is no longer beset with fundamental problems of survival. In almost all other societies, except for a very small group of the wealthiest, basic physical needs such as clothing, food, shelter, and sanitation were so difficult to achieve that virtually all the time and energy of each member of the family were consumed in their fulfillment. Indeed, it has only been during the past several decades that such broad segments of American society have been able to go beyond the basic necessities of life and enjoy luxuries. In this connection, there has been frequent reference of late to the prophecy of Marx regarding the inverse relation between profit and wages, which has not been fulfilled in our society.1 On the contrary, almost all the groups in American society have enjoyed an increasingly high standard of living. I N AN A T T E M P T
THE
PROBLEM
The topic under discussion does not refer to the deprived groups in our community, but rather to the middle- and upper-income families whose children comprise a majority in our urban and suburban schools. In many of these families, a curious social development has occurred wherein there is a competition of ostentation going far be* Medical Director, Philadelphia Psychiatric Center. Karl Marx, "Wage-Labour and Capital," Selected Works, Vol. I, C. P. Dutt, (ed.), English Edition (New York: International Publishers, n.d.), p. 271. 43
1
44
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
yond "keeping up with the Joneses." The parents vie with each other in a display of material wealth, whether it be the number of gadgets and appliances in the house, the size and gaudiness of the automobile, the number of fur coats, ownership of boats and summer homes, or even frequency of cruises. In the upper economic strata, membership in the country club is not so much for social enjoyment as a means of display of wealth. It is inevitable that the children of these families see and are impressed by this display. After all, the decision on how much to do for the child and how much to give to the child is no longer limited by the resources of the family, which in less affluent times had provided an automatic limit as to what the child would receive. It is my opinion that, in the middle and upper socio-economic groups in our society, children do have too much. Too much attention is given to the parents' needs, rather than to what is appropriate for the child. Parents are too often concerned with gratifying their own wishes or securing the child's approval and affection without really instilling proper concepts of thrift, responsibility, and planning for the future. There is a tendency to instill in the child an expectation that everything is coming to him by virtue of his very existence, rather than as a result of his own work and effort. Indeed, the parent is often afraid of his own child and seeks the child's approval and affection, even to the point of buying off the child by gifts and other rewards. This fear of frustrating the child is really contrary to reasonable concepts of child development. A review of the psychological development of the child shows a progression of events from initial total dependency, wherein the child is overwhelmed by physical needs, to his tolerating increasing amounts of frustration and delays in satisfaction. Gradually, the child will learn to delay satisfaction of his hunger needs and will develop sphinctre control. The same principles eventually hold in the social sphere, and the angry child will learn that he may not translate his angry impulses into hitting, biting, or destroying. In other words, the child eventually comes to mediate and temper his impulses according to reality, learning to satisfy his needs in a socially acceptable manner. In order to do so, however, he must be given increasing amounts of frustration and discipline at a rate he can tolerate. Of course, throughout the period of child-raising, there is always the question of how
Do Children Have Too
45
Much?
much and how little to give—too much vs. too little. There is, of course, no magic formula, but it is important to establish early that what the child receives is commensurate with his real needs and with what he deserves, together with his assuming increased responsibilities. As the child proceeds with his development, he will inevitably develop his personality on the model, identifying with his parents. Here again, what the parent does in the conduct of his own life will be crucial in the development of the attitudes of the child. These problems become particularly acute in adolescence, when the demands of the child become greater and much more sophisticated. The same principles prevail for the teen-ager as for the younger child, and the criteria of real need and appropriateness at a given stage of development, together with what the child actually merits, should prevail. For example, the parents of the boy recently turned sixteen felt that his demand for a sports car, rather than simply a sedan, was a fully justifiable and reasonable request. THE
RESULTS
What is the outcome of over-indulgence in the child? The old-fashioned picture of the spoiled child is still a very accurate one. The child develops a basically incorrect concept of the world as one which will not only take care of him but one from which he has the right to make this demand. He does not have the self-discipline and drive to push through to achieve, to receive by dint of his own efforts and energy, but simply waits and petulantly demands to be indulged further. Thus, the youngster starts out in life, crippled emotionally and unprepared to live as an adult. It is also common today to see young married couples with children where the husband is virtually unable to earn a living, and the entire family is supported by one or both sets of grandparents. Recently, in an article in one of the medical magazines, the physicians were deploring the fact that their sons frequently would elect not to go into medicine because the training was much too long and arduous. The common attitude among these youngsters was that they wanted to achieve success and wealth by a much shorter, easier route than that.
46
FREEDOM
SUGGESTIONS
FOR
AND
EDUCATION
SOLUTION
What specific measures may be taken to insure that a child does not have too much? Following are a few practical suggestions: ( 1 ) Careful and thoughtful consideration should be given to whatever is given or denied to the child, whether it be presents or privileges. (2) There should be an appropriate and prompt response by parents to any lack of responsibility appropriate to the child's age. Loss and destruction of material goods, even though readily and easily replaceable, should be a matter for considerable concern by the family. ( 3 ) There should be encouragement, both by precept and example, of thrift, conservation of material goods, charity, and handling of money. ( 4 ) Formal responsibilities should be given to the child for which he may be appropriately rewarded. ( 5 ) The child should get what he realistically and appropriately needs at his stage of development, with due consideration to the surrounding community and social group but not being bound by their standards. Of course, the child needs human values far more than material objects, and it would be stating the obvious to say that love, security, and stability in the home are far more important than any of the material goods he might receive. THE
SCHOOL'S
ROLE
A final comment might be made about the role of the school. The teacher in school may often be put into the awkward position when the child who is excessively indulged continues to expect such treatment in the school situation. Even worse, the indulging parent is disinterested in learning that he is doing anything wrong and tends to see withholding of any privileges for his child as cruel and unfair. Obviously, the overindulging parent is afraid to have his own deficiencies and errors exposed and, incidentally, be deprived of his own gratification. The school can serve an important function, nonetheless, in character development by offering the child at least one situation where there is adequate discipline and a reasonable code of ethics. The
Do Children
Have
Too
Much?
47
teacher or counselor may, moreover, have some opportunity to convey tactfully to the parents what is happening to their child in terms of overindulgence and spoiling and may be able to reinforce constructive and positive teaching which the family is handling with reasonable adequacy.
Programs for
Children
A State Program
with Limited to Reduce
Experience: Dropouts
E R C E L L I. W A T S O N * THE CHILD with limited experience or background is no newcomer to the American educational scene; his plight has been recognized by educators over the years. The national and local attention being focused upon this problem of late, however, is a novel and long-awaited event. The rapid pyramiding of the numbers of these childern in the urban areas is a phenomenon which has demanded the attention and serious concern of leaders in education. In the fourteen great cities alone, over one and one-half million children f r o m slums and transitional areas bring very limited backgrounds to school classrooms. Benjamin Willis, superintendent of the Chicago school system, predicts that by 1970 one-half of the school population in these cities will be composed of children with limited backgrounds and experiences. 1 When one considers those children who are limited because of poverty, rural isolation, and cultural deprivation, in addition to those limited by segregation and substandard educational programs, one sees a problem of growing proportions facing this nation.
CHARACTERISTICS
OF
DROPOUTS
The culture of poverty, according to Allison Davis, more than any other factor is responsible for the limitations these children must bear.* Associate P r o f e s s o r of E d u c a t i o n , T e m p l e U n i v e r s i t y , P h i l a d e l p h i a . B e n j a m i n Willis in a talk b e f o r e the A m e r i c a n A s s o c i a t i o n of School A d m i n i s trators, A t l a n t i c City, N . J . , F e b r u r a y , 1960. 2 Allison Davis, Social Class Influences on Learning (Cambridge, Mass.: H a r v a r d University Press, 1955) 48 1
A State Program to Reduce
Dropouts
49
These are the youth who contribute a disproportionate share to our school dropout picture. These are the youth who usually end up unemployed and often unemployable and whom Conant describes as "social dynamite." 3 These are the youth who begin their formal schooling severely handicapped who experience a steady decline in their scores on intelligence and achievement tests as they move through the elementary grades. By the time they enter junior high school, they have encountered repeated failure, are two or three years below grade level, and are counting the days until they can join their friends in the growing numbers of "fugitives from failure." While attempting to identify the deficiencies and handicaps which these children bring to formal school entrance, Martin Deutsch, CoDirector of the Institute for Developmental Studies of the New York Medical College, discovered the following: (1) Language facility—The child with limited background is often unable either to understand or use the language of the school or the teacher to which he is suddenly exposed. ( 2 ) Perception, visual and auditory discrimination—These skills require much experience in looking at books and pictures, playing with puzzles and toys, and listening to a variety of sounds. These experiences are often lacking in the poverty-stricken home. ( 3 ) Attention and memory—Paying attention to adults, listening to long sentences and sustained conversation, and repeating stories read to them by adults are experiences these children meet for the first time in school. (Deutsch found that at age five or six the bulk of his pupil sample had an attention span of only 90 seconds.) ( 4 ) Concept formation and information regarding environment— The impoverished background of these children in terms of middleclass experiences is well documented. It is this lack that accounts for the poor conceptual development and only simple knowledge of the environment that leads to discouragement and failure. ( 5 ) Motor co-ordination and control—These children often lack the needed experiences with crayons, pencils, paint brushes, clay, and mechanical toys which lead to adequate motor co-ordination and control through repeated use. * James B. Conant, Slums and Suburbs pany, Inc., 1961), p. 2.
(New York: McGraw-Hill Book Com-
50
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
(6) Relationships to adults—Many of these children have found adults either (a) accepting, but often harsh, non-helpful, and inconsistent in their demands, or (b) rejecting, brutal, non-helpful, and overly demanding. A fear and distrust of adults in general and teachers in particular often results from these experiences. (7) Order in living—The home lives of these children are often disorganized, not time-oriented, and inconsistent in the demands made for behavior and responsibilities. (8) Self and group image—The devastating effects on the child of a poor self image and the poor image of social class or ethnic group have been documented superbly by Kenneth Clark and need no underscoring. 4 THE
PILOT
PROJECTS
The Department of Public Instruction collaborated with Cheyney State College, West Chester State College, Dunbar Elementary School in Philadelphia, and the Gotwals Elementary School in Norristown in setting up two early-childhood enrichment programs during the summer of 1962. Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania provided the requested consultants. The purpose of these preschool programs was to provide early childhood activities designed to nurture the child's physical, social, emotional, and mental development. Activities which would increase auditory, visual, and tactile perception and discrimination, concept development, and meaningful use of language were to be emphasized. Opportunity to manipulate and experiment with many media and to live in a rich learning environment not usually available to these children would be provided. Experiences not available within the classrooms would be provided through the use of field trips. The two reports that follow describe the two pilot projects. *
*
*
*
*
' Kenneth Clark, "Discrimination and The Disadvantaged," College Admissions 7: The Search for Talent (New York: College Entrance Examination Board, 1960), 12-18.
A State Program to Reduce
51
Dropouts
Dunbar Preschool Enrichment July 2-27, NANCY
B.
Program,
1962
FAIRFAX*
ALTHOUGH THIS experimental project took place well over a year ago, memories of it as a challenging but encouraging experience are still vivid and distinct. When I was asked to participate, my first thought was how wonderful it would be if we could go to the library, find a good course of study, and proceed from there. However, this was a situation in which we would have to adopt a good cook's approach rather than go to a cookbook and seek a recipe; we would have to create our own special recipe—add our own flavors and spices. Dunbar School was already actively participating in the Great Cities School Improvement Program5 dealing with children of limited background. This program had made us realize that experimenting is, to a great extent, part of our daily job as teachers. We were therefore eager to explore the possibility of counteracting the deprivation of children at the earliest possible age.
PURPOSE OF THE P R O J E C T
The purpose of the project was two-fold. First, enrichment—to provide a program of rich experiences and opportunities to stimulate in the child positive attitudes toward school and toward group living and to aid the child to grow in language concepts. Second, parental involvement—to work with the parents of the children for the development of a more positive attitude toward school and learning, as well as to awaken a desire on the part of these parents to provide greater cultural opportunities for their children. * Teacher, Dunbar School, Philadelphia. • See also Aleda Druding, "Stirrings in the Big Cities: Philadelphia," Journal LI (February, 1962), 48-51.
NEA
52
FREEDOM
THE PROBLEMS
OF
CHILDREN
AND
EDUCATION
INVOLVED
RECRUITMENT
In the Philadelphia project, we had the assistance of the school-community co-ordinator, Mrs. Eloise Holmes, in the recruitment of the children, as well as in many other phases of the program. She not only recruited thirty-eight children, but also saw to it that the children appeared for their psychological examinations. She went to homes, dressed children, and then brought them in. During the experiment, she went to one home each morning to awaken the family, because there was no clock in the home. Many obstacles were encountered, however, in obtaining sixteen children, and the number of possible recruits gradually diminished. First, the necessity for parental cooperation and attendance at the meetings prior to and during the program eliminated many. Second, although the age range of four years and six months to four years and eleven months and the need for a birth certificate were stipulated at the start, it was necessary as late as June 29 to obtain additional children to fill the required number. In their eagerness to take advantage of this opportunity, some parents gave incorrect ages, and many were unable to produce birth certificates. When these documents were finally received, two of the tested children proved to be overage and four underage. A third difficulty was the negligence of the parents in having the children vaccinated at an early age. As a last resort, we had to bring a doctor from the Board of Education to the school in order to get four of the children vaccinated. A fourth complication was presented by the neighborhood redevelopment, for several children who met all of the requirements moved away just as the program commenced. As a last resort, three of the youngsters under the age of four years and six months had to be included in the program. CHARACTERISTICS
OF
THE
GROUP
In many ways the background of these sixteen children in the Philadelphia experiment differed from that of the Norristown group.
A State Program
to Reduce
Dropouts
53
There were marked differences in the racial, economic, social, religious, educational, and experiential backgrounds. Our group in Philadelphia was not integrated. The residents of our community are Negroes who, for the most part, at the time of the experiment lived in substandard three-storey, absentee-owned multiple dwellings. In many blocks there were vacant, dilapidated buildings and unsanitary, empty lots. The school neighborhood included a lowrent housing project, but redevelopment currently underway is providing for a number of public and private housing units. The area could best be described as depressed and culturally impoverished. The children in this environment are generally deprived of the experiences that are prerequisite to maximum success in school. Many of the adults feel a sense of futility that causes them to exert little effort to improve their status. The size of the families in our group ranged from three children to ten, with an average of five. Only four of the thirty-two parents had graduated from high school. Four of the fathers were absent from the homes; of the other ten who were employed, all were laborers. Only one mother worked. There were no homeowners, and few frills or modern conveniences were found in the homes. Magazines or newspaper subscriptions and children's books were very limited. These families belonged to no social, civic, or recreational groups. Eleven stated they were affiliated with a church, but only six attended regularly. Ten of the children had no special play area. Eleven had never taken a vacation trip. Of the five who had, the trip had been taken while the child was two years of age or under. Likewise, trips to the zoo or seashore were taken at an early age. Few children were taken to such places as the park, a supermarket, or a restaurant. The Norristown and Philadelphia groups had one thing in common, however. The parents showed a general lack of knowledge or understanding of what a four-year-old was like, what he needed, and how he should be managed. Many of the children were allowed to stay up much later than was good for a four-year-old. The parents found it perplexing to describe the children's play. Few tensions or the causes of such problems were recognized. Only six parents stated that they noted any evidences of tensions in their children, whereas twelve made obvious comments that indicated problems. Only two reported
54
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
speech problems, though five had definite speech difficulties. Two parents suspected that their children had physical defects, but actually six had obvious defects that needed immediate correction. For the most part, it was difficult for the mother to name books, or titles and types of television programs enjoyed by the children. Several youngsters were reported to enjoy looking at encyclopedias, although they had no children's books. The results of this survey uncovered important areas for the parent education program, and also made it apparent that the children needed patient and understanding guidance. They needed many opportunities to explore and experiment, to observe and participate, and to listen and be listened to. They needed association with peers and to learn how to get along in a group. They needed some routine established and a balance of rest and activity. While basic needs were obvious, it could not be overlooked that these children also presented a wide variety of individual differences.
METHODS
OF O B T A I N I N G
INFORMATION
In order to obtain necessary data, the parents were interviewed by the teacher in the school. The interview was informal, dealing for the most part with the child. Information regarding the home background was secured by the school-community co-ordinator. While the parent was being interviewed, the child was given psychological examinations by Miss Elizabeth Minster, a psychologist from the Board of Education. Seventeen children were tested prior to the experiment in June. Of this number, thirteen were accepted and four eliminated because of age. During the week of August 13, the children who had participated without being tested were examined. Three of the four youngsters who were in the original group of seventeen but who were not included in the experiment were also retested. Forms L and M, Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale, were used for both examinations, supplemented by other measures of abilities. The I.Q. scores of the thirteen children tested in June ranged between 70 and 107, with a mean of 88. In August, the range was 86 to 125, with a mean I.Q. of 102, an average increase of 14 points. The three children who did not attend had an average gain of only 1 point.
A Stale Program
to Reduce
STAFF
Dropouts
AND
55
SETTING
In addition to Mrs. Holmes and Miss Minster, Miss Dorothy Hardy, senior kindergarten supervisor of the Board of Education, served as a staff member. She gave help and advice in selecting materials, setting up the room, and planning the program. She spent the entire first week and several days each of the following weeks with the class or with parents. She held parent meetings from 10:20 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. one day each week and conducted a very successful parent education program. Through discussions, films, and literature, she helped the parents understand what four-year-olds are like, what their special needs are, and what the home and school can do to further their growth and development. Also vital to the success of the program were the two parents who assisted the teacher. Neither of them had any special previous training. They were merely interested parents who wanted to co-operate with whatever school affairs were initiated, and they volunteered their services. After a short briefing from Miss Hardy regarding possible duties and activities, both of them were able to adapt to the role of helpers with amazing facility. In Philadelphia, we had a large room available for use, and we were able to equip this room with beautiful furniture, toys, games, and books. In addition to the funds from the State, we were able to use the materials and equipment from our own kindergarten in Dunbar School and to borrow some from the Jefferson School. The Ellwood and Day Schools sent us gifts of toys. We also had the good fortune to have a separate rest room available, in which the cots were set up in advance, and to have toileting facilities adjoining the main room.
THE
PROGRAM
OF
ACTIVITIES
The following schedule was evolved as most appropriate. It was flexible and was adjusted from time to time to meet the needs of the children.
56
F R E E D O M
DAILY
8:45 8:50 9:45 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:10 11:40 11:55 12:00
a.m. a.m. a.m. a.m. a.m. a.m. a.m. a.m. a.m. m.
AND
E D U C A T I O N
PROGRAM
Greeting the children Work time experience with materials Good morning time Preparation for snack time Rest time on cots Concept building Outdoor play with equipment Story time Evaluation and preparation for dismissal Dismissal
During the four weeks of the project, the children were given as many experiences as possible which would help give them a broad experiential background. We worked with the children in groups and individually, giving them help and guidance, praise and encouragement. Though the idea of concept development was inherent in the planning of the entire day, because of the nature of the experiment a separate period was programed in which experiences and devices were employed, such as short games, discussions, and visual aids. All of the senses were called into play to help clarify and build concepts, so as to foster language development and mental growth. Our trips included exploring the school and meeting some of the summer school personnel. We visited the construction area. We invited a policeman and several safety boys into our room. We went to the corner traffic light and had the assistance of the policeman and safety boys in crossing the street. We also visited the Board of Education Farm and the Children's Zoo. Because of the great interest in machines that transport, we went to the airport. A most important aspect of our trips was the simulation, as nearly as possible, of a family-like situation in taking these very young children out into crowds, for we had one adult to accompany every two or three children. In addition to the supervisor, the two parents, and the teacher, there were two graduate student-observers from West
A State Program to Reduce Dropouts
57
Chester State College to accompany us on trips. In this way, we were able to help the children observe more closely, to engage them in conversation, and to listen to them and answer any questions. We also found it helpful to send notes to the parents before and after the trips, explaining where we were going, telling what we planned to see, and so on. In these notes and in the parent discussion groups, we suggested that parents discuss the trips and question the children about their experiences. RESULTS
OBTAINED
Definite modifications in pupil reactions and growth were evidenced in all phases of the project. At first, many children would not reply to a warm "good morning" greeting, but by the end it was not difficult to get a "good morning," accompanied with a smile. "Muffin" learned that her name was Alice, and "Butch" discovered that his name was Melvin. In the beginning, it was almost impossible to elicit any form of conversation or to get the group to sing or show an interest in stories or books. Many of these experience-poor children were shy and inattentive and handicapped by lack of language ability. As the program developed, they began to talk about their daily experiences in school, to participate joyfully in singing, and to listen to stories. Not until the last week, and after we had exhausted every method imaginable, were we able to notice any prolonged interest in the beautiful books. This came after the zoo trip and started with the large picture books about zoo animals. During the work period, we were able to notice that gradually the "flitting" from one activity to another gave way to a more concentrated application to activities. Small group interests began to take the place of completely independent play. Not all of the children reached these advanced stages, nor were they consistent in their levels of use of all materials. Many of the children who, at the start, were unable to name objects began to name them, to describe some, and to make obvious comparisons. Others who started on a higher conceptual level than this were beginning to show marked improvement in language facility.
58
FREEDOM
IMPLICATIONS
AND
AND
EDUCATION
CONCLUSIONS
From our long list of recommendations, the following have been selected for mention, for these would apply to all programs for children of limited background. It was recommended that: ( 1 ) a program for children of limited background include careful and sequential preplanning, many rich and varied first-hand and concrete experiences, a balance of activities to provide for overall growth, many repetitions of experiences for reinforcement, provision for an abundance and variety of materials and equipment (perhaps the word "extra" should be added), an early recognition of differences in abilities and determination of pupil potentials, a sensitivity to the type of pacing that is best for each child, continuous and objective evaluation, and many opportunities for pupil success and recognition; ( 2 ) the numbers be limited and kept small; (3) the teachers be specially trained; (4) the services of a school community co-ordinator be available; and (5) an intensive and informative program of parent education and involvement be undertaken.
SUMMARY
During these short four weeks, sixteen children and their parents took part in a rich program that attempted to lessen their handicaps through personal attention, varied experiences and special guidance. We cannot say that we overcame all of their weaknesses, but this concentrated program did yield dividends. It developed for the most part, a group of happy youngsters who were eager to attend school, and a group of better informed parents. It helped discover defects at an early age and showed that some of these parents needed additional help with problems of management and child rearing. The seeds had been planted and nurtured well for four weeks. Children were all beginning to grow, but some were sturdier and some were less hardy than others. They all needed continuous care, but some needed more nourishment than others. This applied to the parents as well as the children. At present there are only seven of the original sixteen in the first
59
A State Program to Reduce Dropouts
grades at Dunbar. All but two of these are in our top first grade classes. It has been a pleasure to watch their progress since the experiment. Positive effects of the program are also seen in the parents' group. One of the parents is now president of our Home and School Association. One taught an after-school class in sewing last year. Many accompanied the kindergarten class on trips. Several took all of their children on the trips sponsored by the school this past summer. Some of the comments offered by the parents during their last discussion group, just before the project closed, are revealing: "He wants to come to school Saturday and Sunday." "All I hear about all the time is the trips he takes. I'll have to take the other children to the zoo." "She takes turns and shares with her sister now. When she gives me something she says, 'Now what do you say, Mother, what do you say?' " "She loves the pretty books down there." "He speaks better now." The most significant comment, however, is the following "She wants more attention from me now." After all, is not this what these children need? It is up to us to give them much individual and concentrated attention at school and to help the parents see their responsibility in providing the proper attention at home. Together we should be able to overcome and eventually eliminate the leading foes of school success.
Gotwals Preschool Enrichment July 2-27,
Program,
1962
MABEL VASHON PROCTOR • preschool enrichment program in Norristown was begun by using the list of children who were registered for the September kindergarten class. We communicated with the parents of these thirty-one children and made nineteen home visits to interview RECRUITING FOR THE
* Teacher, Preschool Enrichment Program, Norristown, Pa.
60
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
parents of the children who were eligible for our program. A rather comprehensive questionnaire was completed during the interview, which lasted from one to one and three-quarters hours. On opening day, nineteen four-and-one-half-year-old children entered our preschool program. Ours was a racially integrated g r o u p — thirteen Negro boys and girls, and five children who were not Negro. PURPOSE OF THE
PROGRAM
The purpose of our enrichment program is best stated by Charles Mitchell, a staff writer for the Detroit Great Cities School Improvement Program, who said: This t e r m — c u l t u r a l l y
deprived—what
does
it m e a n ? T o
phrasers, it m e a n s slum children f r o m a slum neighborhood,
hardand
educators have been accused of veiling both child and difficulty in the evasive euphemism
of "culturally
deprived"
and
"transitional
n e i g h b o r h o o d . " In fact, to translate the whole problem into slum child f r o m slum neighborhood is not valid. Slum children are not necessarily culturally deprived, and vice versa. T h e term is t o o cut and dried, and we c a n n o t be content t o use it as a label. Children and their families resist such labeling. T h a t is why we have accepted culturally deprived as a useful, relatively objective t e r m to
apply
t o the child w h o lack enough of the opportunities and advantages normally available t o most A m e r i c a n children, and is therefore unable to m a k e satisfactory progress in a typical school. 0
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
GROUP
However, none of the families with whom we worked fit into any of these categories. T h e fathers of our children all had good jobs, most of them doing skilled or unskilled labor with an average yearly income of around $ 4 , 0 0 0 . Only eleven of the mothers worked outside the home, and in most instances, on a part-time basis. Approximately 5 0 per cent were home owners, and the houses were neatly kept and well ' C h a r l e s Mitchell, "The Culturally Deprived—A Matter of Concern," Childhood Education, X X X V I I I (May, 1 9 6 2 ) . Reprinted by permission of the Association for Childhood Education International, 3 6 1 5 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C., 2 0 0 1 6 .
A State Program to Reduce Dropouts
61
furnished with all modern conveniences: television, air conditioning, custom upholstery, and stereo record players. Most of the families drove late-model cars. There was no illiteracy: one-third of the parents had finished high school; one father had had two years of college; and most of the others had completed from eighth to eleventh grades. Only one couple, who were foreign born, had failed to finish elementary school. And there were no broken homes. The average family consisted of either four or five children. With so many material things, though, there was no evidence of books or periodicals and few newspapers. PARENT
PARTICIPATION
We were pleasantly surprised at the amount of interest on the part of the parents. Many of the fathers took an active part in answering the questionnaire and in visiting nursery school. Two of the mothers gave a party at school for each of their children who had a birthday in July. On the final day of classes, eight of the parents requested that the program be continued for another month. All of them seemed anxious and concerned about following through on all of the things the children had learned during the summer. These parents, who are anxious to do what is best for their children, have no ideas what best is. What is normal behavior? What is to be expected at certain ages, when the children reach a new and different stage? When are they ready to pass from one phase to a new and strange one? Ignorance—the lack of knowledge, of being uninformed and unaware—is, in this instance, the leading foe of cultural acquisition. The manner in which parents handled their youngsters and the questions they asked pointed up glaring examples of just not knowing. There is evidence to support the claim that parent education is a sadly neglected field. Too many parents start early to nudge their little children, seeming to want them to hurry and grow up. Too often we hear, "You are a big boy . . . ," all because parents have no way of knowing what they should or should not be doing or when or why. Unfortunately, nowhere in the public school system, below the college
62
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
level, are courses offered to help prepare young adults for a good and satisfactory life as husbands, wives, and parents. Norristown is a small school district, with a total enrolment of 5,578; the six elementary schools account for 2,730 of the pupil population. Our school, Joseph K. Gotwals, has 460 children enroled for the current year in kindergarten through sixth grade. Because the school is small, we have been able to follow our "pilot program children" through kindergarten and into first grade. At the outset, an individual folder was made for each child, and we have regularly supplemented this information from time to time. We have also kept in close contact with the parents. As a result of many requests for books on child care and pointed questions about specific behavior of these and other children in the family, we helped form a parent education group last winter. At three evening discussion sessions, we had an attendance of twelve, eighteen, and twenty parents, respectively, which included three men.
STAFF
AND
PROGRAM
In contrast to Philadelphia's program, Norristown's staff, in addition to myself, consisted of my two high school teen-aged daughters who served on a voluntary basis. Our program was planned with little thought of preparing the child specifically for elementary school, but to serve the unique needs of young children. Such a program, says Leavitt: . . . is the best kind of preparation for all educational experiences to follow. Two to six-year-old children need to acquire muscular control, physiological stability, language skills, skills in social relationships and an impetus toward personal independence.7 Our program in Norristown, which was based on these beliefs, included the following daily schedule: Greetings and conversation upon arrival. Free play with clay, paints, blocks, toys, puzzles, beads, etc. (This allows time for teacher to talk with individuals.) 7
Jerome E. Leavitt, Nursery-Kindergarten Hill Book Company, Inc., 1958).
Education
(New York: McGraw-
A State Program to Reduce
63
Dropouts
Toilet and wash-up. Snack time. Rest period, with music for first ten minutes; then quiet music, play, poetry reading. Singing, including rhythms, games, and musical instruments. Story time, with books used for building concepts. Clean up and toilet. Dismissal.
finger
As a vital part of their education, little children should make many excursions into the community which is, after all, the scene of the child's present and future activity. Our trips included the Norristown Public Library, a splash party at the Community Center swimming pool, the Great Scot Supermarket, the fire station, and the Philadelphia Zoo.
R E S U L T S OF THE
PROJECT
There is truthfully no way of knowing at this time how successful our experiment was. Maybe a child who showed great improvement would have done so without nursery school participation. However, we like to feel that as a result of attending our classes, they may, one day, be outstanding pupils in their schools. We noted at the end of the four-week period, which is a very short time, an overall improvement in all areas. After the children had attended kindergarten for a year, their teacher made the following evaluation in comparing our children with ones not involved in the pilot program. She said that our children generally showed more maturity, were more conforming, were more advanced in the readiness program, and were better adjusted in routines than those without the experience. She recommended that all children participate in such a program prior to entering kindergarten. Fifteen months after our program was completed, one mother remarked how much she wished that her other children had had an opportunity to attend such a "training program," for she said, "John seems so sure of himself now." To inflate our egos further, our children scored rather well on the achievement tests given this spring. Eleven of our original eighteen (we lost seven who moved to another
64
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
school district or entered parochial school) were given a readiness test with eleven children not involved in the pilot program. Our children showed a higher level of readiness than the non-nursery school ones. Finally, we had attempted through this project to provide special instruction, guidance, and good teaching where it was needed, using every means to encourage each child to learn. The real results are difficult to ascertain, but the program holds much promise.
These two projects illustrate local efforts to meet the problem of education for children with meager backgrounds. In addition, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has launched a program at the state level. STATE
PROGRAM
TO R E D U C E
DROPOUTS
The Pennsylvania Department of Public Instruction has embarked on a unique and complex experiment to reduce dropouts in Pennsylvania. Unlike most programs being developed across the country, first priority is being given to a long-range effort that emphasizes prevention and focuses on the early childhood period. This immediate project has two basic objectives: (1) to develop a more effective educational program for children who are unsuccessful in school because of handicaps in their environment—the groups from which most of the dropouts come; and ( 2 ) to strengthen the role of parents in preparing their children for and sustaining them in school. The first objective will be reached by adding a pre-kindergarten year, or its equivalent, to the educational program and by designing an educational program for those two preschool years and the primary grades around the specific characteristics of the potential dropout. The second objective will be reached by developing an expanded role for the school social case worker. We shall attempt to find better ways of improving the public services available to families in need of assistance through a better co-ordinated methodology of operation than now used. This state program is sponsored by the newly-created Council for Human Services. This council, which is composed of the Secretaries of
A State Program to Reduce
Dropouts
65
Health, Welfare, Labor and Industry, and Commerce, the Attorney General, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, was organized by Governor Scranton. The Department of Public Instruction, the Department of Public Welfare, and the Department of Health are immediately responsible for conducting the dropout project. The Ford Foundation is contributing $470,000 for five years, a figure which will be matched by the state agencies and local participating districts. The first pilot project was established this fall in the Centennial Joint School District in lower Bucks County where Dr. Everett McDonald is the superintendent. The program will expand, beginning next fall, however, to eight carefully selected school districts across the state. Many districts will be contacted within the next two months by the curriculum area center coordinators or by county superintendents as part of the selection of these pilot schools. The department also plans to develop innovations at the junior and senior high school level for students who typically are not successful in school. CONCLUSION
It is through such small projects at the local level and through interest and activity on a state-wide basis that progress will be made toward a practical solution for problems of such import.
Education's Major Problem—The
School Dropouts
DANIEL SCHREIBER* SCHOOL DROPOUT, as President Kennedy pointed out in his press conference on August 1, is a "serious national problem." He began the conference with these words: The end of this summer of 1963 will be an especially critical time for 400,000 young Americans who, according to experience of earlier years, will not return to school when the summer is ended. Moreover, without a special effort to reverse this trend, another 700,000 students will return to school in September but will fail to complete the school year.1 This authoritatively indicated the dimensions of the immediate problem. The President emphasized the special problem these particular youngsters—who are largely unskilled, in a world where unskilled work is rapidly disappearing—pose to the labor market. Finally, he announced the distribution of $250,000 from the Presidential Emergency Fund to various school systems throughout the country to facilitate efforts by guidance counselors in the month of August to persuade as many as possible of these boys and girls to return to school. 2 He might as easily have emphasized the import of dropout for the delinquency problem. Most statistics indicate that delinquency rates run as much as ten times higher among dropouts than among in-school students. But let me point out immediately the dangers in highlighting 'Director, "Project: School Dropouts," National Education Association, Washington, D.C. 1 'Transcript of the President's News Conference on Foreign and Domestic Matters," New York Times, August 2, 1963, p. L 10. © 1963 by the New York Times Company. Reprinted by permission. 'Ibid. 66
Education's
Major Problem—The
School Dropouts
67
this relationship. Dropping out is not illegal, and the great majority of dropouts do not become delinquent. There is no justice whatever in implying a casual relationship, and a good many youngsters have already suffered as a consequence of the prejudice implied in this miscomprehension. Yet there is undeniably a very real and enormous threat, which Conant acutely labelled "social dynamite," in the existence of a constantly expanding army of unemployed and discontented. 3 But dropout, as a problem, is larger than the sum of its parts. It is no more simply a dimension of the delinquency or unemployment problems than it is simply a school problem. The following discussion attempts to suggest, in barest outline, the whole of the problem and then recounts a few of the approaches towards solution that have been undertaken.
T H E TOTAL
PROBLEM
RATE AND NUMBER
School dropout has never before been considered a problem per se. This involves somewhat of a paradox, since school holding power, measured in the percentage of entering high school students who continue on to graduate, has steadily and substantially increased over the past half century. In 1900, for example, not more than six or seven of every 100 ninth-grade pupils could be expected to graduate four years later. In 1930, the proportion of graduates had risen to onehalf; at present, it stands at two-thirds. 4 Thus, the problem is not that larger proportions of youngsters are dropping out; quite the contrary, there is a future haven, plotable on a graph, where the dropout problem will mathematically have solved itself. But while the proportion of dropouts slowly diminishes, the num' James B. Conant, Slums and Suburbs (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1961), p. 2; "Social Dynamite: Report of a Conference on Unemployed, Out of School Youth in Urban Areas" (National Committee for Children and Youth, Washington, D.C., May, 1961). 4 U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1957, 207; "Holding Power of U.S. Schools Rises," School Life, XLV (November-December, 1962), 35-
68
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
ber of dropouts expected during the present decade soars unprecedentedly. Altogether, some twenty-six million young people—the post World War II "baby boom" come of age—will pass through the schools and into the labor market between 1960 and 1970. It is estimated that seven and one-half million of these young people will be school dropouts, 5 and that two and one-half million of these will have had less than eight years of formal education. 9 Moreover, it is not simply the number of dropouts that causes the problem, since—to repeat the paradox—we have certainly confronted much higher dropout rates in the past. Until fairly recently, the dropout has been counted upon to fill a continuously large demand for unskilled labor. In other words, the essence of the dropout problem resides in neither the number nor the proportion of dropouts so much as it does in the fact that the world into which they drop, into which they seek entrance, has drastically changed. I am not an economist, but the most convincing argument in explanation of our crisis is the simple one that our economy just is not producing enough jobs. This argument has two roots: (1) the economy is moving at nowhere near its full production potential; and (2) automation continues to develop at an incredible pace, demolishing the low-skill jobs and creating only jobs requiring high levels of academic background, for "even in a growing economy, opportunities for the unskilled and untrained will be shrinking." 7
RELATION TO
UNEMPLOYMENT
A very visible consequence of all this is the fact that the national rate of unemployment has averaged at least 5.5 per cent for five consecu5
S e y m o u r L. W o l f b e i n , "Social and E c o n o m i c I m p l i c a t i o n s of O u r R a p i d l y C h a n g i n g P o p u l a t i o n , " Financing Education for Our Changing Population (Washington, D.C.: C o m m i t t e e on Educational Finance, National Education Association, 1 9 6 1 ) , p. 22. " U . S . D e p a r t m e n t of L a b o r , Manpower—Challenge of the 1960s, 1961, p . 16; U.S. D e p a r t m e n t of L a b o r , B u r e a u of L a b o r Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 1961 edition, p. 27. v U.S. D e p a r t m e n t of L a b o r , B u r e a u of U n e m p l o y m e n t Security, " N e w P r o g r a m s a n d Policies," Employment Security Review, X X I X (April, 1962), 25.
Educations
Major Problem—The
School Dropouts
69
8
tive years. Let me spell out a little farther these surface relationships between the unemployment and the dropout problems. (1) Workers with less than a high school education comprise 6 per cent of the country's technical and professional personnel, onefourth of the clerical or sales workers, and 38 per cent of managers and proprietors. 9 On the other hand, 76 per cent of the nation's farmers and farm workers never finished high school; 69 per cent of the service workers, and 80 per cent of the generally unskilled workers are "old" school dropouts.10 ( 2 ) But not all these people are employed. Of all the unemployed, over 80 per cent have less than high school graduation.11 ( 3 ) The rate of unemployment among all sixteen- to twenty-oneyear-old youth generally runs double that of the entire labor force. But among school dropouts in this age category, it is triple the national average.12 Conant has shown, in a slum neighborhood in one great city, that the figure rose as high as 70 per cent. 13 But, again, it should be emphasized that these unemployed are not unemployed because they are high school dropouts; they are unemployed because the kinds of jobs their training—or lack of it—fits them for are vanishing. A survey of private employment agencies recently reported by the Youth Development Project of Minneapolis found that two-thirds do not supply services to youngsters who have neither a high school diploma nor previous experience. One-third do not supply services to 8
U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, Hearings before the Sub-committee on Employment and Manpower, Nation's Manpower Revolution: Part I, Statement of Secretary of Labor, W. Willard Wirtz, 88th Congress, 1st Sess., 1963, p. 5. "U.S. Department of Labor, Manpower . . . op. cit., p. 17; see also U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Special Labor Force Reports, No. 1, February, 1960; Arnold Katz, "Educational Attainment of Workers, 1959," Monthly Labor Review, LXXXIII (February, I960), 119. 10 Ibid.; U.S. Department of Labor, Manpower . . . , op. cit., p. 17. u Ibid.; see also U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Manpower and Automation and Training, "A Profile of Unemployment," Manpower and Training, Manpower Research Bulletin, No. 2, March, 1963, p. 25 (table). 12 Ibid., p. 10; Wolfbein, op. cit. 18 Conant, op. cit., p. 34. "Social Dynamite," op. cit.
70
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
high school dropouts, even if they have had previous work experience. 1 4 INFLUENCE
OF
MOBILITY
It is seldom recalled, furthermore, that it is perhaps rural a r e a s — where, incidentally, dropout rates are as high as in the cities—and small towns and cities that are most drastically ravaged by the pace of technological development. Eighty-five per cent of the country's population growth during the last decade took place in urban areas. Very few agricultural states, for example, grew in population commensurately with the country as a whole. T h e United States Department of Agriculture reports that fewer than 8 per cent of the labor force is needed to produce a more than adequate food supply for the entire nation, and, consequently, that 9 0 per cent of the youth presently growing up on farms will eventually have to seek employment outside of agriculture in their own localities. 1 5 It is difficult to reproduce, meaningfully, the plight of the majority of these people—the displaced farm laborer or small-city factory worker—as they cross the threshold of the industrialized cities. In great part they are poor, with little education, with few, if any, marketable skills. Many—particularly the Southern rural Negro, the Appalachian Mountain white, the Spanish American (Puerto Rican and M e x i c a n ) — w h o have been abruptly dislocated from centuries-old agrarian styles of life are often dispossessed of all continuity and identity. Large numbers are eventually doomed to welfare rolls, and their children, in the core-city slum schools, are immediately earmarked as "potential dropouts." E F F E C T OF
POVERTY
One final aspect of the dropout problem: in a large perspective, it seems nothing compared to one other signal characteristic of the " "Youth Development Project Report" (Community Health and Welfare Council of Hennepin County, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn., October, 1 9 6 3 ) . 15 U.S. Congress, Senate, Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, Hearings before the Sub-committee on Employment and Manpower, Youth Employment Act: Statement of Secretary of Agriculture, Orville L. Freeman, 88th Congress, 1st Sess., 1963, p. 112.
Education s Major Problem—The
School Dropouts
71
plight of that segment of our population which is "in" our society, but only marginally "of" it. For example, Professor S. M. Miller of Syracuse University estimates that at least 70 per cent of the pupils who quit school come from families whose annual income is less than $5,000—a cut-off figure which would include some thirty million of our fellow citizens who live in what must be considered conditions of economic poverty.16 Similarly, wherever dropout studies are made on a racial basis, it is found that dropout rates among minority youngsters —Negro, Puerto Rican, and others—run considerably and significantly higher. These, then, are just a few of the forces and influences whose convergence has accelerated the dropout problem. It is plain that the problem is anything but unidimensional; it is plain that it cannot be reduced to solution by a single key. What is of concern is the sizable proportion of young Americans whom the flow of history is increasingly separating from the main continuity of American experience. These forces are factors in the unemployment problem, as they are factors in the delinquency problem. But the r e d challenge is larger: it is no less than a wholesale dedication of the resources of the community to reintegrating its lost elements. THE
STUDENTS
But who are these young people? How do they appear within the school before leaving it? CHARACTERISTICS OF DROPOUTS
A recent statewide study of Maryland 17 found that 46 per cent of the dropouts quit school at age sixteen, when the term of legal compulsion expires. Altogether, some 60 per cent quit during or before their sixteenth year. One-quarter were in grade ten at the time they quit, 16 S. M. Miller, et al„ "The School Dropout Problem: Syracuse, 1963" ( Y o u t h D e v e l o p m e n t Center, Syracuse University, 1 9 6 3 ) . 17 "Our Dropouts" (Maryland State Department of Education, Baltimore, Maryland, June, 1 9 6 3 ) ; see also Daniel Schreiber, "The Dropout and the Delinquent: Promising Practices Gleaned from a Year of Study," Phi Delta Kappan, X L I V (February, 1 9 6 3 ) , 217.
72
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
though another 4 0 per cent had never gone beyond the junior high school. All of this indicates over-age as a general mark of the dropout —over-age which results from early failure. Indeed, in the Maryland study, more than half had been retained at least once; 10 per cent were reading below the third-grade level, and 45 per cent were reading at a sixth-grade level or lower. Seventy per cent had never participated in any school activities, athletic or otherwise. But 60 per cent did register I.Q. scores above 90, and in a study done in St. Paul, Minnesota, it was found that 80 per cent of the boy dropouts and 87 per cent of the girls had I.Q.'s above 90. In other words, all of these young people possess at least the minimum of ability necessary to graduate successfully from high school. And only about one-fifth of these students had been considered serious disciplinary problems at some point during their school careers.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THEIR
PARENTS
Additional statistics shed particularly relevant light on the matter of the home and environmental background of these youngsters. It was found in Maryland that 78 per cent of the mothers and 80 per cent of the fathers of the dropouts had never completed high school themselves. Twenty-five per cent of the mothers and 30 per cent of the fathers had never gone beyond the sixth grade. Moreover, 52 per cent of these parents were either unemployed or employed in unskilled jobs. The implications of these figures is enormous. A study in rural Louisiana 1 8 and the other in New York state, 1 0 reported that only 60 per cent of the parents of dropouts felt a person would be handicapped without a high school education, and almost two out of every five felt only a moderate advantage to continue. On the other hand, 92 per cent of the parents of in-school students judged that a youngster without at least a high school diploma would be seriously handicapped. 13
Alvin L. B e r t r a n d and M a r i o n B. S m i t h , Environmental Factors and School Attendance, Bulletin N o . 533 ( B a t o n R o u g e , L o u i s i a n a : L o u i s i a n a State University, A g r i c u l t u r a l E x p e r i m e n t S t a t i o n , M a y , 1 9 6 0 ) , 22-23. " J a m e s M o o r e , " R e d u c i n g the School D r o p o u t R a t e " ( N e w Y o r k State E d u cation D e p a r t m e n t , B u r e a u of G u i d a n c e , A l b a n y , N . Y . , 1 9 6 3 ) .
Educations
Major Problem—The
School Dropouts
73
When viewed in this perspective, dropout does not have the appearance any longer of an immediate problem or of one that is immediately soluble. As has been shown, the roots of the dropout problem often lie in the child's early school experiences and, even beyond these, in the deprivations of the social and economic circumstances into which he is born. PROGRAMS U N D E R
WAY
The most exciting programs that have been designed to attack the dropout problem are those which strike at its roots—special programs in kindergarten or preschool education. The purpose of beginning such programs early in the child's career is to rectify or compensate for inadequacies in his background and to facilitate his acquisition of the ordinary academic tools—in other words, to prevent failure. But this is a long process, and there does remain, nonetheless, an immediate problem. Following are just a few of the measures that have been undertaken to alleviate the present situation in some cities. THE HIGHER HORIZONS PROGRAM
The prototype for programs that deal with underachievement resulting primarily from socio-economic and cultural deprivation is New York City's "Higher Horizons Program." 20 This program began in 1958 as a demonstration guidance project, "Project 43," in Manhattanville Junior High School in a slum neighborhood of Harlem. Its main premise is very simply stated: that regardless of what I.Q. scores and past records seemed to indicate, large amounts of human talents— human lives, for that matter—were daily going to waste and being destroyed. 21 As of today, the original small project has expanded to include some seventy-five New York City schools whose collective 20
Daniel Schreiber, "A School's Work with Urban Disadvantaged Pupils," College Admissions 7: The Search for Talent ( N e w York, N . Y . : College Entrance Examination Board, 1 9 6 0 ) ; Daniel Schreiber, "The Higher Horizons Program," N e w York State School Boards Association, Research Bulletin, Vol. IV, N o . 3 (September, 1 9 6 2 ) . (Mimeographed.) --1 Martin Maver. "The G o o d Slum Schools," Harper's Magazine, C C X X (April, 1 9 6 1 ) , 48-5T.
74
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION'
population totals well over 50,000. The accuracy and justice of the original premise have been substantiated many times over. In the schools participating in the program, the Higher Horizons concepts and techniques are in operation from grade three through grade ten. At the beginning of each year, all the participating students are given intelligence, reading, and arithmetic tests. They are then exposed to a program of instruction that utilizes every proven available technique and which emphasizes remedial work in reading and arithmetic. The guidance staff of the participating schools has been enlarged so that each has at least one full-time counselor—the ideal is to achieve a student-counselor ratio of 350 to 1. The importance of providing guidance for every child and not just the troublesome child when he is in trouble cannot be overstated. The child must be continuingly assured of the school's positive commitment to him, of its faith in his potential. Second, an extensive program in cultural enrichment exposes these often incredibly impoverished students, many of whom have never been more than four blocks from their homes, to previously unimagined aspects of the world to which they belong and which belongs to them. There are trips to theatres, concerts, museums, libraries, laboratories, and so forth. Prominent individuals from various walks of life frequently are invited to the schools. And finally, great attention is given to involving the parents of Higher Horizons students and citizens from the community-at-large through interviews, newsletters, and workshops. It is clear that no special effort the schools undertake stands much chance of succeeding unless it is reinforced and encouraged in the student's total environment. All this may seem to cut a very broad and vague swath, especially when the size of the populations is considered. It may look as though any good effect would be lost in administrative entanglements. But let me pass on to you some of the accomplishments of the original guidance project students. In the various studies, they showed a median individual gain of thirteen I.Q. points in three years. Of eighty-one pupils who took tests at the beginning and end of the three-year period: "Sixty-six showed an increase"; 22 and this ratio of increase to decrease of five to one remained constant in all the studies that were done. Twenty-one students, or more than one-quarter of the group, 23
Schreiber, "The Higher Horizons Program," op. cit., p. 8.
Education's
Major Problem—The
School Dropouts
75
gained more than twenty-one points. In 1957, 26 per cent of the students had scored in the I.Q. category of 110 and above. In 1960, 58 per cent scored in this category. What is significant about these increases is that boys and girls from these backgrounds usually evidence a decrease in I.Q. as they grow older. 23 Among the guidance project students, about 50 per cent more finished high school than did before. More than twice as many completed academic courses. Of those who completed the high school academic course, 90 per cent went on to further education. 24 PROGRAMS IN
PHILADELPHIA
Philadelphia schools are certainly not unacquainted with the Higher Horizons principles. There is, first of all, the Ford Foundation Great Cities School Improvement which operates in three elementary schools and one junior high school. 25 With modifications adapted to the peculiarities of their neighborhoods and structures, the programs in each of these schools is more or less closely modeled on Higher Horizons. In addition, there is the Talent Preservation Program of the William Penn High School called, "Wings." This program, which was initiated entirely without outside assistance, has realized truly inspirational success. The aim of this type of special program is to rectify and compensate for inadequacies in the child's background. In a large number of cases, dropout is not determined alone by the school, for, while dropout only culminates a child's history of chronic failure, there is an important sense in which many of these children never, in effect, started school. Since the roots of their failure lie in the deprivations of their environment and of their preschool experiences, such children come to school without the tools, the cognitive background, and the self-security that five- and six-year-old middle-class children possess. Such children do know and learn, as anyone who stops to watch them play recognizes, but their learning styles are not those that the school generally pro23
Ibid. Ibid. 28 Schreiber, "The D r o p o u t and the Delinquent . . . op. cit., p. 220; A l e d a Druding, "Stirrings in the Big Cities: Philadelphia." NEA Journal, LI (February, 1 9 6 2 ) , 48-51.
21
76
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
motes. For such children, the experience they have in school when they are forced to sit and listen attentively for ten minutes while a teacher speaks is one of failure—failure from which many, if not most, never recover. There are reports that indicate whole classes to be seven months retarded at the end of the first grade. Is it any wonder that, by the time they reach the third grade, some of these children become unmanageable and without any idea as to why they are in school? During the summer of 1962 at the Paul Lawrence Dunbar School in Philadelphia, a special four-week program was conducted for preschool disadvantaged children. Thirteen children participated. On a battery of tests before the program went into operation, eight of the group were unable to name such pictures as "tree," "flag," "pitcher," and "leaf." However, when these children were retested at the end of the program, their average I.Q. score had increased fourteen points, to 102, which is a statistically significant increase at the 1 per cent level. These children thus have been given a fair running start for school work. 26 But, aside from the potential dropouts presently in our junior and senior high schools, it is plain that not all of the children exposed to "compenstaory" programs will be suited to the academic curriculum. There must be for these children alternatives as meaningful and valuable as the academic curriculum. So-called work-study or work-experience programs form one rapidly developing type of alternative. WORK-STUDY
PROGRAMS
For three years, the Carson Pirie Scott Company, which is a large department store in Chicago, has conducted a program called, "Double E E " (Education-Employment), which involves the employment of a group of dropouts in a range of jobs throughout the store. Each of the participating students, who were referred by the schools, works three days a week. The other two days they attend classes in a nearby office building, where they receive instruction in areas important to the de36
" D u n b a r Preschool Enrichment Project, S u m m e r , 1962" (School District of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Penna., 1 9 6 2 ) . ( M i m e o g r a p h e d . ) See also N a n c y B. F a i r f a x , " D u n b a r Preschool E n r i c h m e n t P r o g r a m , " pp. 51-59 this volume.
Education's
Major
Problem—The
School
Dropouts
77
velopment of their marketable skills—reading, speech, mathematics, and citizenship. Very few of the participants have been found unsuitable, and of those who have remained, all have received several raises. 27 In San Francisco just recently, a work-study program has been started under the joint sponsorship of the school system and the San Francisco Housing Authority. The purpose of the program is to provide potential dropouts with part-time jobs in order to supply them with pocket money and to give them some recognition of the further education required for permanent employment. The Housing Authority provides jobs for high school juniors and seniors residing in its developments. Students attend four hours of classes in the morning and work four hours in the afternoon at a variety of jobs—as office machine operators, typists, inventory clerks, and gardeners. They are supervised by "work-experience co-ordinators" who evaluate them for the school. They will receive five academic semester credits for successful completion of their experience, and their pay is $1.75 per hour. 28 In Milwaukee, the Jewish Vocational Service, under a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, conducts a sheltered workshop work-study program for some sixty predelinquent or delinquent fourteen- and fifteen-year-old boys in conjunction with the school system. The boys spend one-half of the day in school, following a regular or modified school program, and the other half at the rehabilitation institute. They receive high school credit for both studies and work. A Kansas City work-study program has just completed its second year of operation. This is a six-year controlled experiment involving a group of boys who, when the program began, were thirteen- and fourteen-year-olds in the eighth grade who had been identified as potential dropouts. During the past year, each boy followed a special program in school for one-half of each day and worked during the second half of the day on a special project. During his fifth year in 71
Fred W. Englund, "The Double EE Program," The American Child, XLIV (May, 1962), 12-15; see also Schreiber, 'The Dropout and the Delinquent . . . ," op. cit., p. 218. 28 Milton Reiterman, "Report" (San Francisco Unified School District, San Francisco, Calif.)
78
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
the program, he will work full time, and upon completion of that year, he will receive a special work certificate from the school system. A number of Kansas City employers have agreed to keep one job permanently open as a training position for each boy in the program. 29 In Green Bay, Wisconsin, there is a program which goes into operation in the seventh grade and extends through the senior high school. The purpose of the program is to alert students to the practicality of their present work in relation to their future, regardless of what it will be. Under this plan, special programs are presented as interruptions in the schedule, rather than as an announced series. The program seems casual but is actually carefully planned. In each instance, the schools first draw up specifications for the approach and the message needed, then go into the community to find the business leaders who meet the requirements and present the program. The objective, it should be noted, is not to steer the students into early occupational choices, but to help them see the importance of their present schooling. The senior high school phase of the plan is sponsored by the Downtown Kiwanis Club of Green Bay. It is conducted by the club's vocational guidance committee and aimed solely at the potential dropout. For years, the vocational guidance committee had held luncheons for top-level students to give them a chance to meet Kiwanians and to discuss career possibilities with them. Last year, however, the Kiwanians realized that, while the good student was presumably merely deciding upon a profession, the potential dropout was debating a decision on which depended his future economic security. The club's members asked guidance counselors to select potential dropouts and bring them to a luncheon at the city's leading hotel. A speaker from the Wisconsin State Employment Service was obtained to give the boys and girls the "dollars and cents" reasons for staying in school. Then a four-man panel composed of two personnel directors—one from the city's major utility and the other from a large paper company—an Army officer, and the principal speaker answered the stuGeorge W. Burchill, Work-Study Programs for Alienated Youth (Chicago: Science Research Associates, 1962); see also Schreiber, "The D r o p o u t and the Delinquent . . . ," op. cit., p. 219; and Bernard C. Greene, "School D r o p o u t s : Local Plans—Kansas City, Missouri," NEA Journal, LI (May, 1962), 56-57.
Education's
Major Problem—The
School Dropouts
79
dents' questions. This past year, the program was expanded and featured a special panel for girls. These are but a few of the programs that have been designed to combat the dropout problem. The variety of structure and approach is one more indication of the problem's multiple dimensions. Furthermore, no mention has been made of the large activity in this area conducted through the President's Committee on Juvenile Delinquency and Youth Crime, led by the Attorney General. This committee has made grants to a number of cities throughout the country to enable planning for a community-wide attack on youth problems. It is also presently supporting, at least partly, two active, large-scale programs, one in New York City and the other in Cleveland, Ohio.
CONCLUSION
The dropout problem is, then, only one aspect of a larger "youth problem" which, in turn, is an aspect of a larger manpower problem. Or, to put it another way, the dropout problem is an aspect of the problem of America's undeniable, if somewhat invisible, poor. Still again, it is an accentuation of the problem of racial minorities or the so-called "culturally disadvantaged." In any event, under whatever nomenclature it passes, dropout is increasingly a social illness inasmuch as it signifies an important point at which one large segment of our population is separated from the main flow and force of our historical culture. It has to be re-emphasized constantly that the illness is not necessarily in the poor or in the dropouts themselves. Rather, the illness is in the social body as a whole; therefore, effective treatment must not deal simply with the dropouts or the poor or the Negroes, as a clan apart for whom something can be done. It will deal with the entire social body, since the ultimate challenge is somehow to incorporate into society previously excluded segments of our population. The plea I am making is two-fold: First, dropouts are infinitely more than simply statistics—they are "people," a unique conglomerate of history, aspirations, fears, failures, and potentialities. As society becomes more complex, it becomes increasingly imperative that we not lose sight of the abiding human reality behind the figures. Second, and
80
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
as a consequence, the dropout problem, like m a n y others, is a l w a y s a community problem and a community responsibility. Indeed, whenever the dropout problem remains, it is difficult not to consider it a community fault.
Residential
Psychiatric
Treatment
at the Eastern Pennsylvania and
of Children
State School
Hospital
HUBERT NESTOR, M.D.* of the Eastern State School and Hospital serves as a landmark in the series of events outlining the history of the care of the mentally disturbed as it stretches back through the ages of changing cultures. This event, in itself, reflects the degree of civilization of our culture. We might also accept it as a communication of the attitude of our Pennsylvania society toward children with emotional disturbances. The construction of the hospital at this time does not indicate an increased need as much as it indicates a humane acknowledgment of an age-old human suffering which needs to be alleviated. The hospital has twenty-two buildings located upon a hilltop with an excellent view of surrounding countryside. The total cost of the institution to date is approximately nine million dollars. The buildings and furnishings are not elaborate but are fairly attractive and sturdy. Some people have already expressed their opinion, however, that the equipment is too fancy and the living conditions too elaborate. I assume this means that no one should be rewarded for such a weakness as an emotional disturbance, when so many of us maintain our questionable sanity and control our impulses with hardly any reward at all. T H E CONSTRUCTION
* Staff Child Psychiatrist, Eastern Pennsylvania State School and Hospital, Bensalem Township, Bucks County, Pa. 81
82
FREEDOM
THE
AND
EDUCATION
NEED
On March 20, 1960, construction began on the hospital, which is probably the largest of its kind for children with emotional problems in this section of the country. That there had not been, prior to this, an institution for residential treatment of emotionally disturbed children built specifically for that purpose communicates many things. Child psychiatry as a specific subspecialty was new. As a boarded subspeciality, child psychiatry was only one year old at the time of beginning of construction in 1960. One might assume that prior to this time a need had not existed, and yet, investigations of children awaiting residential placement revealed as long as a three-year average waiting time, and a great many of the children had waited as long as nine years. Another reason is that planned removal of children from their homes and family is a difficult task to support. Not until sufficient evidence could be produced justifying such an extreme method of treatment could any such expenditure of time and money be made toward this end. At this time, there are approximately 165 children in residence in Allentown State Hospital. When these converted adult wards were filled, new referrals merely waited. This number has been fairly constant for a long time. Eastern State School and Hospital will have approximately 350 beds. Opening of the hospital and getting it operating has been slow, because of the care that has been exercised on the part of the staff. There is some concern over the time it takes to get into full operation, but at the time of admission of a child, continuous care must then be available for this child. Such care involves a team consisting of child care workers, nurses, teachers, psychiatrists, and social workers. Thirty-three children are in residence at the present time.
THE
PROGRAM
Once a traditionally therapeutic program has been developed, maximum improvement in our patients in a shorter interval will be possi-
Residential Psychiatric Treatment of Children
83
ble, and less rearrangement or alteration of goals of the hospital will be necessary in the future. That it is easier to set up the therapeutic milieu at the start than to try to correct serious inadequacies later can be verified time and again. In converted institutions, traditions have been almost impossible to change, and attempts to convert a custodial institution to a treatment program have proved to be a herculean task, often attempted with little success. Once the image has been cast, internal and external pressures on the hospital and society tend to resist changing this image. The hospital will not blossom into full capacity in the immediate future, but admissions will accelerate as more personnel can be hired, supervised, and trained to take over other parts of the hospital or to become involved in training of others for such tasks. This training program is necessary, for the field is new and trained personnel are few indeed. In fact, one important function of the school and hospital will be to train child care workers, nurses, child psychiatrists, social workers, and teachers of special education. The latter group, of course, are now in great demand, because the public school system will assume the functions of special education which had previously been handled by the Department of Public Welfare. This will impose a great demand upon public school educators. When such an order is legislated en masse, much confusion could result. The method by which educator and psychiatrist will approach the problem of special education is yet to be seen. The hospital with its school will serve as a workshop to study the problems inherent in this joint venture and will be influential in discovering ways to keep communications from breaking down, as well as developing techniques of special education. The hospital school itself could serve as an important training ground for teachers of special education. The diagnostic categories of the children are quite varied and would be quite similar to the special education groups found in public schools. It is anticipated that 80 to 90 per cent of our children will take part in an academic program. Our educational psychologist will ascertain levels of ability in the various subject matter fields and will recommend specific groups for each child. The teaching staff will be influential in other areas involving extra-curricular activities—movies, Boy
84
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
Scouts, informal dances, and so forth. An example of this type of activity was a " F a i r , " held in the recreation building during August, and a Halloween Party to be held later in October. Trips to various places of interest in the surrounding community will also be considered as part of the educational program, but it is actually much more. It is an attempt to maintain an active relationship with the immediate community so that we do not become isolated. A recognition of this danger has resulted in the naming of the cottages after small towns located near the hospital in Bucks County. B y so labeling the cottages and acknowledging the towns outside, a hope has been communicated that the children will also be accepted on trips to these towns for recreation, education, or shopping, and be welcome in the public schools when a child is able to attend regular classes. The danger of isolating the hospital is not just an imaginary one, for a recapitulation of ancient and historical trends and attitudes are in evidence to those in the mental health field each working day.
THE
HOUSING
PLAN
Approximately half the children will be housed in hospital wards, which will contain from eleven to eighteen beds, and the other half will live in cottages of various sizes—for four, twelve, and eighteen. T h e cottage program is considered to be very important, and more cottages will be built at a later date. At that time, construction of a chapel and a gymnasium with an indoor swimming pool will also be completed. Homelike cottage living situations are important, because removing a child from his home and placing him into a crowded institution may result in a condition which, in itself, is pathological. Such effects of institutionalization were seen in England during World War II, when British children were removed from their homes to protect them from German bombs. They lived in large groups in institutional-like atmospheres, and many emotional disturbances developed in the children as a result. Similar studies of institutionalized groups of children done in this country reveal severe pathological evidence brought about by such living conditions. This danger of the effect of institutionalization has resulted in the philosophy that there will be maximum contact between children and
Residential
Psychiatric
Treatment
of Children
85
family, including vacations and home visits with the family. The family unit is respected, and every attempt is made to involve the entire family in the process of treatment. For the past year, thirty to forty families have been seen in family therapy. Although admission of children to the hospital did not begin until May 1, 1963, a program of family therapy was instituted in October, 1962. Those families containing a disturbed child were evaluated at Eastern Diagnostic and Evaluation Center. When the child was found to need residential treatment, the family was given therapy while the hospital was being completed. The families were interested, accepted help, and, in many cases, were seen in unheated rooms of the hospital—so great was their motivation for treatment. It is interesting to note that, of the families seen, not a child required emergency admission elsewhere and, for the most part, improvement of some type was apparent in all of the children. This program of family help continues today as part of intake procedures and as part of the treatment of the children after admission. Families are helped to see the effect of interpersonal friction and conflicts within the home and the importance of all family members to each other. Planning for return of the child to the family is begun at the time of admission.
M E T H O D OF
REFERRAL
Children will be referred to our hospital from eastern and central diagnostic centers. Eastern Diagnostic and Evaluation Center is in Philadelphia, in the Germantown area, and will undoubtedly refer most cases to this hospital. However, final decision about suitability of admission will be made by the hospital staff. Each case, when possible, will be studied carefully in an intake program. Residential treatment is not recommended without careful consideration, for it, in itself, violates human sensitivity and should be done only in cases of extreme necessity. Ideally, no child should be admitted who has not had some trial of outpatient or day treatment. Institutionalization is powerful medicine. It is hoped that the very presence of the hospital will produce some measure of security for clinics, schools, and private practitioners when decisions are made regarding outpatient treatment of severely ill chil-
86
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
dren. In the past, such a responsibility was considered too great, because facilities were unavailable should emergency admission become necessary, as is always a possibility in such treatment situations. Therefore, such cases were left alone and regarded as untreatable, due to inadequate facilities. As a result, clinics which trained child psychiatrists would not accept these children for treatment. Therefore, these psychiatrists may have been deprived of experience with this type of child. Because of the possibility of deterioration and need for emergency residential treatment, these children often did not receive treatment at all and were placed on waiting lists. If one out of five did deteriorate during outpatient therapy, that would leave four treatable in an outpatient setting. (Remember not one in thirty to forty deteriorated in our series.) Thus, by virtue of availability of a hospital bed, actually fewer children might require hospitalization and could instead receive outpatient treatment. A lack of treatment facilities shall not serve as an excuse or be a reason for hospitalization. However, for the present, we are maintaining an entrance evaluation service which we call our "Extended Intake Program" to serve this need. In the past it has been noted that children in infancy and preschool years proceed best in therapy involving the parents, mother, or mother-surrogate. Family therapy has been shown elsewhere to be effective with adults, and our experience with children certainly points out its usefulness in this area. Diagnosis, evaluation, and screening for admission all will be done at the diagnostic centers prior to referral for consideration by Eastern State School and Hospital. Referrals to the evaluation centers are made by school counselors, family physicians, and practicing psychiatrists. The criterion for admission is emotional disturbance requiring residential treatment. At the present time, the thirty-three children in our institution display practically every type of emotional disturbance. FACTORS FOR
CHANGE
Finally, the flexibility of the programs instituted by the hospital will indicate much about the aims and efficiency of those programs. Changes brought about by internal pressures, that is, by the needs of patients and families in their interaction with staff, will indicate
Residential
Psychiatric
Treatment of Children
87
progress and show the continuing therapeutic approach within the hospital. Changes in programs brought about by external pressures—by a society that may want to isolate the hospital like a foreign body, or by authorities who may increase pressures within the hospital by passage of legislation limiting the therapeutic approach of the hospital teams, or by lack of financial support—will indicate a recapitulation of those attitudes of the past that still persist into the present. Such old attitudes toward mental problems include the idea that these difficulties are indications of weaknesses, immorality, nonproductive waste, or sinfulness. There is always a possibility that support will be removed from the hospital for any of those hidden reasons, although the overt causes may appear to be disinterest or well-thought-out frugality and reasonableness. SUMMARY
The hospital will serve as a valuable link in the chain of available therapeutic facilities for mentally disturbed children. Probably more important than its own individual active function will be its supportive effect on community outpatient facilities available to education groups and to private practitioners. With such support, many cases of the more severely disturbed children can be treated on an outpatient basis, and thus the therapeutic accomplishments within the community itself will be greatly increased. The school and hospital will offer facilities for training of child care workers, child psychiatrists, social workers, and teachers of special education. It will serve as a functioning workshop or working model from which much can be learned about communication between educator, therapist, and child care worker. And last, by its function and its place in the community, it will communicate the degree of civilization of our culture.
Ill Curriculum
Trends
Basic Conflicts in Current Reading
Procedures
ALBERT J. HARRIS* generally recognized as the most important group of skills that children need to learn in school that continuing efforts to improve instructional procedures and eliminate deficiency in them are essential. In an educational area as important as this, conflicting views are to be expected. Despite the thousands of research studies, journal articles, pamphlets, monographs, and books that have been written about reading instruction in the past fifty years, there are still many important issues with regard to reading instruction on which we do not have conclusive evidence. One of the reasons why it is so difficult to get such evidence is that the majority of children can learn to read, and have learned to read in the past, in an amazing variety of ways. Certainly not all of these ways are equally good, nor do they fit all children equally well. But vigorous research in which definitive tests are made comparing one recommended procedure with another are rare, and most of the issues on which there are conflicts in recommendations today are issues upon which more and better research is needed. Five years ago, in 1958, I talked during Schoolmen's Week on "Controversial Issues in the Teaching of Reading." 1 Since then much has happened. The launching of the first Sputnik by Russia in that very year shocked Americans out of a complacent satisfaction with their educational system into searching examination of the entire educational system from bottom to top. R E A D I N G IS SO
* Director of Educational Clinic and Professor of Education, Queens College of the City University of New York. 1 Albert J. Harris, "Controversial Issues in the Teaching of Reading," in Quality and Quantity in American Education, Frederick C. Gruber, (ed.). Forty-sixth Annual Schoolmen's Week Proceedings (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1960), pp. 261-271. 91
92
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
Some of this searching has been done in a mature professional fashion. There are, for example, the several recent surveys that have been financed by the Carnegie Corporation. The first report from the Harvard-Carnegie Study entitled The Torchlighters2 has been followed this summer by a second report entitled The First R.3 These two reports are quite critical of many aspects of American reading instruction, including the preparation of teachers for the teaching of reading and the practices to be found in representative classrooms. Criticism of this sort, based upon an honest effort to discover the facts before arriving at conclusions, must be taken quite seriously by the educational profession. This does not mean that all will agree with the conclusions reached. Of the forty-five specific recommendations made at the end of the latter interesting and important report, there are several with which I am in at least partial disagreement. To comment on these recommendations point by point would not be in accordance with the topic of this paper, that of basic conflicts. How can one tell what is basic? An issue which is basic should be one which is part of the fundamentals of a subject, which is an essential part of the foundations on which the entire instructional edifice is built. Opinions can differ as to what issues are basic, but this discussion concentrates on four issues or problem areas: ( 1 ) the current concern with linguistics and the implications of modern linguistic thought for the teaching of reading; (2) the nature of the alphabet we use and the problems it creates in the teaching of reading; (3) a consideration of some of the recent developments in the psychology of learning; and (4) the question of individual differences and their implications for the ways in which we teach reading.
LINGUISTICS
AND
READING
During the past decade a number of prominent linguists, including Sofietti, Hall, Smith, and Fries, have followed the early lead of Bloom2
Mary C. Austin, Coleman Morrison, et al., The Torchlighters: Tomorrow's Teachers of Reading (Cambridge: Harvard Graduate School of Education, 1961). " Mary C. Austin and Coleman Morrison, The First R: The Harvard Report on Reading in Elementary Schools ( N e w York: The Macmillan Company, 1 9 6 3 ) .
Basic Conflict in Current Reading Procedures
93
field in telling educators that sound reading instructional practices must be based upon principles which are linguistically correct. The argument which several of them have utilized is about as follows: By the time children are ready to learn the beginnings of reading, they are already quite expert in understanding speech and communicating their ideas to others by speaking. Reading material is essentially oral language placed in a printed code, and the primary task in teaching reading is to teach children to decipher the code so that they can discover what words the author has used. Once this is known to them, their general language understandings will take over and they will be able to respond with appropriate meanings and other appropriate reactions. The linguists tend, therefore, to place almost exclusive emphasis upon word identification skills for the beginning reader and to consider attention to meaning at the beginning reading level to be of little or no importance. Most educators are quite reluctant to accept the idea that meaning can safely be neglected at any stage or level of reading instruction. We have not forgotten the thousands of "word callers," so common in our schools of forty and fifty years ago, who pronounced every word that the author had written, but experienced little success in understanding his ideas. We also believe that meaningfulness and interest are very important in the act of learning, and many of us are skeptical that almost exclusive attention to the identification of words during beginning reading instruction can produce either the interest or the motivation desirable for efficient learning. It would be a mistake to assume that the only concern of linguists for reading is with word identification. As linguists become able to translate their analysis of the structure of language and its thought patterns into terms that educators can understand, our approach in developing reading comprehension may be markedly effected. However, structural linguistics is a branch of scientific knowledge which is not yet readily accessible to the teacher of reading, and its future benefits for the reading teacher cannot clearly be foreseen at this time. THE
ALPHABET
Growing naturally out of the linguistics question is a renewed concern with the alphabet we use, and its implications for the way in
94
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
which we teach children to read. Near the beginning of the current century, about sixty years ago, there was a tremendous interest in the simplification of spelling and the elimination of inconsistencies in the relationship between the sounds of the English language and the symbols which represent the sounds in print. Strong support for this movement came from many quarters, including President Theodore Roosevelt. However, the movement lost momentum and has failed to make very much headway for most of the intervening years. At present, we seem to be witnessing somewhat of a revival of the movement for the adoption of an alphabet that would regularize spelling. Of more immediate interest is the Initial Teaching Alphabet, formerly called the Augmented Roman Alphabet, devised by Sir James Pitman. This differs from all previous phonetic alphabets in that it is devised primarily to assist in the learning of reading, rather than putting major emphasis on spelling. This alphabet, its origins, and its possibilities are clearly described in a little book entitled Tw Bee or Not to Be* by Dr. John Downing of the University of London, who is in charge of large-scale experimentation in Great Britain using this modified alphabet in the teaching of beginning reading. Thus far his results have been reported as being quite favorable. Experiments in the use of this medium in the United States are just getting under way. The schools involved in Downing's experiment 5 began the teaching of reading when the children were four and five years old. His results clearly show better scores for those using the new alphabet than for those using the old. However, the percentage of scores in the zero to four category, which might fairly be considered failure, were above 70 per cent in the control groups and approximately 40 per cent in the experimental group. While the evidence at this stage in the experiment clearly seems to indicate better learning with the new alphabet, it does not demonstrate the desirablity of starting reading this young for many children. 4
John A. Downing, Tw Bee or Not To Be: The N e w Augmented Roman Alphabet Explained and Illustrated (London: Cassell & Co., Ltd., 1962). B John A. Downing, "Experiments with an Augmented Alphabet for Beginning Readers in British Schools," in Frontiers of Education, Arthur E. Traxler (ed.). Report of the 27th Educational Conference sponsored by the Educational Records Bureau (Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education, 1962), pp. 99-156.
Basic Conflict in Current Reading Procedures
95
The inconsistencies of our traditional orthography have been commented upon by many writers and speakers in the past. A very thorough analysis of this problem was done many years ago by Ernest Horn for the Encyclopedia of Educational Research,6 A recent study by Clymer is concerned directly with phonic generalizations that are included in the primary-grade manuals of four sets of widely used basal readers. Many of the forty-five generalizations studied proved to have a disappointingly high number of exceptions. The generalization that "when there are two vowels side by side, the long sound of the first one is heard and the second is usually silent," held good in 309 words, but had 377 exceptions. The generalization that states: "when there are two vowels, one of which is final e, the first vowel is long and the e is silent," was true in 180 words but had 108 exceptions. The generalization that a vowel in the middle of a one-syllable word is short had 408 conforming words but 249 exceptions. 7 Inconsistencies like these have created difficulties for any and every system for teaching phonics to children that has yet been devised. Pitman's Initial Teaching Alphabet has a total of forty characters, including a number of new vowel symbols, and is completely regular in the sense that each symbol always represents the same sound. Furthermore, capital letters differ from small letters only in size, eliminating another complication. The use of this alphabet certainly seems to eliminate many of the ambiguities and inconsistencies that make beginning reading instruction a somewhat bewildering and frustrating experience for many children. The British are now considering giving up their peculiar monetary system in favor of a decimal system. Most of the countries in the world have already adopted a metric system for measuring distance; Great Britain and the United States are among the few that still use the antiquated system of miles, yards, feet, and inches. Our present inconsistent spelling is just as much of an anachronism in this day and age, and sooner or later we will of necessity adopt a phonetically regu6
Ernest Horn, "Spelling: Difficulties and Inconsistencies of English Spelling," Encyclopedia of Educational Research, Walter S. Monroe, (ed.). (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1941), pp. 1166-1167. 7 . Theodore Clymer, "The Utility of Phonic Generalizations in the Primary Grades," The Reading Teacher, XVI (January, 1963), 256.
96
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
lar alphabet. Whether it will be Pitman's alphabet or some other remains to be seen, but the Pitman alphabet deserves serious consideration. Until we see what the long-time effects are, and what the effects will be on spelling and writing, we cannot be sure about the total desirability of using this alphabet in beginning reading. But certainly this is one of the new developments that we must all watch with keen interest. PSYCHOLOGY
OF
LEARNING
The last five years have also seen very important developments in the field of the psychology of learning and thinking. One of these is the development of programed instruction, based upon the learning theories of Skinner. 8 The teaching machine and the programed textbook have been discussed so widely in educational circles that it hardly seems necessary to describe them here. However, their possibilities for the teaching of reading are just beginning to be explored. Programed instructional material began at the college level and has been working its way down. Since most programs rely upon printed directions to tell the learner what to do, they assume the ability to read and understand. With the possible exception of Moore's automated typewriter, 9 we have yet to see a successful program for teaching beginning reading. This does not mean that such programs will not eventually be constructed, but simply that the field is too new and the possibilities have not been fully explored. Levine has recently listed some of the possibilities which a successful reading program would bring with it. Her list includes the following: ( 1 ) Teaching procedures prepared by master teachers would be available to everyone, anywhere, and anytime. ( 2 ) The classroom teacher would not have to be actively involved in drill work and practice, which the learner could carry on by himself. 8
William S. Verplanck, "Burrhus F. Skinner," in Modern Learning Theory, Section 3 (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc.), pp. 267-316. * Helen Rowan, " T i s Time He Should Begin to Read," Carnegie Corporation of New York Quarterly, IX (1961), 1-3; Maya Pines, "How Three-Year-Olds Teach Themselves to Read—and Love It," Harper's Magazine, CCXXVI (May, 1963), 58-64.
Basic Conflict in Current Reading
Procedures
97
(3) Every student could proceed at his own pace. (4) Every student would find out, after each response, whether or not the response was correct. (5) The teaching program would be incapable of losing its temper toward the student.10 One of the very important practical conclusions from the many research studies in animal psychology conducted by Skinner and his followers is the close relationship between efficiency in learning and consistency of reinforcement. Whether the reinforcement consists of being given a bit of food or candy or simply being told that your response is right or wrong seems of far less importance than that such information be forthcoming to the learner immediately and consistently. 11 When classroom learning situations are considered in the light of the immediacy, consistency, and accuracy of reinforcement, we cannot help but come to the conclusion that a great deal of improvement is possible. In most group reading activities, only one child at a time produces a response to which the teacher can react, and the others either achieve some reinforcement because they have made similar responses or may pass large portions of the group session without either responding or experiencing any "feedback" from the teacher. In individualized reading, as it is usually carried on today, the situation with regard to reinforcement is probably even worse. Here the children read at their own pace, but only a very small proportion of the total reading done by any child is available to the teacher for checking and for possible reinforcement or correction. Under both group and individual classroom situations it is possible for many children to practice errors over and over again until they become fairly thoroughly learned, without the teacher being aware of this. Minor modifications of procedure can improve greatly the degree of participation by each individual child in group reading and the degree to which his responses become reinforced in both group and individualized reading. Discovering these techniques is a problem of major importance at present. As suitable programed instructional material in 10
Jane Levine, "Let's Debate Programmed Reading Instruction," The Teacher, X V I (March, 1963), 337. Verplanck, op. cit., p. 275.
11
Reading
98
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
the teaching of reading becomes available, individualized skills learning should become increasingly effective. Much interest has also been shown in recent years in the psychology of thinking and reasoning, with particular reference to its bearing on the learning situation in schools. Perhaps the most influential contribution has been Bruner's The Process of Education. In this little book, Bruner emphasized the importance of trying to make the underlying structure of subject matter understandable to children, and of providing a learning situation in which they can discover principles for themselves rather than simply memorize them. 1 2 This influential little book has provided a theoretical basis for many practices that have been advocated in the teaching of reading for years.
INDIVIDUAL
DIFFERENCES
The all-pervading influence of individual differences on what can and cannot be done in teaching remains, and there is as yet no final set of answers to the many specific questions that are posed by the wide range of individual variability. Perhaps the most crucial question in the area of individual differences is the group of problems related to reading readiness. For many years our concern was devoted largely to the child who entered the first grade seemingly unready to begin the study of reading. Reading readiness tests and reading readiness teaching procedures were developed. From the 1930's to the present, every series of basal readers has started with teaching materials for the development of readiness skills. Recently, fixed notions about readiness have been severely challenged. It has been shown possible to teach beginning reading successfully to many five-year-olds and four-year-olds, and even to some three-year-olds and two-year-olds. A recent article in a woman's magazine of wide circulation suggested that perhaps the age of two is too late; we should teach children to begin to read at the same time that " J e r o m e S. Bruner, The Process of Education Press, 1961), pp. 17-32.
(Cambridge: Harvard Universtiy
Basic
Conflict
in Current
Reading
Procedures
99
they are learning to talk. While this latter proposal seems to be without any recognizable foundation in either child development or research on reading, it indicates the wide range of opinion that exists in this area today. We are no longer as sure as we were ten years ago that a minimum mental age of six years is necessary, or even desirable, for success in the beginning stages of reading. Apparently whether one can or cannot teach a child to read depends upon the procedures followed as well as upon the child's abilities. Holmes 14 has suggested that there may be a linear relationship between a child's age and the size of the group in which he can successfully learn to read; the older the children, the larger the group in which successful learning is likely, and the younger the child, the smaller the group in which he can succeed. This interesting suggestion seems to bring some order into an area in which there were apparently contradictory results. 13
Part of the reading readiness question is the ferment in kindergartens throughout the country whether reading should or should not be taught at the kindergarten level. Here, as in the first grade, the danger against which we have to protect ourselves is the adoption of mass solutions. Unquestionably, some children are ready to read in the kindergarten and others are not. The same is true in the first grade. Pressure to start reading with all children at the same time in the same way is bound to create hardship for many children, whether this pressure is exerted at the kindergarten level or the first grade level. The earlier the age at which the pressure is exerted, the larger the percentage of children who are likely to be injured by it. We are now witnessing a wave of enthusiasm and interest in teaching reading to children as early as possible. We do not as yet have any evidence that such a precocious start has lasting beneficial influences. The major longitudinal study in this area, the one by Durkin, has reported so far that the children who knew how to read before they en" Glenn Doman, George L. Stevens, and Reginald C. Orem, "You Can Teach Your Baby to Read," Ladies Home Journal, LXXX (May, 1963), 62-63, 124126. 11 Jack A. Holmes, "When Should and Could Johnny Learn to Read?" in Challenge and Experiment in Reading, Allen J. Figurel, (ed.). International Reading Association Conference Proceedings, Vol. 7 (New York: Scholastic Magazines, 1962), pp. 237-241.
100
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
tered the first grade were still reading better than matched control children at the end of the second grade, but their lead had diminished. 15 How much of the early advantage, if any, will remain by the end of the sixth grade is still entirely unknown. This points up for us the very important fact that there is a vast difference between proving that something can be done and demonstrating that it should be done. We have a fairly substantial number of research studies, starting with the classical Washburne study 16 in the 1930's and coming down to the 1960's, indicating that children who experience a somewhat delayed start in reading tend to catch u p with those who start earlier, and sometimes the group with the later start ends up by surpassing the early start group. A fairly recent study of this kind was carried out by Bradley in Philadelphia. The experimental group which received a reading readiness program and a somewhat delayed start had come u p to the control group by the end of the second year and by the end of the third year they showed a slight but statistically unreliable advantage over the control group. 1 7 The advocates of an extremely early start in reading instruction will have to bring forth evidence that it really has lasting value to the child, not only in the achievement of reading skills but in personality development, health, and other significant aspects of growth, before we will be warranted in making major revisions in our policies about when to begin reading instruction. When such changes are made, due regard must still be given to the fact that children learn and develop at different rates of speed, and that there are very real and very important differences in children's ability to profit f r o m learning opportunities. This latter principle, of marked individual variations in ability to profit from learning opportunities, applies just as much to the educationally disadvantaged child as it does to those with normal cultural backgrounds. A great deal of attention is currently being given to ls
Delores Durkin, "Children Who Learn to Read at Home," Elementary School Journal, LXXII (October, 1961), 15-18. 11 Carleton Washburne, "Individualized Plan of Instruction in Winnetka," in Adjusting Reading Programs to Individuals, William S. Gray, (ed.). Supplementary Educational Monographs, No. 52 (Chicago: The University of Chicago, 1941), pp. 90-95. 17 Beatrice E. Bradley, "An Experimental Study of the Readiness Approach to Reading," Elementary School Journal, LVI (February, 1956), 262-267.
Basic Conflict in Current Reading Procedures
101
ways of improving the education of the culturally disadvantaged. Many different kinds of special programs are being tried out, with somewhat variable success. One of the most promising ideas is that of starting at the nursery school level, since many of these children already have a gross deficiency in language development by the time they reach the first grade. But these culturally disadvantaged children show just as wide a range of individual differences in learning ability as do children from other types of backgrounds, and it is dangerous to generalize about what is good for them in the same way that it is dangerous to generalize about what is good for any large group of children. They must be studied as individuals and the learning opportunities developed for them must fit them and their abilities rather than be mass solutions based upon group averages. This is even more essential with handicapped children than it is for those with normal learning opportunities. SUMMARY
Four areas have been selected as basic to reading instruction and involving conflicting points of view at the present time. The implications of modern developments in linguistics are just coming to the attention of teachers of reading. There are many divergences between the linguistic emphasis upon word identification and the commitment of many reading teachers to a balanced program in which interest and comprehension are given due attention. The Initial Teaching Alphabet reminds us that our controversies over the teaching of phonics are largely due to the fact that there is a very imperfect correspondence between symbol and sound with our present spelling system, and that perhaps the way to correct this is to adopt a more satisfactory alphabet. The newer developments in the psychology of learning, and particularly the applications of reinforcement in the forms of teaching machines and programed instructional procedures, have not yet made much of an impact upon reading instruction. However, it is fairly certain that the reading instruction of the future will incorporate more of this kind of practice material than it does at present. As other principles important for learning are developed by educational psychologists, their implications for the classroom need to be carefully
102
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
explored. In particular, there is as yet little clarification on the significance of Bruner's emphasis upon underlying structure for the teaching of reading. The problem of individual differences is so broad that only two areas were discussed, the area of reading readiness and the area of individual differences among the culturally disadvantaged. In both of these, much activity is apparent and there are many different kinds of proposals to consider. Certainly everyone who is vitally concerned with reading instruction knows that his field is in the forefront of educational movement. Everything that is new in the field of education affects our work, and everything that is new in our field affects the whole of education. It takes continuing effort, and will continue to take continuing effort, to keep abreast of current developments in the teaching of reading.
Linguistic
Approaches to
Reading—An
Evaluation ARTHUR W. HEILMAN* ONE OF the strengths of American education is that the majority of individuals who are professionally involved in this field do not feel that they have arrived at the ultimate answers to all educational problems. Educators at all levels are constantly seeking more effective methods and procedures. On the other hand, the opinion is sometimes advanced that one of the weaknesses of education, and of educators, is that valuable time and energy are expended tracking down and checking any alleged educational panacea. As a rule, there are a number of these from which to choose in the field of reading—panaceas such as a new phonics approach, teaching machines, scheduling or grouping procedures, electronic devices, or a series of linguistic-science readers. Since education is not a science and has questionable status as a profession, any one, regardless of training and experience, can pose as an expert on educational matters. Once an individual has voiced a criticism of our educational system, he is automatically qualified to offer a remedy. Educators are expected to treat every suggestion relating to methodology as if it were born of genius and reared with Divine guidance. The teaching of reading, which apparently is everybody's business, has received attention from various sources. It has been stated that present-day philosophy is in error, methodology is bad, teaching materials are inappropriate, and the loyalty of reading specialists is suspect. Salvation is offered by various groups and individuals, including * Director, University Reading Center, The Pennsylvania State University Park. 103
University,
104
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
The Council for Basic Education, The Foundation for Reading Improvement, and assorted publishers and writers of materials which stress a return to pure synthetic-analytical phonics. One group of advisers would help us solve our reading problems by teaching children of ages one to four years of age to read. This is to be accomplished, primarily, by means of a conditional-response learning technique utilizing talking typewriters, 1 flashcards with 3-inch high letters, 2 and the like. The latest offer of help in teaching reading comes from some linguists, and we turn now to the topic of linguistics and reading, our interest being in how linguistics and linguists may help in the very important job of teaching children to read. There are a number of points to keep in mind and questions to ask, both of ourselves and of those linguists who wish to help. The initial fact to keep in mind is that there are many different facets of linguistic science. Obviously, each of these does not have a high relationship to learning to read or to teaching children how to read. Linguistics is in no sense a method of teaching reading. There are several major areas in which individual linguists have made suggestions, and these might be listed under the headings: Teacher Training, Beginning Reading Materials, and Beginning Reading Instruction.
TEACHER
TRAINING
Following are several suggestions made by linguists as to how teacher training might be improved. First, some linguists feel that teachers in training should have a course or courses in phonetics. They also go to great lengths to differentiate between "phonics" and "phonetics." "Phonics" is that facet of reading instruction which deals with teaching children to sound out words; "phonetics" deals with learning all the variations of sounds made by any letter combinations, recognizing how these sounds are 1
Maya Pines, "How Three-year-olds T e a c h T h e m s e l v e s to Read—and Love It," Harper's Magazine, C C X X V I ( M a y , 1 9 6 3 ) , 58-64. * Glenn D o m a n , George L. Stevens, and Reginald C. Orem, "You Can Teach Your Baby to Read," Ladies Home Journal, L X X X ( M a y , 1 9 6 3 ) , 62-63, 124126.
Linguistic
Approaches
to Reading—An
Evaluation
105
made by the vocal mechanism, and learning the special visual symbol systems for the speech sound as developed by the linguists. There are numerous areas of teacher training which are neglected at present. Strengthening any of these would have some salutory effect on improving teaching. Perhaps the first such area of teacher training that might be bolstered is the teaching of phonics. If phonics instruction is poor at present, the suggestion that teachers need training in phonetics may seem reasonable. On the other hand, an equally reasonable solution might be to improve the teaching of phonic (phonetic) analysis in teacher training courses. The second facet in teacher training which some linguists feel needs bolstering deals with what might be called the teaching of "signal systems." Under this heading, the linguist includes "intonation patterns," "stops," "pitch," "juncture," "stress," and the like. These terms do not represent concepts which belong exclusively, or even primarily, to the linguists. Reading teachers have always been concerned with teaching children to read with expression and, thus, with meaning. They have also taught the purpose and function of punctuation. If these skills are taught poorly, then the linguists are justified in calling this to our attention. But they do not have a point simply because they introduce us to different terms for skills now being taught. The third suggestion of the linguists which relates to teacher training is that teachers should have a more extensive knowledge of the English language: how language develops, how it changes and evolves, and the weaknesses and advantages of various written language systems, such as picture writing, word writing, and alphabetical writing. It is very difficult to quarrel with this premise; in fact, more dimensions of language should be added, such as: (1) how children develop the ability to use language; (2) hypotheses as to why language was developed; and ( 3 ) how language is used to control human behavior and how individuals and institutions pervert language to achieve both limited and long term goals. B E G I N N I N G READING
MATERIALS
Another group of linguists is primarily interested in the materials used in teaching beginning reading. Although they are critical of in-
106
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
structional procedures and materials presently used in beginning reading, the reforms they advocate are not drastic, nor can they be said to be new. The linguists under discussion are not interested in developing a total program that spans even the elementary grades. Unlike certain individualized reading enthusiasts, these linguists do not wish to throw out basal readers; they simply want beginning reading taught from basal readers written by linguists. While no proposal for a complete developmental program has been advanced, there are several programs that concentrate on teaching beginning reading. The first of these is a proposal first made by Bloomfield in the April and May, 1942, issues of The Elementary English Review,3 Twenty years later (and also after the death of Dr. Bloomfield), a book titled, Lefs Read: A Linguistic Approach, was published, with Bloomfield listed as co-author along with Barnhart. 4 In 1963, Fries' book, Linguistics and Reading, appeared. 5 Both of these linguistic approaches, although they differ in minor details, are cut from the same cloth, start from the same premises, and advocate the same approach to beginning reading instruction. Let us look, for a moment, at what these linguists advocate. One of the major principles advanced by Bloomfield, Bloomfield and Barnhart, and Fries is that beginning reading instruction must follow a very rigid vocabulary control. This vocabulary control is not concerned with the number of new words introduced, but the control is maintained by introducing words which follow "regular spellings in English." In essence, regular spellings mean letter combinations which have consistent pronunciation in different words. We used to (and I guess we still do) call these "word families." A word family is a series of words, each of which ends with the same letters or with a given phonogram such as "and," "ick," "am," "ug," "ond," "ag," "est," "aw," "ay," "ail," "ot," "ish," "ink." The favorite example of all linguists (as well as Dr. Seuss) seems to be the regular spelling "at," as * Leonard Bloomfield, "Linguistics and Reading," The Elementary English Review, X I X (April, 1 9 4 2 ) , 125-130; ( M a y , 1 9 4 2 ) , 183-186. 4 Leonard Bloomfield and Clarence L. Barnhart, Let's Read: A Linguistic A pproach. Copyright © 1961 by Clarence L. Barnhart (Detroit, Mich.: W a y n e State University Press, 1 9 6 1 ) . "Charles C. Fries, Linguistics and Reading ( N e w Y o r k : Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1 9 6 3 ) .
Linguistic Approaches
to Reading—An
Evaluation
107
found in "bat," "cat," "fat," "gat," "hat," "mat," "pat," "rat," "sat," "vat." Once the child has learned to discriminate or recognize individual words in isolation, he can then read phrases and sentences such as these: "a bat a cat a rat a hat a mat At bat A fat cat A fat rat. . . . A fat cat ran at a fat rat." 6 or //A
CAT—A RAT / /
/ / PAT A CAT / /
/ / AT—CAT—RAT—PAT / / / / PAT A RAT / /
/ / PAT A F A T CAT / /
/ / PAT A FAT RAT / /
/ / CATS BAT AT RATS / / 7 Fries points out that the research of the past forty years has resulted in "no approaches to teaching reading." 8 He supports this position by demonstrating that the "whole word method," "sentence method," "phonetic method," and "meaning" approaches were all, at some time, advocated and practiced in the nineteenth century. He neglects to point out that the "word family" approach was also practiced and discarded during that same period. Thus, the linguist's major contribution in the sixties is new only in name, which is, "Teaching regular spellings of English words." BEGINNING READING INSTRUCTION
The approach of these linguists to beginning reading has been the basis for the charge that they neglect meaning and that they do not stress reading as a "meaning-making process." To have beginning reading instruction concentrate almost exclusively on word families and nonsense words does seem to place undue emphasis on certain limited mechanics of the reading act. Fries takes exception to this criticism of neglecting meaning. 8 Later, in Chapter Seven, where the author presents his views on how to teach reading, we find this statement: "Seeking an extraneous interest in a story as a story during the " Bloomfield and Barnhart, op. cit., p. 61. 7 Fries, op. cit., p. 203. 8
Ibid., p. 5 ff.
'Ibid., pp. 93-112.
108
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
earliest steps of the transfer stage is more likely to hinder than to help the efforts put forth by the pupil himself." 10 CHILDREN'S
LANGUAGE
An entirely different basis for the development of materials for reading instruction may emerge as a result of a study recently reported by Strickland. She states: This was a loosely structured descriptive study of children's language. Its major purpose was to discover, isolate, and describe the patterns of syntax found in the oral language of elementary school children and to ascertain whether they appeared in certain representative reading textbooks designed for these grade levels. 1 1
The study revealed that children's oral language contained a wider variety of sentence structures than did sample pages from selected basal readers. (Eight-page samples were used from each book examined, grades one to six.) The study did not deal with evaluating the significance of the differences found. Nevertheless, misinterpretation has given rise to the concept that printed materials for all of the elementary grades should parallel that used by children in their oral language. This, despite the author's caution: "An hypothesis which is as yet untested is . . . this: when children have mastered certain language patterns in their speaking, these patterns can begin to appear in the materials designed for teaching them to read." 12 We should listen to, and learn from, those linguists who study the problems of teaching reading. While we have every reason to respect linguistics as a science, we should also keep in mind that all of the suggestions advanced thus far by individual linguists are not rooted in scientific research. Some have been purely intuitive. Despite our high hopes for a breakthrough in reading instruction, 10
Ibid., p. 199. Ruth G. Strickland, The Language of Elementary School Children: Its Relationship to the Language of Reading Textbooks and the Quality of Reading of Selected Children (Bulletin of the School of Education, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 4; Bloomington, Indiana: Bureau of Educational Studies and Testing, School of Education, Indiana University, 1962), p. 5. u Ibid.
11
Linguistic Approaches
to Reading—An
Evaluation
109
we are today no closer to substantial help from the linguists than we were five or six years ago. This is the case, despite the many articles on linguistics in the professional literature on reading and the numerous professional books and teaching materials which have become available. There are a number of barriers which have, thus far, militated against certain of the linguists making a significant contribution to teaching reading. PROBLEMS
ENCOUNTERED
One of the barriers is that while linguists know a great deal about how a language develops and changes, they are not always equally well informed as to how children develop and how they master the language-form reading. If the linguist is to help materially, he must become conversant with sound principles of learning and how these apply specifically to learning to read. In addition, knowledge of child development must be utilized in the production of any program for teaching the complicated reading process. Another deterrent, mentioned earlier, is that linguists thus far have tended to concentrate on one facet of reading instruction and neglect, or ignore, other important areas which comprise the total reading process. Some examples are: stressing "regular spellings," emphasizing intonation, stress patterns, and junctures, and advocating that reading material parallel children's oral language usage. (The difficulty involved in the latter is illustrated by Strickland's data, which indicate that the oral language of children varied more within a grade than from grade to grade.) SUMMARY
The preceding analysis views the contributions made thus far by linguists to reading instruction as being of minor importance. There is no implication that linguistics cannot or will not be the source of significant contributions in the future.
English for the Slow-Learning
Adolescent
ELIZABETH L L O Y D W A R N E R * I N SENIOR high school, almost all of our slow learners are poor readers, and with few exceptions, they have reached senior high hating reading, hating teachers, hating school, and, most of all, hating English. Can we honestly blame them? Either apathetically indifferent or belligerently aggressive, most of them sit hopelessly in our classes, while behind them trails a humiliating record of failures, detentions, suspensions, and disgrace. Whatever outward form their behavior takes, inwardly they believe themselves to be failures. Completely lacking in real self-confidence, they have a deep and desperate need, not only for success at something, but for the recognition and appreciation that comes with that success. Teachers must recognize this need and search for ways to fulfill it.
STUDENT'S
SELF-EVALUATIONS
Jim, a twelfth-grader expressed this need succinctly, "When I write something, and you tell me you like it, it builds up my self-confidence to make me write more." Bill, an eleventh-grader, gives us a between-the-lines glimpse of his need, "My parents don't understand me very well. They think I just don't want to learn, that I want to be stupid all my life. But what they don't understand is, I just don't know what I am doing." Ed, a handsome sixteen-year-old in tenth grade, gives us still another picture: "I wish that I wasn't so stuppid and could get down to work. It's no fun getting Bad marks. Maybe if I got good marks I might find a girl friend. I don't think girls like stuppid boys as a boy * Teacher of English, Upper Dublin Senior High School, Fort Washington, Pa. 110
English for the Slow-Learning Adolescent
111
friend. And another thing is that, it is just a waste of time for my Mom getting up every morning at 6:00 a.m." Amusing? He meant it to be, but under the humor he was deadly serious. Even his peers call him stupid. He is not stupid, but how can he judge himself otherwise? Tenth-grade Ed is reading with difficulty at the fourth-grade level. S O M E TEACHING
TECHNIQUES
My purpose is not to diagnose the problems that have brought these students where they are; it is, instead, to present some of the teaching techniques that have worked for me with "slow-learning" adolescents. The quotation marks are used to point up the fact that my very first step in dealing with them is in my own mind. I refuse to accept, even in my own thinking, the idea that they cannot learn nor that they are not eager to do so, because I know that when one of these students finds something he really wants to learn and is helped to believe that he can learn it, what happens then is unbelievable. These students do have real difficulty in reading, and so, reasonably and matter-of-factly (if not entirely scientifically), it must be explained to them that many children are not ready to learn to read in first grade, but that this does not mean they cannot ever learn to be good readers. The trouble is that so many of them have come to think that they cannot and give up. They need to be released from the crippling burden of inadequacy and self-blame that they are carrying. WRITING
EVALUATIONS
Each student writes- an honest evaluation of himself, telling how he feels about reading. They must all understand that they are not writing for a grade or to be judged, but only to help me know each one of them better so that I can help them. Of course, there are always those who give conventional answers, but the majority of them are enlightenly honest. Here is a sampling of their papers: One of the main reasons I don't like to read is because I do not know how to read too good. I read when I half to but I don't enjoy it.
112
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
Many times I do some practice reading, but not too much. I feel if I can't read well enough what's the fun of making belive I can. If I get something I like I manage to read it and get a little idea of what I am reading. I can read a book on hot rods and custom magazines easier than school books. That is because I like car books better than school books. (This boy has since devoured every hotrod story in our library. It was a real thrill to introduce him to Henry Felsen and William Gault.) I don't like to read stories because I am a slow reader and it takes me too long to read a book. I don't get anything out of it. After I've been reading for awhile I start to get bored with it because I can't read fast enough. (I know just what he means. I tried to read La Peste by Camus, in French, last summer. I was not only bored; the strain of concentrating made my head ache.) PROMOTING READING FOR
FUN
Reading is strictly for fun in my classes. No book reports, no reading lists. The only requirements are that the book must come from the school library and be one the student enjoys. The students are asked to keep a record, by title and author, of the books they have read, but this is no hardship. They like to gloat. Tenth-grade Bob wrote in his first evaluation, "All the reading I have done so far has really surprized me because I have not read a book since last year until now. If you look at the books I have read, you can see that I like cars. I have read four books, and I am on my fifth one." Tenth-grade Larry, who "did not like to read" at the beginning of the year because he did not "read very fast, and got bored," wrote at his midyear evaluation, "My reading is coming up bery good. I have read four books now, and Enjoyed them. I can read faster and get more than I could at the beginning." At the end of the year he wrote, "I have become a much better reader. I find it easier to get interested in a book." This year Larry has been able to go into a higher section, where, except for his reading, he had belonged. Over and over, the same comments are repeated: "I read more than I ever did"; "I get a lot more out of what I read now than I used to." One girl is putting her newly-acquired skill to practical use. "I
English
for the Slow-Learning
Adolescent
113
read my grandmother a poem, and she usually says she don't like me to read to her, but this time she said I have improved and that I should recite a poem in church." Steve, a real problem, loved animals and hated books. He was introduced to Kjelgaard, and his written end-of-the-year comment is this, "I've always thought books were boring. Now I've found that once you find the book you like you can read, read, and read more of the author's works." Last year he read every one of the Kjelgaard books in our library. This year he completed Annixter's Swiftwater, and now he is reading Rawling's The Yearling. It has not made an angel of him, but he has become an interested and co-operative member of the class, very different, indeed, from the noisy troublemaker he was last year. READING IN CLASS
How do I know these students are telling me the truth? Every week they spend an entire period reading their library books silently in class. As I sit at my desk and watch their faces as they read, or quietly circulate and note what they are reading, their enjoyment is quite evident. There really is not much point in their trying to fool me, because they know they are not reading for me or for credit. They are just reading for fun, and they look as if they are having fun reading. But even more important, the results of their reading begin to blossom in their speech, their writing, and their actions. Gradually, almost imperceptibly at first, the signs appear until, by the end of the year, the improvement is easy to see. The results are what show; they are telling the truth. Here is an evaluation by a tenth grader who put his final report in the form of a letter to me: Dear Mrs. Warner, I have read two books this year, the first two books I ever read in my life. I enjoyed those two books. My spelling has improved greatly I think. Thank you, Mrs. Warner. WRITING
COMPOSITIONS
English teachers are told that out of reading should come writing, and most of my teaching is done through what students write, for this of-
114
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
fers the greatest opportunity to reach my students and to help them. I try to make each one feel that he is a unique individual with something important to say that no one else in the world could ever say. They write about their happiest experiences, their saddest experiences, about the teacher they hated most, the one they liked the most, someone they will never forget, someone they changed their mind about. I give them starters for their papers: "After I saw—," "Before I received—," "Since I've known—," and as they write, they grow in skill, in self-confidence, and in understanding of themselves and others. But something else is happening, too, that from an English teacher's point of view is even more exciting. When they are writing enthusiastically about something they are interested in, their grammar faults are at a minimum. While their spelling is poor, they do spell the words phonetically, the way they pronounce them. Once this was realized, reading their papers was much easier for me. We must not lose sight of the fact that these youngsters are thinking and that their ideas deserve hearing. When we find the button that releases them, they can put their thoughts on paper, and many of their thoughts are well worth reading. They have something to communicate, too. One period a week is spent writing in class. The first week the topic is assigned, and students prepare the rough draft. At the end of the period, I collect their papers and keep them, without reading them, until the same day the following week, when I return them unread. It is amazing how objective students can be and how constructively critical they are of their own work after the week's "cooling off." They revise the papers in class, using the dictionary to check their spelling, while I circulate and give individual help where needed. The last step is to copy the completed paper in ink. In correcting their papers, I cross out and carefully rewrite in red, without comment, every misspelled word, every misused verb, every faulty reference. (Incidentally, I was delighted to see a recent article entitled "In Praise of Praise," 1 since I have been doing this for a long time. It was good to find someone who agreed with me.) In the margin, I write my praise for vivid words, apt phrases, and humorous 1 Paul B. Diederich, "In Praise of Praise," NEA 58-59.
Journal,
LII (September, 1963),
English for the Slow-Learning
Adolescent
115
touches, and I comment at the end on the paper as a whole and praise what he had done well, always using the pupil's name as though I were speaking to him personally. When the corrected paper is returned to him, he must copy it correctly and bring both copies to me for checking. If he has made mistakes in copying, he must do it again. This not only encourages him to be careful, but it also seems to have an appreciable effect on his spelling, as his subsequent papers increasingly show. His returned papers are all accumulated in his personal folder in the filing cabinet in our room. When the six weeks' testing period comes around, each student takes his own folder and reads chronologically through everything he has written. Then, using the rough draft-revision-rewriting technique, he writes an evaluation of his work up to the present, telling what grade he honestly feels he has earned and why. This paper is graded not on what he says, but on how well he says it. Since praise and appreciation are necessary as ego-builders for these students, it is important that their papers be read aloud, by them when they are willing or by the teacher, with the writer's permission. They also love to see their papers displayed on the bulletin board, and this year I am planning to make an anthology of their best writing that they may have to take home at the end of the year, being sure that each student is represented at least once. LISTENING TO STORIES
The most popular period with these students is the day I read aloud to them. Most of them have never been read to, and they sit entranced while I read stories from Grimm's Fairy Tales, Edgar Allen Poe, Hawthorne, DeMaupassant, Ring Lardner, Thurber, Willa Cather, W. W. Jacobs, Stephen Crane, or Jesse Stuart. The students are starved for stories, and their listening vocabulary far exceeds their speaking or reading one. Occasionally I stop and write a word on the board, with a brief explanation and discussion, but I never "water down" the author's vocabulary. The stories, the new vocabulary words, the characters, all make a vivid and lasting impression on
116
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
them. In their evaluations, they almost always have some reference to what this listening has meant to them. These experiences are happy ones for both the teacher and the students. CONCLUSION
We can never really know these youngsters who sit in front of us day after day, the problems, the worries, the fears, the failures, and the heartbreaks that they carry within them. W e can recognize their need for self-confidence, their hunger for appreciation, and their longing for praise, and we can strive to release the tensions within them with our sympathetic understanding and our love, but we can never know the whole story. Before quoting another paper by the same Bill who was mentioned earlier, first let me give some brief facts about him. In the Differential Aptitude Testing program of the Psychological Testing Corporation, he placed in the 20th percentile in the verbal I.Q. test, while in the non-verbal abstract reasoning test, he was in the 97th percentile. H e felt his mother thought he wanted to be stupid. I do not know how much help I will be able to give eleventh-grade Bill now, but I certainly have seen him with gentler, kinder, more sympa thetic eyes since I read this paper which he wrote on the assigned topic: The Three Happiest Moments of My Life The happiest time of my life was when my mother let me drive her car. I was so happy because I thought I was just about to get my driver's license. But now I am not. Because of some thing that was supposed to have happened. It is not fair what they are doing but I am relieved in a way. Now I don't have to wark in school. If I fail or get kicked out nothing can be taken away. It's already been taken away. Another time was when my step-father said something nice about me. Usually he says I am no good. But this time he said something nice about me. My boy friend and I almost died of shock so you see why it was so happy a day. The third and last but not happiest time of the three, was when I went to Calif, to see my relations out there. But while I was there I was always spoiling everything for everyone. Also some of my rela-
English
jor
the
Slow-Learning
Adolescent
117
tions f r o m Chicago c a m e out to L.A. to see m y g r a n d m a at the same time. A f t e r that we went a r o u n d to visit all my relations in Calif. T h e n I went to Denver to see m y father and step-mother. I goofed out there too. Everyone was m a d at me. But I will never forgett this S u m m e r as long as I live. A n d many of us will never forget the "Bills" w e have taught!
Children's Misconceptions in Social Studies RICHARD DALE
BUCKLEY*
SOCIAL STUDIES, as now conceived in the elementary school curriculum, has potentially a greater body of knowledge from which to draw than any other area of that curriculum. It draws upon subject matter from such diverse fields as geography, economics, history, anthropology, psychology, sociology, political science, or even philosophy. That each of these subjects needs special interpretations and precise understandings is readily evident to any one who studies the long lists of objectives outlined by the experts in these various fields. The problem is to evaluate the curriculum to determine what misunderstandings are most prevalent in our social studies teaching and what can be done to reduce their occurrence. SOCIAL STUDIES AS F A C T S - T O - L E A R N
Several months ago, approximately fifty seventh and eighth grade pupils in a small elementary school were asked to write an answer to the question, "What is social sutdies?" More than 9 0 per cent of these students defined the social studies as a body of knowledge concerning facts from history or geography, or a combination of the two. The key word here is "facts." Do we want students merely to quote facts, or do we want them to see relationships between man and his natural and acquired environment? Do we want pupils to acquire bodies of knowledge, or do we desire that they learn the techniques involved in solving problems or in learning? Our society is not static. Many of the facts that pupils learn today about people and places will be useless tomorrow. It becomes apparent, then, that the first and major mis* Instructor in Education, University of Pennsylvania. 118
Children's
Misconceptions
in Social Studies
119
conception in the social studies is an acceptance, not only by pupils but also by many teachers, of social studies as facts-to-learn rather than a pathway to gaining skill in understanding broad social problems and in attacking new problems as they arise. PERSPECTIVE ON
LEADERS
Another question answered by these same seventh and eighth grade pupils may give us a clue to the second misconception of students in our schools. They were asked to list the ten men who had had the greatest effect on the world. Of the men who appeared on the list of three or more pupils, almost 50 per cent were great political leaders or national heads of state. Another 25 per cent were scientists or inventors. Writers, great thinkers or philosophers, and religious leaders were relegated to a distinctly secondary role. Admittedly, the sample is small, but such informal checking by teachers may give clues to weaknesses in a program. On this informal survey, John F. Kennedy was more influential than Christ, while Mohammed was not listed by a single pupil. Most of the men listed were distinctly members of what one might call JudaicChristian-Western culture. ¡Possibly this culture did have the greatest effect on the world, but, in terms of the population distribution of the world, would similar answers be given everywhere? Can it be that our classrooms might be stressing our own culture too heavily at the expense of trying to understand and appreciate the great contributions made by others? Can it be that our teachers are idealizing the great titular heads-of-state while failing to recognize other areas of human endeavor? This problem is worthy of careful research.
WAR VS.
PEACE
One of the aspects of history that is not only interesting to students but also is heavily stressed in the school curriculum is the question of war and peace. May it not be that there is too much emphasis on the "war" part of this item—that history is too often surveyed as political developments leading to war? Those periods of our history in which great social, economic, or
120
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
political improvements took place between wars are often not put in large focus but are surveyed as mere filler, with the central focus being the wars. For example, ask the average citizen to discuss the bank and tariff question as it developed in the early 1800's, and you will undoubtedly "draw a blank." However, ask him to express his views on the War of 1812 or the Civil War, and some glimmer of understanding is shown. We have done a good job of emphasizing our so-called glorious past as seen through success in war, but at the same time, we have failed to make the more personal life of our ancestors real and memorable. Have we not possibly left our pupils with the impression that wars are to be glorified and that our greatest historical accomplishments were obtained by them? Students see our past as a panorama of marching Redcoats, of charging cavalry, of Blue and Gray soldiers struggling at Gettysburg, of Texans standing staunchly at the Alamo, or of soldiers and Indians clashing on the frontier. What happened to all those images of the long periods of peaceful growth? THE SUBJECTIVE
DEVELOPMENT
OF
ATTITUDES
PATRIOTISM
Social studies teaching, as it is commonly stressed today—and rightly so—should lead to improved citizenship, for citizenship is one of the bulwarks of the democratic way of life. Social studies should help our children understand and cherish the freedom that we have. Nevertheless, these objectives point toward certain misrepresentations that are sometimes foolishly projected into our classrooms. The pupils are often led to understand and believe that the West is always right and good. We have built a god of virtue of our past. For example, our parts in various wars, from the American Revolution through the Mexican and Spanish-American to World War II, are still being interpreted in many of our schools from a very traditionalistic perspective. This point of view is often not an honest evaluation of the right or wrong or failures of both participants in the issue; it is rather a "How were we wronged?" outlook. To complicate the issue further and to double the deception, our allies in any such conflict also bathe in our
Children's
Misconceptions
in Social Studies
121
halo. Compare the Stalin image in our textbooks of the early 1940's with the image of the same figure today. Compare the treatment of the Indonesian dictatorship today with that of Red China. We tend to paint the world in two colors—red for evil and white for virtue. Are we not possibly building frontiers and barriers of fear rather than a world community of understanding? Even though we admire and respect our way of life, must we lead our children to believe that there are no social ills, that every one wants to copy us, or that we are above reproach? We too often try to have children learn to weigh the evidence, but then we prestack the "deck-of-knowledge" that they receive.
MIDDLE-CLASS
IDEALS
Besides the issues of broad concern, a misconception that seems to be gaining momentum is the glorification of middle-class ideals to the degree that it tends to warp the American viewpoint. Through subtle remark, through lofty phrase, or by examples that are used, the teacher is perpetuating the myth that physical labor is something to be avoided. Many teachers, strongly backed by driving parents, appear to scorn the man who digs the ditch, carries the load, or sweeps the floor. The practical use toward which much of our teaching is directed appears to be the learned professions. The child who cannot make the intellectual grade to enter one of these zeniths of endeavor feels somewhat cheated. If, as we have so vigorously preached over the past few decades, we teach for individual differences, must we not be extremely careful in our teaching that the work of all people be viewed as rewarding and as a necessary part of society?
SKILL IN NOTING MAN VS.
RELATIONSHIPS
ENVIRONMENT
In geography, too, there is a need for re-emphasis and re-appraisal, for there is a tendency to over-simplify some significant relationships. The physical geography of the world has sometimes been seen as the
122
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
controlling factor of man's way of life. To be sure, there are many aspects of human settlement and endeavor that may be related to the topography, the soils, the mineral resources, or the climates of the world. The crucial factor that is often overlooked, however, is that man has adapted himself to all ranges of physical environment. Furthermore, the importance of a location to man is relative, as he finds new techniques for dealing with his surroundings or finds new uses for an area. For example, areas of the Near East that were once considered almost worthless for human habitation now form new centers of population as oil-rich regions or thriving, irrigated lands. The key concept is that man has learned to control his environment more often than the environment has controlled him. One of the most important reasons for the development of Houston, Texas, or Phoenix, Arizona, since World War II is the invention of air-conditioning. Many factors—cultural, scientific, physical, personal—affect human settlement and land use. Otherwise, why would two or more regions with somewhat similar physical environments evolve completely different cultures, as is apparent when certain regions of the Rocky Mountains are compared with those of the Alps? One must be sure that misconceptions are not born by over-generalization.
CONCOMITANT
EVENTS
A brief look at historical trends can show similar fallacies. In America, there have been periods of religious fervor alternating with periods of war or political turmoil. If these events were placed on a chronological line, the colonial expansion of the 1600's would be followed by the Great Awakening of the mid-1700's; the birth of the nation would be followed by the religious revivals and camp meetings of the early 1800's; the Civil War and Reconstruction periods would lead to the Dwight L. Moody and Bill Sunday era of evangelism in the big cities; and now evidence of a religious upswing follows the periods dominated by global conflicts. With inadequate knowledge, the foregoing timeline could easily be interpreted to mean that periods of religious revival can only exist when the nation is not engaged in political or national unrest.
Children's Misconceptions
in Social Studies
123
This may be a possible hypothesis, but let us look at another possibility to see if such a neat relationship still holds true. One can also correlate the three great eras of religious revivalism to mass immigrations or movements of people. The Great Awakening of the eighteenth century corresponds to a heavy immigration of Scotch-Irish and Germans; the camp meeting era parallels the vast movements of settlers in the Midwest; and the Dwight Moody era in the cities corresponds to heavy immigration into those cities by eastern and southern Europeans. Which arrangement of facts shows the true cause-and-effect of this phenomenon? Are both equally valid? Are these, just possibly, chance associations? May not other factors be found to explain religious revivalism? How do periods of economic depression correlate? Historical pictures cannot all be perfectly labeled, tagged, or generalized; misconcepts are bred by grasping for neat and tidy intellectual models or structures.
CONTROVERSIAL
ISSUES
An important aspect of the social studies that has often been bypassed in our schools or, if noted, has been quickly shunned aside is the treatment of so-called controversial issues. Since society cannot resolve certain issues or build models of logic to frame them, these have often become taboo. Religion, race, sex, or Communism are words that, if they appear in the curriculum outline of a school, will sooner or later arouse a pressure group to investigate. These issues, however, are the cause of much uncertainty and personal instability in our society. Failure to include them in the school's program is indoctrination by default, for to withhold information leaves the path of ignorance open. Such issues, which are often heavily weighted by emotions and value judgments, may not have a distinct solution. Many will agree that ignorance breeds prejudice; prejudice means prejudgments, and society cannot accept prejudgments as an intellectual enterprise worthy of citizenship. Does it not seem valid, therefore, to attack children's misconceptions about religion, race, sex, or Communism in a spirit of honest evaluation? If one desires to investigate problems that are of real importance to children of varying age levels, if one wishes our
124
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
citizens to approach new issues with unbiased objectivity, or if one believes that social conflict is one of the real issues of social studies, these areas cannot be avoided, but need to be studied objectively.
PROBLEMS
ARISING
FROM
VOCABULARY
Thus far, some broad aspects of the social studies curriculum have been surveyed as areas where misconceptions are likely to occur. If this topic is approached from a slightly different viewpoint, the vocabulary of social studies looms as another trouble spot. Since concepts are built, in most cases, from one's ability to understand the written and spoken word, vocabulary is a vital tool. As the child progresses in his social studies learning, or in almost all learning, less and less of the concepts can be gained through real, perceptual experience. The written and spoken word becomes the prime transmitter of ideas. Vocabulary difficulties in social studies may be grouped into five categories: ( 1 ) vague, often misleading, quantitative terms; (2) words that are only familiar to the child in a different context from that used in social studies; (3) figurative terms; ( 4 ) concept words that can attain meaning only through gradual development; and (5) distinct social studies terms that need clear, distinct definitions.
QUANTITATIVE
TERMS
How often have you read that the river was "broad," that a lake was "large," or that the city was "old"? Precisely what do these phrases mean? Investigate almost any social studies textbook, and you will find many such terms and phrases. To a pupil who lives in a desert, a large lake might mean something different from that of a pupil living in Michigan. A pupil in the Himalayas may not picture a "high" mountain in the same way as a Philadelphia child. A teacher must be extremely careful that the pupils are gaining precise meanings of such abstract and relative terms as time, space, size, or quantity. Constant referral to mathematical expression of such items is needed, or, if the child lacks the mathematical understanding necessary for
Children's Misconceptions
in Social Studies
125
comprehension, comparisons of objects or times to that which is familiar should be made.
NEW
MEANINGS
Just what is a "ford"—a car or a place? Is a "pass" something you do with a football, or is it a narrow passage through the mountains? Is a "watershed" made of lumber? The teacher must be certain that the pupil visualizes correctly the printed or spoken word. Time must also be taken to attach the correct geographical or historical meanings to words that have different meanings in a more familiar context, such as "mouth" or "branch," for instance.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
What is meant by Andrew Jackson's "Kitchen Cabinet," or Roosevelt's "Brain Trust?" What is a "dark horse" candidate? How long is the "New Frontier?" While figurative terms add spice to communication, they are quite disconcerting to the uninformed, who may accept a literal translation. Such terms need clarification when they are introduced. ABSTRACT CONCEPTS
Do most adults completely understand what is meant by "democracy," "death," "socialism," or "big business"? Many concepts continue to grow as one lives and studies. Our school program must be so planned that a steady growth is made toward understanding those abstract ideas that are part of living. One cannot expect a child to understand "democracy" as well in grade one as in grade six. This does not imply that learning about democracy in grade one will breed misconceptions; it merely stresses that such concepts are difficult to grasp at once and that some general definitions and goals of instruction must be determined by the school staff to provide logical and progressive concept development.
126
PRECISE,
FREEDOM
TECHNICAL
AND
EDUCATION
VOCABULARY
In addition to the four kinds of vocabulary difficulty already discussed, there is a large vocabulary that is distinctly associated just with the social studies—words like "mountains," "plains," "plateaus," "government," "nations," "revolutions," "mercantilism," "culture," and "patriotism." The teacher must select experiences that will give truthful meaning to this vocabulary. The pupil who visualizes a "plain" as an area that is as flat as a table has a serious misconception. By the use of pictures, models, charts, films, discussion, field trips, or other activities, the pupil must gain a depth of understanding that will be of use, not just for the ongoing unit, but for all future encounters. CONCLUSION
Now what misconceptions did you gain from reading this report, since no two people conceive any idea exactly in the same manner? That which the author feels is being transmitted may be received in a much different form by his readers or even by each reader. Teachers can easily be overwhelmed by the lack of understanding exhibited by everyone; nonetheless, it is the duty of the teaching profession to slash eternally at the vines of ignorance that enmesh man and lead him to progressively higher levels of knowledge.
Sociology in High School Social Science Program EVERETT S. LEE* As A SOCIAL scientist I cannot say that the social sciences are a first priority in the high school program; that must be accorded to English and mathematics. The former, at least for persons preparing for college, should include considerable work in English composition, and the latter should continue through the elements of calculus. It must be emphasized that mathematics is not only the language of sciences such as physics and astronomy; it is a language of the social sciences as well. Mathematics is an indispensable tool in nearly every area of research, even in what may seem so remote a field as linguistics. The ability to write English and to use mathematics are the minimum requirements for the educated man. A
SOCIAL
SCIENCE
SURVEY
After these requirements are met, a general course in the social sciences falls in the next order of priority—a general course because it would be impossible either to introduce specific courses in the individual social sciences or to allot definite periods of time within a single course to the individual social sciences, for the roster of these is too great and continues to grow. Indeed, Smillie1 defines public health as a social science, and Murphey2 adds geography to the list. As more and more of the social sciences become discrete disciplines at the college level, as social psychology has done and demography is doing, * Associate Professor of Sociology and Director, Population Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania. 1 Wilson G. Smillie, Preventive Medicine and Public Health (2d ed., New York: The Macmillan Company, 1952), p. 3. ' Rhoads Murphey, An Introduction to Geography (Chicago: Rand McNally & Company), pp. 4-9. 127
128
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
the number of candidates for attention in the high school curriculum becomes overwhelming. But despite the recognition of new disciplines, the social sciences remain a whole. This is clearly apparent to the researcher who often finds that a study begun within a given field leads into areas which are the provinces of sister disciplines. Thus, anthropologists have been greatly concerned with the psychology of behavior and sociologists with the study of political attitudes. Social sciences so overlap that it is impossible to distinguish their boundaries, but all of them, in some way, approach the problems of human behavior and social organization. AREAS OF
CONVERGENCE
T o the specialist, engrossed in a narrow area and painfully aware of the difficulties of studying even a small facet of human behavior, the idea of a general social science course may at first seem impossible, but reflection indicates that there are areas upon which two or more of the social sciences focus, though perhaps from different points of view. Thus, population is a primary concern to the economist and the geographer, as well as to the socialist. Culture is a concept explored by anthropologists, psychologists, and sociologists. These, and we could name many others, are areas of convergence in the social sciences simply because they are of crucial importance to the understanding of society. I would suggest that, in shaping a general social science course for the high schools, a study be made to determine these convergences, for these are the areas around which such a program should be centered. IMPORTANCE IN HIGH SCHOOL
The importance of work in the social sciences in the high school has been underestimated. Without it, the majority of high school graduates, those who do not go to college, will have little or no acquaintance with social science—a fact which is all too evident in the uninformed political and social action of so many of our citizens. And for those
Sociology in High School Science Program
129
who do go on to college, there will probably be no introduction to the entirety of social science. For most students, the acquaintance with the social sciences will come from freshman and sophomore courses in distinct disciplines were specific methods and materials are stressed. Even for those who major in the social sciences, the major and major related courses will give no overview of the social sciences. It is probably true that only at the high school level will such a survey be provided. T H E CONTRIBUTION OF SOCIOLOGY
For possible inclusion in the high school social science program, I therefore draw from sociology those fields which are common to other disciplines and which are also indispensable to sociologists. First is the study of population, which is basic to many of the social sciences but which, at present, is most often taught in sociology. In these days when the "population explosion" and the shifting balance of national power is much in the public consciousness, it is hardly necessary to stress the need for such study. A related subject is that of racial and ethnic differences that form barriers which both divide men from each other and hold them together. The welding of a nation from so many racial and ethnic entities is a great American triumph, but much remains to be done in the elimination of prejudice and the development of our total human resources. Next I would introduce the study of culture, stressing change and the role of culture in distinguishing one group from another and one society from another. Cultural differences are much more important than biological differences in creating distinctions among mankind, and cultural changes can be deliberately introduced. Indeed, it is the major function of government to preserve cultural patterns, on the one hand, and to assure their change in desired directions, on the other. Only one other field of sociology will be suggested for inclusion in the high school social science course. Social organization is the study of the structure of society and within it is found consideration of the
130
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
family and the state along with religious and economic institutions. Questions of social class, of prestige, of authority, and of social mobility fall under this rubric. A common thought in all of these areas is the consideration of human relations. T o no small extent, good relations between the many groups which make up the population of the United States depend upon knowledge of the essential similarity of mankind and of the superficiality of the differences which are so emphasized and cause so much trouble. Partly because of its broadly inclusive nature, the study of sociology has much to contribute toward the understanding of other peoples, and it can suggest methods for achieving better relations between races and ethnic groups.
CONCLUSION
Nevertheless, I would not like to overemphasize sociology to the exclusion of the other social sciences. It is from the totality of the social sciences that a high school course should be shaped, with each of the disciplines buttressing the others. What I should hope to see emerge is a general course in the social sciences which would parallel a unified treatment of the physical and biological sciences.
How His Environment Has Influenced. Man: The Public School and the Image of Geography GERALD J. KARASKA* of this discussion is to present a definition of geography and to indicate the direction that current research in the field is taking. My immediate hope is that you will be able better to grasp the significance or importance of geography as an academic discipline. My basic hope is that perhaps you will heed my plea for the inclusion of geography in elementary and secondary school programs. My goal, then, is to submit a proposal to introduce into the public schools a series of courses in geography which would accurately reflect the philosophy and aims of the field, and most important, which would reflect the research being accomplished under the title of geographic research. THE PURPOSE
THE DEFINITION OF GEOGRAPHY
Considering its historical development and including the most recent contributions of "Young Turks," geographic research is generally accepted by most of its practitioners to assume one of the following directions: (1) research which has as its objectives the description and interpretation of the character of particular places and regions; (2) research which has a basic goal of interpreting and explaining the relationships between man and his environment; or (3) research whose goal is to describe and explain the forms or patterns of distribution of phenomena. At first glance, all three of these definitions of geography may appear to be contrasting, but at close inspection, all are fundamentally * Assistant Professor of Geography, University of Pennsylvania. 131
132
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
concerned with identical goals. All can be reduced to a simple research design for explaining the spatial relationships of phenomena: they are concerned with the locational relationships of one object with other objects in a segment of earth-space. Another interpretation of this thesis is that geography is concerned with the spatial relationships of objects and their environment—environment being here defined as both natural and cultural. Place, or regional geography, attempts to grasp the character of an area by extracting the most significant relationships from the total environment. These selected environmental relationships then become the region's gestalt or personality. The second, or antropocentric geography, also extracts the most significant spatial relationships in the region, but its focus is upon those relationships which influence man's behavior. The last definition represents the philosophy or direction taken by some of the recent, younger members of the profession who feel that the survival of geography as an academic discipline is dependent upon the discovery of laws and theories which can explain and predict the behavior of objects in space. This geographic research focuses upon spatial interactions between objects and their environment by using mathematical models and accepted statistical procedures. Interpreted another way, this research views objects as points in space whose significance is determined by the force or energy exerted by these and other objects in the same region. For example, the distribution of towns in a region can be viewed as a collection of points, each of which is exerting a force upon every other point and upon every person in the region. The strength of these forces can be measured in terms of the market pull of the towns. The larger, metropolitan area exerts a strong and expanded field of energy, and the small hamlet emits a weak and limited field of energy. The location and spacing of the towns at one instant of time, then, represents some sort of equilibrium or stability in the relationships among the towns, which in turn represents a situation where the market towns are best located to supply the demands of the consumers. As another example, the growth of New York City as the largest city in the United States can be interpreted as a change in this equilibrium engendered by the development of the Midwest and its connection to New York City through the Mohawk Valley. The greater forces emanating from the exerted upon
The Public School and the Image of Geography
133
New York City account, in part, for its eminence today as the largest and most influential market center in the United States. T H E TEACHING OF
GEOGRAPHY
The section which follows relates several recent developments in the thinking of professional and academic geographers concerning geography teaching in our public schools. The intent of these comments is twofold: (1) to demonstrate that we who are in the "ivory tower" do care about elementary and secondary geography, and (2) to express our dismay at the public's view or image of geography. In regard to the first objective, the traditional role of the university geographer has been as a recluse, locked up in his research, while occasionally venturing forth as a teacher of graduate students and only sometimes as a teacher of college students. This role has had economic motives, for survival in the academic world is still that of "publish or perish." Only recently has the profession been awakened to the pedagogical, aesthetic, and utilitarian demands upon the discipline. Some of my colleagues have come to fear that the paucity of well-trained geography teachers, the rather pedestrian geography being taught in the elementary schools, the lack of geography in the secondary curricula, and the bad books are evidence of an ever-shrinking resource pool of future gegoraphers. Even worse, these signs indicate to some an engulfing, perhaps obliterating beyond recognition, of geography as we know it, and that these conditions will lead to an immersion or even drowning of geography in other subjects. This thesis has been summed up by a colleague as, instead of "publish or perish," we must "advocate the discipline, or attend its demise." 1 As to the second goal, geographers have repeatedly had the experience exemplified by the following comment from a gardening neighbor: "You teach geography in a university—really!" This public conception of the status of geography as an academic discipline is prompted because the only exposure many people have had to the 1
Henry J. Warman, "Receptivity To Geographic Learning Among School Administrators," abstract of a paper presented at the Fifty-ninth Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Denver, Colorado, September 1-5, 1963.
134
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
field was either in the fifth grade, where states and capitals, countries and products were forced in to their memory, or in front of a television screen where the quiz-show displayed an amazing capacity for remembering facts of geography. Geography has much more to offer than these and, indeed, is contributing much to man's understanding of his environment. A leading scholar in geography recently remarked that there are signs of a new direction in geography and that geographers are organizing for more responsible service. Their immediate tasks, White appeals, are "to improve the quality of teaching materials and teaching methods . . . and to step up the application of research to public policy formation." 2 Their basic task, he contends, is "to raise the level of competency of fundamental research" 3 in geography, for "research is the life blood of the developing body of scholarly thought, and on its persistent cultivation the vigor of the profession and the nature of its service ultimately will depend." 4 The underlying direction advocated here is to expose students at an early stage to the philosophy of geography, particularly as a research discipline. THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF GEOGRAPHY
Following are a few fundamental contributions that geography can offer. These are extremely powerful advancements, but also very simple and elementary. It is inconceivable that any person would attempt to understand the complex world without having been exposed to the world patterns of landforms, climate, soils, vegetation, and population. These fundamental fruits of geographic research can provide great meaning and direction to a comprehension of changing patterns of economic development and world affairs. In addition to the attention devoted to place names, time could wisely be devoted at the elementary level to the study of these general or world patterns of distri' Gilbert F. White, et a!., "Critical Issues Concerning Geography in the Public Service," Annals of the Association of American Geographers, LII (September, 1962), 280. 3 Ibid. ' Ibid.
The Public School and the Image of Geography
135
bution. I am of the impression that most elementary school geography classes are compelled to describe all facets of the world to the student. This impression is strengthened by remarks made by Charles R. Keller, Director of the John Hay Fellows Program. Included in his criticism of the social studies program in our schools, he contends that they attempt "to fill the minds of students first—in the hope that they will think, analyze and interpret much later." 5 The evidence of this failure by the schools is only too clear, and its perpetuation beyond college is alarming. Most students in our universities seem to be content with taking courses and lectures which will feed materials to them, then require repeating this same information back during an exam. It would amaze you to learn of the paucity of "open book" exams being given in our universities.
RELATING MAN TO HIS ENVIRONMENT
Instead of this concentration, what would be the rewards for exposing a young mind to the amazing correlations between man, his economic activity, and his natural environment? Besides the world distribution of these phenomena, on another scale, would the elementary student have difficulty comprehending the correlation between the distribution of racial minorities in the city of Philadelphia and evidence of their economic well being or wealth? Within the neighborhood, even the most naive mind dies not fail to recognize the spatial correlations between people, economic activity, and some image of environment or atmosphere—for example, the shopping center, residential area, industrial area, and park. The recognition of place and its relationship with other places and objects of an environment are intuitive. Geography focuses attention upon the spatial aspects of the environment. Here, at the elementary level, would be an ideal time to introduce the child to a map. His rewards from using a map in later sequences would be richly rewarding. 5
Charles R. Keller quoted by Fred M. Hechinger, "Education: Aid to Humanities," New York Times, June 2, 1963, p. E 9. © 1963 by the New York Times Company. Reprinted by permission.
136
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
G A T H E R I N G RESEARCH DATA
Expanding this to a more advanced, secondary level, the social sciences, particularly geography, could compete with chemistry, physics, and mathematics for the brighter students. The outdoor laboratory together with the books and statistics provided by libraries can offer many challenging problems to a "boy-geographer." Keller points out, and I agree, that students in the public schools have had little or no opportunity to see how social scientists work. 6 The physical science laboratories with their test tubes, cages, machines, and white coats have been able to capture the imagination of the advanced student. The real-world laboratory of the social sciences, with its statistics and observations, can be brought to the young mind with only a little extra effort. For example, a high school geography laboratory could tackle the problem of the spatial distribution of racial minorities in Philadelphia. Gathering statistical evidence and mapping these data, then generating hypotheses to account for the pattern of the distribution would be excellent first steps in recognizing the relationships between the minority groups and their environment. Subsequent investigations of the historical, wave-like character of the distribution of these minority groups and the association of these data with other phenomena like industrial and commercial land can take the student a step further in his understanding of the complex spatial associations in the environment we call "Philadelphia." For another problem, challenging research can be offered the high school student by focusing his attention on the distribution of certain economic activities. Perhaps here he will encounter the ever-so-fascinating problem of the relationship between man and his environment. Can the distribution of certain crops grown by man be explained in terms of the climatic requirements of that crop, or is the distribution of corn, wheat, and dairy products determined by economic factors and motives? Does the relationship between the location of agricultural production and the location of markets have any influence on the kinds of crops grown at any particular site? What rela6
Ibid.
The Public School and the Image of Geography
137
tionships exist between the size of towns, the kinds of marketing activities found in the towns, and the locations of the towns? Why are more small towns found close together in the country or rural areas, and why are larger towns farther from one another? PARTICIPATING I N LARGER
PROJECTS
Two years ago, the Association of American Geographers and the National Council for Geographic Education undertook a program to aid geography in the public schools, and, of course, the profession itself. Termed "The High School Geography Project," the program brought high school teachers back to the universities where they were exposed to geography philosophy, and where they received individualized attention. Some of the results of this project are beginning to filter back to the profession at large. At the recent meeting of the association of American Geographers held in Denver, Colorado, from September 1-5, 1963, these teachers presented papers relating their experiences as "Geography Peace Corpsmen." 7 Bertha Thompson, of Talawanda High School, Oxford, Ohio, related the attempts of her students to find out why Ohio showed such a notable decrease in wheat from the census years 1954 to 1959. The project included the compilation of dot maps of wheat production in the fifteen leading states by using United States Department of Agriculture statistics and the formulation of specific hypotheses which might account for this change. John P. Neal, of Newton High School, Newtonville, Massachusetts, reported his success in teaching concepts of industrial location. This was an especially interesting approach in that it brought into the high schools some concepts and theories which had only recently developed among university geographers. Consider, if you will, the attempt to explain the rationale behind the decision to locate an apparel plant in West Philadelphia. Herbert H. Friedman, of New York City, reported his experiences with a ninth-grade geography class. The students were given a series 1
"The High School Geography Project," abstracts of papers presented at the Fifty-ninth Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, Denver, Colorado, September 1-5, 1963.
138
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
of eight topographic maps of the city of Baltimore, ranging in scale from 1:24,000 to 1:40,000,000, which they were to use in evaluating the significance of symbols to portray area characteristics accurately. The exercise visibly demonstrated that a change in map scale resulted in a change of symbolization, which in turn altered the descriptive capacity of the map under study. The ability to generalize from maps was clearly seen by the students as a function of map scale. If a single course in geography or a series of geography courses are impractical, a social studies course could be offered which would reflect the contributions of each of the social sciences. In Philadelphia, a course designed around the urban complex would be especially meaningful and could easily utilize the research concepts, techniques, and facts from geography, history, sociology, political science, economics, and even the earth sciences. Through the use of maps, statistical data, and time series data, the social scientist would find integrated expression in the high school program, and perhaps at the junior high level, too. T H E R O L E OF THE
UNIVERSITIES
Finally, how can we in the universities contribute further to education in geography? First, we can recognize the existence of a professionalized educator who is responsible for the school domain, that is, we can stop harassing the schools. Second, we can co-operate with the educator by responding to his needs for direction and insights into the philosophy and aims of geographic research. Third, would it be so revolutionary for geographers to go into the schools? If Mohammed cannot go to the mountain, could we bring the mountain back to the universities? In this regard, the research projects undertaken by high school teachers and students could be brought to the universities for discussion and consultation with university staff and graduate students.
Geography and the High School Social Science Curriculum JOSEPH E. SCHWARTZBERG * to a symposium entitled "Critical Issues Concerning Geography in the Public Service," forms a good point of departure: GILBERT W H I T E ' S INTRODUCTION
The contributions which geographic thought can make to the advancement of society are relatively few, simple, and powerful. They are so few and simple that a significant proportion of them can be taught to high school and beginning undergraduate students. They are so powerful that failure to recognize them jeopardizes the ability of citizens to deal intelligently with a rapidly changing and increasingly complex world.1 Despite these facts—and they are facts—White is forced to conclude, and I to agree, that "Teaching of geography in the high school is near a low at a time when the nation's responsibilities on a world scale are at a high." 2 Now my agreement does not come from a personal study of the problem in situ, that is, in the high school classroom. Rather, my judgment is based solely on personal knowledge, as a university teacher, of the geographical illiterates which our high schools have spawned. I could amply support my view by reference to my file of geographic boners, which includes such classics as "It is so cold at the North Pole that the cities up there are uninhabited," * Assistant Professor of Geography and South Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania. 1 Gilbert F. White, et al„ "Critical Issues Concerning Geography in the Public Service," Annals of the Association of American Geographers, LII (September, 1962), 279. 2 Ibid. 139
140
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
—or I could simply compare the geographic capabilities of otherwise equally intelligent products of American high schools and their West European or Canadian counterparts.
T H E TASK OF
GEOGRAPHY
What needs to be done? Just what about geography warrants inclusion or expansion in the high school curriculum? It is geography's task to impart three things: (1) an understanding of certain simple physical laws, (2) the development of basic geographic skills and habits of thought, and (3) a limited body of carefully selected facts.
SIMPLE PHYSICAL
LAWS
The laws which high school students need to learn are those fundamental laws which account for the gross differences in topography, climate, and vegetation over the surface of the earth: laws relating to the solar system, movements within the earth, erosion, winds, the water cycle, and so forth. These ought to be learned, not only because they happen to be eternal, but because, once learned, they tell one, without the bother of further investigation, something about the basic character of virtually any place on earth for which the relative location is already given. I would hesitate, however, to attempt to teach high school students general hypotheses relating to human behavior in space; these usually are taken for more than they are worth and may be distorted in time—traditionally by the time the student reaches his sophomore year in college—into a pseudo-knowledge even worse than ignorance.
SKILLS AND HABITS
The skills and habits to be acquired would include: (1) the ability to read maps—a wide variety of maps—and, of course, graphs as well, and the habit of making frequent reference to them, especially to atlases which include a number of special-use maps in addition to the political (The publication of good atlases, incidentally, is currently advancing at a far more praiseworthy rate than is the habit of con-
Geography and the High School Social Science Curriculum
141
suiting them.); (2) a skill in determining the qualities of various map projections, but not in memorizing their names or how they are made, and the habit of seeking maps of the correct projection for a particular purpose or consulting a globe when, as is so often the case today, a global view is essential; (3) a skill in the use of scales and that habit of thought which considers all spatial generalizations in reference to the scale range for which they are valid; (4) the ability to evaluate and compare magnitudes in meaningful terms by the use of proper yardsticks, as are suggested in such terms as "per capita," "per square mile," "as a percentage of total requirements," and the like, and the habit of supplying the necessary common denominator when it is not provided; and (5) the ability to use, and the habit of using, a gazetteer and other standard reference works in addition to atlases. (Though a gazetteer is to geography roughly what a dictionary is to language, a great many college students—and not a few professors—scarcely know what one is.) The list could be extended, but my purpose should by now be clear. The skills and habits mentioned are those which make it possible for one to appraise geographical facts or alleged facts realistically, to find out what he wants to know when he wants to know it, not only as a student but throughout life, and to spare him the agony of memorizing a welter of factual data, much of which is obsolete as soon as it is printed. It is precisely this unfortunate traditional emphasis on memorization which causes so many students to evade a field which should stand second to none in fascination.
FACTS NECESSARY
And yet some facts are vital and simply must be learned: the circumference of the earth, for example, or the location of the tropics, the dates of the equinoxes and solstices, the size, location, and approximate dimensions of the United States and a few other major countries as well, and, even though they are constantly changing, the approximate populations of the major countries of the world. But not, the population and four principal products of Panama, the length of the Lena, the location of Leninsk, or the size of Somalia. It is not the function of geography to teach a little bit about every place in the world. It is not even a possible task.
142
FREEDOM
T H E ORGANIZATION OF
AND
EDUCATION
CONTENT
So much for what should and should not be taught. What, then, about how? Frankly, I do not think it really matters, so long as it is taught and to all students. It could all be put into an integrated social science program if the teacher were up to the mark (and I do not believe the mark is a particularly high one to reach). Or it could be taught in a separate geography-course sequence, as is done in the European and Canadian schools, which, relative to our own, have done so well by the subject. Or the field could even be split by teaching the basic physical laws as a part of general science. The American experience is not sufficiently great to call a halt to experimentation with various types of curricula; and it would be presumptuous on my part, in view of my limited knowledge of pedagogical theory and current curricular developments, to argue strongly for a single approach. The important point is that students learn about their world.
Individual Differences in Science HAROLD E. TANNENBAUM • As YET THERE have not been many details worked out concerning the teaching of science to children who vary widely in ability, in interests, in backgrounds, in character, in physical skills, in all phases of maturity. There is also some doubt that the subject matter of science can be subdivided into the more difficult and the less difficult to the extent that had been previously thought. For example, there was a time when the topic of simple machines was considered suitable for primary grades. But what makes the topic concerning moments of force one that can be taught to little children? It is folly to assume that instinctive behavior is a fit subject for first or second grade children; it is not the subject matter of science that allows the individualizing of the science program in the elementary grades. T H E O B J E C T I V E S OF SCIENCE
INSTRUCTION
As usual, the objectives must first be examined if ways are to be found for solving an educational problem. A teacher's methods and his evaluation procedures must be derived from his objectives if they are to have any validity; therefore let us examine some objectives for elementary school science. Several years ago, the National Science Teachers Association issued guidelines for building school curricula in science. Among the guidelines were the following: ( 1 ) The program must encompass a full range of the contemporary knowledge and ideas which scientists employ. * Director, "Project Beacon," Graduate School of Education, Yeshiva University. 143
144
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
( 2 ) The program must result in understanding the nature of the scientific enterprise through direct involvement in the processes of scientific inquiry. 1
About the same time that this statement appeared, Dr. Nathan Stillman and I wrote a book in which we stated the goals for teaching science in the elementary school as: ( 1 ) T h e elementary science program must help the individual develop increasing ability to understand and deal with his natural environment. ( 2 ) The elementary science program must help the individual understand the methods, techniques, and attitudes of science so that he may develop a more rational approach to the solution of his current and future problems. ( 3 ) The elementary science program must help the individual recognize the interrelationship of science with all other human experiences. 2
If these two statements are compared, it is evident that the elementary program calls for an emphasis on developing individualized skills, attitudes, and abilities. In short, in the first six or seven—and probably nine or ten years of schooling—what must be stressed more than anything else is the development of the pupils' individualized skills in rational thinking, the process upon which science is built. Of course, developing rational thinking and building scientific attitudes and developing technical skills cannot be done in a vacuum. We cannot teach science without science. We certainly need to teach these reasoning techniques and nurture these skills in relation to bodies of organized subject matter. What is more, the subject matter that is chosen is important. The National Science Teachers Association guideline—to encompass in the course of the program the "full range of contemporary knowledge and ideas" in science—must be considered. But essentially, science subject matter must be taught in such a way that pupils become adept, each to the extent that he is able, in the working and thinking processes which men have used, 1
National Science Teachers Association Curriculum Committee, Position on Curriculum," The Science Teacher, XXIX (December, ' Harold E. Tannenbaum and Nathan Stillman, Science Education tary School Teachers (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1960), pp.
"The NSTA 1962), 32-37. for Elemen28-29.
Individual
Differences
145
in Science
are using, and seem likely to continue to use when they work creatively in science. It is in ability to use these processes that individuals vary. It is in teaching the skills and techniques which make up these processes that progress must be individualized. M E T H O D S FOR INDIVIDUALIZING
INSTRUCTION
To begin with, let us look at the first objective—developing increased ability "to understand and deal with his natural environment." The very first science process that must be nurtured is the process of careful and exact observation. Here are two simple teaching and learning experiences which can be used with your own pupils: OBSERVATION
"You all have paper and pencils. Draw a picture of the inside of a lima bean. . . . Now let me have your sketches. I'll put a few of them in the projector. . . . How can we account for the variations? All of you have had long years of experience with lima beans, but you don't seem to have been too observant as you ate them (or rejected them). Now I just happen to have some lima beans here. Suppose you each take one and peel off the skin and look at the inside. . . . How does the bean itself compare with your original drawing? Try drawing what you see this time. . . . Now let's put a few of these second drawings in the projector. . . . We begin to get some similarities, don't we?" Note, you were not told: "Copy the drawing on the blackboard." Rather, a situation was set up in which you had to do some individual observations. Furthermore, when using this with children, their papers later can be studied carefully to find out which ones have observed the important details and which children need special help in finding some of the fundamental parts. What is more, the people who have especially acute observational powers, or at least those who are able to draw what they see quite well, can be located. Care must be taken, however, not to confuse ability to observe with ability to draw. Certainly children's abilities in scientific observation should not be evaluated solely through their abilities to sketch neatly and artistically,
146
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
for while ability to draw is important, the emphasis here should be on observation. There are many kinds of sensory observations to be made, and individualized experiences can be provided in which children all have opportunities to use and develop their various senses—hearing, seeing, touching. But it is not enough just to give them opportunities for such sensory experiences; they must also have experiences in describing their observations with more and more precision and in such detail as to allow others to verify or negate their descriptions through similar parallel experiences. A f t e r all, that is the essence of scientific observation. One must describe what he has sensed with such accuracy that others can repeat those experiences and attempt to obtain similar and confirming data. One cannot expect children to be aware of all of the happenings without having been prepared in advance to expect a great variety of events. If "observation" is to be taught, then teach it. Spend time on it. Have the children perform the operation themselves and have them do it a sufficient number of times so that they really have time to see that they can. On the other hand, if they are only to memorize something, then do not bother even with a demonstration. For children to learn to observe carefully, all need sufficient experiences and enough time so that each child in the class can make his own observations. Then help each develop his observational ability. Of course, this means that science classes will take longer than the fifteen or twenty minutes that, in the past, have been devoted to them, but if teaching science process is worthwhile, what is needed is to cut down the number of topics that are "covered" and really to study the ones presented. There is one further matter with regard to teaching observation through science. How much is careful observation involved in skills supposedly unrelated to science? Reading, of course, comes to mind immediately. A good portion of our teaching time is spent in getting children to distinguish between letters such as " d " and " b , " or between words such as "was" and " s a w . " Learning such distinctions is an individual matter. Perhaps teaching careful observation through science, if the observation is stressed, can be of help in other subjects — s o c i a l studies, art, descriptive writing, mathematics. In short, care-
Individual
Differences
in Science
147
ful observation is not just a process of science; it is a process of sound scholarship and of problem solving.
DEMONSTRATION AND EXPERIMENTATION
Let us consider the second objective: to "help the individual understand the methods, techniques, and attitudes of science." Once again the program, the materials, and the methods must be selected so that these help attain the goal. At some time or another, the phenomenon of heat transference is taught in the intermediate grades. In the Schneider texts, it is in the fifth grade. 3 In Thurber, it is in the sixth grade. 4 Frasier, MacCracken, and Decker put the topic into fifth grade, and so on. 5 All of them include some form of the demonstration in which wax balls are placed on a metal rod, and the end of the rod is placed in a flame so that the balls fall off the rod in sequence as the heat moves along it. This makes a very dramatic demonstration, but as presented in these books, it is nothing more than a demonstration; it is certainly not an experiment. Any youngster who looks at the pictures and who reads the materials will know what is going to happen before he tries anything at all. Consider, however, what can happen in a classroom in which the problem is put to the children—after they have performed the demonstration: "What do you suppose would happen if we used rods of different metals? Different thicknesses? Different amounts of heat? Different kinds or sizes of wax balls? How about materials other than metal? Will they conduct heat in the same way as metals?" There are dozens of problems to be found in this topic, all of which lend themselves to simple experiments related to the phenomenon of heat. For example: ' Herman and Nina Schneider, Science in Our World, Book 5 (Boston: D. C. Heath and Company, 1961), pp. 57-80. * Walter A. Thurber, Exploring Science Six (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc., 1960), pp. 179-206. 1 George Willard Frasier, Helen Dolman MacCracken, and Donald Gilmore Decker, Singer Science Experiments, Book 5 (Syracuse, N.Y.: L. W. Singer Company, Inc., 1959), pp. 226-244.
148
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
Consider the rate at which heat travels through a metal rod. What is your hunch (hypothesis) on this? Does heat travel through all metals at the same, or almost the same rate? Suppose there are two rods, one of copper and one of iron. Will the wax balls fall off both in about the same amount of time? Or, if they fall at different rates, which will fall first, the ones from the copper or the ones from the iron? At what rates—in how many seconds—will the balls fall from the copper rod? There are literally dozens of matters to be explored. Each of them requires thorough analysis, a well thought-through hypothesis, and a carefully designed experiment. Here is the place where individual differences are noticeable. Furthermore, here is the place where individual training can be concentrated. There is no reason why every child has to do the same experiment. Nor is there any reason for all to start with the same hypothesis. What is more, children, given the chance to explore these kinds of questions, can suggest more possible variations and nuances than we can. And for those who are not apt at this kind of "what-would-happen-if' thinking, there are opportunities for helping them learn to do so. All children should be freed, as much as possible, to use creative, imaginative thinking, to search out ways for finding answers to problems. Not all children will develop equal ability to work with these kinds of ideas, but it is interesting to see children react to opportunities for creative thinking in science. Many of the commonly taught elementary school science topics lend themselves to individualized learning. For example: "What are the factors needed to start seeds growing? What are the factors needed to keep plants growing? What happens when something burns in a closed container? How do magnets affect each other and how do they affect other materials?" FACTORS TO
CONSIDER
Two aspects need consideration when we rather than simply about science. First, as each topic requires more time. You cannot heat, for example, in a few half-hour science
teach science processes was pointed out earlier, teach the phenomena of periods. At least a week
Individual
Differences
in Science
149
of science time must be devoted to the one topic of heat conductance. About an hour each day is needed in class time and library reference time, as well as planned homework assignments on the topic all during the week. Homework is a significant part of individualized science teaching and should be checked thoroughly so that the teacher can plan for individual needs. The second aspect that should be noted is that teachers really must study the science they are teaching if their work is to be effective. They must know a great deal about the topic if they are going to teach its ramifications to children. It is not enough just to keep one jump ahead of the children. Of course, that puts a burden on teachers of teachers as well as on the elementary school teachers themselves. They must be taught basic principles and how to see the ramifications of these principles; they must be taught how to help children set up simple but creative experiments to prove or disprove hypotheses; they must be taught ways of distinguishing between significant and irrelevant data. In short, they must learn some of the important processes of science themselves, and they must learn ways of teaching these processes to children. They must learn the science. SUMMARY
Let me sum up what I have been saying about individual differences and the teaching of elementary school science. First, teaching for individual differences means teaching for individual abilities in the skills and techniques of science. Children can vary in how well they observe, in how effectively they can state problems, in how sensibly they can propose working hypotheses for solving these problems, in how well they can design simple, workable experiments for testing their hypotheses, and in how well they can use the tools of science, including the tool of mathematics and measurement, for clarifying the problems they have established. Second, teaching for individual differences means setting up situations in which each child has opportunity to develop the kinds of skills and techniques involved in the science processes. Of course, children must study the facts of science. Furthermore, their knowledge of what facts they study must be accurate. Thus, in a sense, there
150
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
can be no individual variation in learning if science is to be taught as fact-learning. Either they learn the information correctly, or they just do not know it. Third, teaching for individual differences means allowing children to explore phenomena in some depth. Remember, there are thirteen years of public education in which to study science. And even if it means taking some additional time during the crowded days of an elementary program to explore science ideas, there are many justifications for taking that time, especially if science is taught as problem solving rather than as rote learning of some questionable facts, many of which are already known to many of the children. Much of the science currently being taught in our elementary school classes should be omitted, and instead, a rather thorough job should be done with six to eight soundly-planned units each year. Finally, teaching for individual differences means that the teacher must know the science he is presenting, the processes he is trying to teach to the children, and the ways in which children have learned and can learn what is being presented. Nobody ever said that teaching was an easy job. It is high time that we put teaching science into the same category that we have put the teaching of reading or the teaching of arithmetic. Children will learn science in direct proportion to the amount of time teachers spend on clarifying goals, on planning methods and materials in line with the goals, on evaluating each child's progress toward the specific goals that have been set for him, and on modifying the plans and activities to take into account individual and group needs.
Nuclear Education in the High School GRAFTON D. CHASE * a scientific team under the leadership of Enrico Fermi achieved the first sustained nuclear chain reaction. This historic event demonstrated man's ability to control the power within the atomic nucleus and provided the means for the commercial production of nuclear power and radioisotopes. The world had entered, without question, into a new era. Seaborg has suggested that there have been three American revolutions: the first gave this country its independence; the second was the Industrial Revolution, which has made this country so highly productive; and the third, beginning about the time of Fermi's accomplishment, can be described as the Scientific Revolution.1 T W E N T Y YEARS AGO,
T H E NEED FOR EDUCATION
Science has given us the power to create or to destroy, to provide a standard of living far superior to that we know today, or to annihilate the human race. If man is to achieve the former in a peaceful and pleasant environment, there must be an intensification of our educational program, for success and, indeed, our very survival depends upon the educated and what the educated can do. While science is the central force in this creative effort, the humanities and social sciences must also play major roles. In order to establish such an ambitious educational program, every effort must be made to assure elementary and high school students a challenging curriculum that provides for the talented as well as for * Professor of Chemistry, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science. Glenn T. Seaborg, "Science, The Third Revolution," Science Newsletter, LXXXII (October 6, 1962), 221-223. 151
1
152
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
average and retarded individuals. Since the future stability of the world rests largely with the talented, they need an especially strong foundation at the elementary level in mathematics, English, the humanities, and the social sciences. In high school, attention should be given to Conant's recommendation that talented students receive a minimum of "four years of mathematics, four years of one foreign language, three years of science, . . . four years of English, and three years of social studies" 2 whenever possible. With the arrival of the Atomic Age, educators are confronted with a new challenge—to learn about this new field themselves and to pass on their knowledge to their students. T h e challenge to modernize curricula and improve specific courses is not new, but it becomes an ever greater challenge in the wake of the recent technological explosion. Atomic energy is by no means the first scientific development to challenge the world and to pose unique problems. The following excerpt from the Congressional Record of 1875 illustrates the apprehension at the time of the Industrial Revolution: A new source of power, w h i c h burns a distillate of kerosene called gasoline, has been produced by a Boston engineer. Instead of burning the fuel under a boiler, it is exploded inside the cylinder of an engine. This so-called internal combustion engine . . . begins a new era in the history of civilization. . . . N e v e r in history has society b e e n confronted with a power s o full of potential danger and at the s a m e time so full of promise for the future of m a n and for the p e a c e of the world. T h e dangers are obvious. Scores of gasoline in the hands of p e o p l e interested primarily in profit would constitute a fire and e x p l o s i v e hazard of the first rank. Horseless carriages propelled by g a s o l i n e engines might attain speeds of 14 or e v e n 2 0 miles per hour. T h e m e n a c e to our people of vehicles of this type hurtling through our streets and along our roads and p o i s o n i n g the atmosphere w o u l d call for prompt legislative action, even if the military and e c o n o m i c implications were not s o overwhelming. . . , 3 3
J;inies B. Conant, The American High School Today ( N e w York: McGrawHill Book Company, Inc., 1959), p. 57. Atomic Energy Commission News Release, "Remarks by Chairman Glenn T. Seaborg at the Annual Federal Bar Association, Mayflower Hotel, Washington, D C., September 13, 1961."
3
Nuclear Education in High School
153
In spite of the problems predicted in the Congressional Record, automobiles now fill our streets and methodically poison the atmosphere, while killing over 40,000 Americans per year—a grand total of approximately one and a half million to date, three times the number of Americans killed in all wars since 1116* We have learned to live with the risk. There are risks associated with the use of atomic energy, too, and it is apparent that history is in the process of repeating itself. Many individuals are reluctant to accept the risk of the atom in spite of the amazingly excellent safety record in the field. This reluctance is, in part, due to the unique properties of the radioisotope and its radiation; neither can be detected with any of our senses. The automobile, on the other hand, can be seen and heard; it can be touched and even smelled or tasted. In this way, the layman gains knowledge about it and can understand the associated dangers. Where our senses are not adequate, as in the case of radiation and radioactive substances, special devices are required to supplement our senses. These are the Geiger counter and other types of radiationdetection instruments. Since the average individual does not have access to such devices, his knowledge is lacking, and knowledge and respect are displaced by misunderstanding and fear. Ignorance and fear go hand in hand; so radiation becomes a mysterious menace, as fact gives way to fiction. To provide the public with the background necessary to enjoy a basic understanding of the mysteries of atomic energy is the challenge which confronts the educator. It has been estimated that 90 per cent of all the scientists who have ever lived are alive today.5 Scientific progress has increased exponentially. Whereas a delay of twenty or thirty years between the time of a discovery and its introduction into a textbook was once considered normal, today's scientific textbooks are out of date in less than five years. Three-quarters of the topics taught in my own courses were not included in my formal education as a student. Not until the end of World War II did radioisotopes become available in sufficient quantities for use in general fields of research and in 4
"Murder on the Highways—Who Cares?" Changing Times: The Kiplinger Magazine, X V I (September, 1962), 7, 9. • "Revolution in Biology—an Example of the 'Exponential Increase in Scientific Knowledge,'" School Life, XLV (October, 1962), 10.
154
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
the control of industrial processes. The last few years, in particular, have witnessed a tremendous increase in the number and scope of the applications of radioisotopes, principally as a valuable tool in established fields of scientific investigation. College and high school teachers who have been trained in radioisotope techniques have found the radioisotope an especially valuable tool for demonstrating scientific principles and for research.
T H E RE-EDUCATION
OF
TEACHERS
Recognizing the need for teacher training in the use of radioisotopes, as well as in other fields of science, the National Science Foundation has sponsored institutes—both summer and in-service types—in radiochemistry and radiobiology. In cooperation with the NSF, the Atomic Energy Commission has agreed to supply participants at these institutes with scaler-ratemeters and accessory equipment which will enable them to conduct simple demonstrations and experiments for their own students upon return to their respective schools. Such NSF and AEC assistance has done much to alleviate the vacuum of trained teachers, but the need for still more teachers with this training continues. Although over twenty NSF-sponsored institutes in radioisotope techniques are available throughout the country, still more are required. At the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science, 300 applications per year have been received for the past five years; only twenty-eight positions are available in the institute per year. These figures attest to the awareness on the part of teachers of the need for this type of training. On the other hand, if twenty institutes each train twenty teachers per year, it will take sixty-five years to produce one trained teacher for each of the 26,000 high schools in the country. The Philadelphia area is unique in having so many teachers with experience in this field.
A
SUGGESTED C O U R S E
OUTLINE
While a few high schools have introduced separate courses in the use of radioisotopes, most have not. The normal approach has been to
Nuclear Education
in High School
155
introduce these techniques into existing physics, chemistry, and biology courses, with changes in the course being initiated as trained personnel become available. The area of science—biology, chemistry, or physics—in which the teacher has concentrated, the available facilities, the special needs or objectives of the school, the opinions of the school board, and other factors create a unique situation at each school. It is therefore difficult, if not even undesirable, to formulate a general pattern to be followed at all schools for teaching nuclear science. As a guide, the following outline is presented: General Topics of Importance in the Basic Training Program I. Introduction A. What are radioisotopes? B. How are radioisotopes used? 1. As tracers (location and amount) 2. As radiation sources 3. For power II. Properties of Radioactive Atoms and Their Radiations A. Why do some atoms (i.e., radioactive atoms) decay while others do not? (basic nuclear structure, even-odd rules, neutron-proton ratio) B. By what pathways can the decay of an atom occur, and what types of radiation are produced? C. What determines the rate at which a radioactive atom will decay? (half-life, decay constant) D. What are the properties of alpha, beta, and gamma radiation? (range, energy, interaction with matter) III. Detection and Measurement of Radiation and Radioisotopes A. What instruments are used? (Geiger counters, ionization chambers, scintillation counters) B. What problems are encountered in the measurement of radioisotopes? (sample geometry, background, resolving time, scattering of radiation, absorption of radiation, instrument efficiency, statistics of radioactive decay) C. How can the quantity of a radioisotope be measured? (comparison with standard of same isotope, comparison with standard of different isotope)
156
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
IV. Applications of Radioisotopes as Tracers A. How are radioactive tracers used in chemistry? (solubility measurements, distribution of solute between immiscible solvents, radiometric analysis, isotope dilution) B. How are radioactive tracers used in biology? (distribution of trace elements, autoradiography; metabolism studies, physical location using metabolism cages, chemical location by chromatography) C. How are radioactive tracers used in medicine? (in diagnosis: uptake, blood volume, red blood count survival, anemia studies) V. Applications of Radioisotopes as Radiation Sources A. How is radiation used in chemistry? (radiation chemistry: catalysis of reactions; Szilard Chalmers process or "hot atom" chemistry) B. How is radiation used in biology? (radiation biology: effects on living tissues, somatic vs. genetic effects) C. How is radiation used in medicine? (therapy) D. How is radiation used in industry? (thickness and density gauges, liquid level gauges) In preparing this outline, an attempt was made to organize the topics according to application with respect to the radioisotope and the general fields of science. T o organize applications with respect to the radioisotope, one must consider what happens in the process of radioactive decay and how these phenomena can be used to advantage. In the process of decay, energy is released and radiation is emitted. From this point of view, it can be seen that radioisotopes can be used ( 1 ) to supply power, ( 2 ) to serve as a source of radiation, a wide variety of radiation types and energies being available f r o m over 1,000 nuclides, and ( 3 ) to serve as tracers, the release of radiation allowing one not only to locate the radioactive atoms but also to measure how many are present. It is obvious that the first area of application, for power, has no place in the high school program except in didactic work. H e r e a point of special interest is the use of strontium-90 in systems for nuclear auxiliary power units to supply power to satellites and buoys where replacement of batteries is either impossible or troublesome. Even the second application, as radiation sources, is limited for
Nuclear Education
in High School
157
high school use. Physics classes will be interested in a study of the properties of radiation, e.g., the absorption of radiation by matter, scattering, and deflection in magnetic fields. For such experiments, relatively small sources—those exempt from A E C license—can be used. But for applications in radiation chemistry or radiation biology, relatively large sources are required unless experiments are limited to the use of ultra-violet light as a substitute for x- or gamma-radiation. It is, therefore, surprising that interest in radiation biology should be so keen. Of the twenty-one NSF institutes in nuclear science held during the summer of 1963, sixteen were in radiation biology. Although it is possible to use the facilities of a neighboring hospital or college, requests for irradiation must be limited lest they become an imposition. CONCLUSION
It is the application of radioisotopes as tracers which holds forth the most promise for high school nuclear science courses. Certainly in the fields of pure chemistry and pure biology, and especially in biochemistry, the value of radioactive tracers can hardly be overestimated. Tracers have provided the means for major discoveries in biochemistry, and there is little question but that mankind has benefited most from the radioisotopes through this type of research. It may also be surprising to learn that much of this biochemical research has been done with license-exempt quantities of radioisotopes.
Industrial
Education
and Changing
Concepts
WILLIAM R. MASON * W H E N ADMIRAL RICKOVER stepped from submarines to education he made news. His overemphasis of the importance of academic subjects and his criticism of all other areas of instruction created a concept for many educated, but unperceptive, influential people of a tired, sick, national educational system that contained low-level, unimportant courses, completely void of mental challenge. Shop teachers took the full blast of his charge. A few weeks later, Dr. Conant pushed the pendulum so forcefully in the other direction, with his studies of the underprivileged and the out-of-school, that overnight vocational education and all of its relatives became a panacea for everyone's problems. 1 It became the cureall for the dropout, the ills of education, the unemployed. It was to be the answer for deprived areas and the savior for manpower training needs. Publicity, both good and bad, constant attention by the press, plus present and predicted manpower problems are certain to generate the greatest acceleration of industrial education since 1917. Since industrial education will be called upon to carry a heavy responsibility in the economic development of the country (which means also a part in social development), teachers of industrial education need to accept the responsibility and plan for the future. * Directing Supervisor of Industrial Arts, Department of Instruction, Board of Education, Cleveland, Ohio. 'James B. Conant, Slums and Suburbs (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1961), 44-53. 158
Industrial Education
THE
and Changing
E F F E C T OF
Concepts
159
AUTOMATION
A recent issue of Life Magazine contains a series of disturbing pictures under the surprising tide, "The Point of No Return for Everybody." 2 Following this, and related to it, Keith Wheeler, one of the feature writers, presents a story of "mechanical gremlins" that have provoked crises which indicate that, unless society summons the will and imagination to alter itself to the rhythms of a new kind of technology, the next generation will not have much to do but loaf. 3 The reason, of course, is "automation." Automation is a way of manufacturing; it is said to be as American as apple pie. It consists in doing by machine, rather than by hand, job after job after job. Automation has increased some production beyond the capacity for consumption. Automation is many things—good and bad, economic and social. It is at once a threat to labor and labor's future, and a promise of a golden age with a progressively higher standard of living for everyone. No discussion of industrial education and changing concepts would be complete without recognizing this mindless, bloodless monster and the implications its presence creates for education. This summer at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, I saw the results of the first programed construction project. Today, a completed Swiss-chalet type, three-and-a-half-million-dollar hotel stands in a grove of full grown oaks and is surrounded by a 250-boat marina. Last summer, frogs croaked in a murky swamp on the same spot. The entire operation, from bulldozer to the direction crane booms would swing to pick trusses off a truck, was worked out, scheduled, and timed by IBM tape. Last week, I listened to a machine transcribe the written word into spoken words, complete with electronic voice inflections. It even sang a song with better range than I have. There are other glories and heartaches of automation. You know a
Burk Uzzle (photographer), "The Point of No Return for Everybody," Life Magazine, LV (July 19, 1963), 68A-71. 8 Keith Wheeler, "Big Labor Hunts for the Hard Answers," Life Magazine, ibid., pp. 73-88.
160
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
what it is and what it does. Y o u have read the bewildering figures that prove some twenty-four million workers will lose their jobs this decade through automation. A t the same time (as Wheeler puts i t ) , "there is more than one way to skin a statistic." 4 Other figures show how many new jobs are created because of automation. Its efficiency cannot be questioned. The new jobs and the training they require cannot be questioned, either, for training is the job of industrial education. What is needed is information on the job requirements. It is becoming more and more evident that educational opportunities and economic conditions have interlocking effects. It is evident, too, that education must be a continuous process. N o longer can a person enter the world of work with a set of skills that will last him throughout his working life. H e must retrain, upgrade, learn new skills, study new areas of knowledge, if he is to maintain economic security. This means that opportunities in industrial education should be visualized in a much broader sense than has heretofore been done. Of course, subjects which were considered as preparation for the world of work have always been included in the program of industrial education. Usually these are at the high school level. Recently, a posthigh school, junior college level was added to the program. N o w , perhaps, prehigh school occupational programs, high school vocational and technical courses, post-high school technician training, and college level courses should be included in the program as well. T h e subjects need not be limited to skill courses or mechanical courses to qualify them as industrial education. Parallel training in mathematics and physics and chemistry are important and are required for more and more jobs. If these are needed on a job, are not they, too, vocational? Industrial education begins to look more and more like a team proposition, with department divisions fading away. When we try to provide courses people need for economic security, we may have to cut across many lines at many levels of advancement. Perhaps there is need for some new kinds of schools, too, and our concept of the two-semester, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. school may have to be revised. A unique vocational center, The Emily Griffith Opportunity School, 'Ibid.,
p. 73.
Industrial Education and Changing Concepts
161
was started forty-seven years ago as part of the free public school system of Denver, Colorado. The school has a yearly average enrolment of 30,000 men and women attending classes. It is tuition-free to city residents over sixteen years of age. Classes are held both day and night, every month of the year, offering approximately three hundred different subjects in eight broad areas. There are no special educational or other entrance requirements. Some of the students in this school are being taught to read and write; others enrol for advanced technical training. Courses of study include apprenticeship training, business education, distributive education, general education, trades and industrial education, and others. General education includes a basic section for providing the elementary work usually given in grades one through four, as well as remedial courses. Two unique aspects of the school are that a student may enter any, except the short-unit, classes whenever there is room for him, and each may progress at his own rate of speed. Recently, there has been considerable talk of year-round schools. These may be closer than we think. To accommodate "shift" workers, it may be necessary to offer "shift" education or all night schools, rather than evening schools. The present concept of the school year and the school day may be questioned when efficient use of taxes begins to be weighed against the services requested. In this age of automated program manufacturing, responsibility for what is included as industrial education must be shared by others besides educators. Industry must assume the burden of informing the schools at all levels what special or particular training and instruction is needed. We assume that the schools can determine and provide basic educational needs. Industry should co-operate more closely in helping set up special skill and training programs. It has been evident for some time that students and working people, young and old, must develop greater respect for education. Each must understand his own responsibility for taking full advantage of opportunities to gain basic knowledge or advanced training and retraining. Parents, ministers, union leaders, employers, and telecasters could help develop respect for excellence in learning (both mechanical and academic) at all levels and by all ages. This would result in an accompanying disrespect for so-called terminal education, for the emphasis
162
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
that has been gaining momentum is on the importance of continuous education.
A
SINGLE
PROGRAM
A rather controversial idea today is that of a single industrial education program in all comprehensive high schools. Conant's study pointed up the need for expanded vocational opportunities in our schools. 6 Feirer promoted the single program in one of his editorials. 6 The issue has been argued in Cleveland and seems to be opposed equally by vocational and industrial arts teachers there.
THE COMPREHENSIVE
SCHOOL
Traditionally, our high schools have been academically oriented. They have provided various types and levels of shop programs. Usually they offer industrial arts programs in comprehensive high schools and vocational programs in separate trade schools. The President's panel of consultants reported the nature of occupational demands and our educational needs. Some twenty-six million youth will be looking for jobs between now and 1970, and of every ten students now in school, three will not finish high school; of the seven who do finish, three will seek work. 7 Therefore, it is imperative to take a closer look at schools that schedule academic classes first for all students because of the college-bound few, then let others get what they can from industrial arts courses offered. The figures above indicate that, in the country as a whole, from 60 to 70 per cent of those who are now in high school do not go to college, yet we consistently plan our entire programs around the 30 or 35 per cent who do. More than one "shop" program for comprehensive high schools is really needed in order to provide for: ( 1 ) Those pupils who obvis Conant, op. cit. "John J. Feirer, "Education for a Changing World of Work," Industrial Arts and Vocational Education, LII (February, 1 9 6 3 ) , 11. 7 U.S. Department of Labor, Manpower—Challenge of the 1960s, 1961, pp. 13, 15, 16.
Industrial Education and Changing Concepts
163
ously will not go on to college and who may even not finish high school. They should have occupational experience courses. If objectives were broadened, some of these courses could be offered in industrial arts shops. Others, such as shoe repair, would need special vocational equipment. (2) The college-bound engineering student and those boys who plan post-high school technician training should be given opportunity for study under a pre-engineering-technical program. Such courses as high school engineering drafting, electronics, metals and metal fabrication, and power mechanics (including hydraulics) could be offered. (3) Still another program is needed for those students who will finish high school but who, for one reason or another, will need to enter the work force right after graduation. This could be called technical or vocational or technical-vocational education. Group I, the potential high school dropout with limited academic talent, and Group III, the mechanically talented who finish high school and then seek work, need much more study by teachers as to curriculum planning and possible job placement. Many in Group III will eventually continue their education in night classes after they begin their productive lives. This leads us to suggest that a fourth group, the growing army of adult evening school population that have found a need for retraining and additional training, should have courses planned for them also. Adult education of less than college level and local college-level training will soon equal day school education, for it is presently expanding at a rapid rate in many areas. Thus today, all sizable school systems with one or more high schools should be providing industrially-oriented experiences from the junior high school on through trade extension, post-high school, and junior college level training. Special paths for those of limited talents and for those of exceptional mechanical talents should be included. The early experiences should be considered as industrial arts and the post-high school courses as vocational education. No dividing line should be drawn at any given point that says, "This is one, and that is the other." Thus, the all-inclusive term "industrial education" becomes most appropriate and meaningful, for it provides important flexibility within each school. Some subject areas, by their very nature and course content, are, or at least can be, more
164
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
technical than occupational. For example, occupational small electrical appliance repair might be a two-semester course, while electricity-electronics for pre-engineers would be planned for the college bound. At the same time, industrial electrical machines and controls might well be considered incomplete with anything less than two years beyond high school. It can be argued that any course can be designed to be technical, or vocational, or at a low-skill level. So, also, can most shop courses be written to meet industrial arts objectives or vocational objectives. This strengthens the argument for one industrial education program rather than an industrial arts program or a vocational program in every sizable comprehensive high school. EVIDENCES OF THE
TREND
Apparently a beginning of union is developing between teachers of trade and industrial education and industrial arts education. Both groups are showing signs of remembering that manual training gave birth to industrial arts and to trade and industrial education; that the objectives of both emphasize preparing youth for useful life; and that both wear the same kind of shop aprons. As long as we remember this relationship, industrial education is a fine "family name." A review of recent programs of the American Vocational Association reveals combined meetings and an interchange of speakers between trade and industry and industrial arts sections. This concept of "togetherness" within the ranks could become a most significant change for both groups. Surely more can be accomplished through union than through separation, and I personally welcome the move. THE SEPARATE VOCATIONAL SCHOOL
It is argued that expanding vocational opportunities into more comprehensive high schools will eventually bring about the end of separate trade schools. I do not believe this nor want this. Pure trade schools and separate vocational schools can be equipped to do specialized training which is not economically possible in every school. Then too, these schools or centers provide the extended training
industrial Education and Changing Concepts
165
needed by those students who prove through their foundation courses in industrial arts and through their academic performances that they are ready for, and capable of, advanced vocational or technical training in a program dedicated to concentrated study in selected areas. These separate trade schools could become twelfth-, thirteenth-, and fourteenth-year schools, and there is some indication of a trend in this direction. Growing interest in area vocational schools supports the belief in the future of separate trade and vocational schools. According to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, construction of some five hundred schools is needed in this country. The Perkins Bill includes twenty-five million for construction of area schools on a matching basis.8 State and local activity in the establishment of such schools is starting to mushroom. The State Legislature of Tennessee at its last session passed legislation for the establishment of twenty area trade schools and three technical institutes. A two-thousandstudent, six-million technical area school is planned for Atlanta, Georgia, and New Hampshire has authorized five state area vocational schools. One of the problems stemming from all this interest, this growth, and this expanding dimension of industrial education is obtaining the teachers to staff the programs. It is difficult to find teachers with the depth of training required for some of the programs that are being planned. The dropout requires specially trained teachers. The technician requires training by men with advanced education in specific lines. The expansion of programs in the cities requires many more qualified teachers than are now available. What can be done to encourage more and better candidates than there are at present to go into teacher education to work at more advanced levels than junior high woodwork? Nine out of ten applicants want to teach woodwork, and the tenth just wants industrial arts. In fact, most applicants request industrial arts, because they have had one course in each of them. Often they indicate that they see little differences in the courses. An applicant for a technical area 8 U.S. Congress, House, Vocational Education Act of 1963, 88th Congress, 1st Sess., 1963, H.R. 4955.
166
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
or for advanced level teaching in any area is a rarity and is greeted like a prodigal son. CONCLUSION
Teachers of industrial education recognize the job that needs to be done by education. They know it is a greater job than has been done in the past. They know that parents, taxpayers, and industry must be sold this greater dimension of education. Their stake is great, their investment is great, their need is great. Education is a team proposition, involving more than teachers of machine shop and teachers of welding. Industrial education can be— no, must be—involved with the dropout, the high school student planning for college, the displaced worker, the high school student planning to become a worker, the technician, and the specialist. A system of education is needed that is as different from today's schools as the one-room school house. Can this be done?
IV Higher
Education
Higher Education
as an Emerging
Discipline
WILLIS RUDY* existed as a going concern in North America for more than two hundred and fifty years before it began to be studied systematically by scholars and commented upon in formal courses by university teachers. As an emerging discipline, in the sense of a definite field of research and teaching in order to build up a meaningful body of knowledge, higher education did not make a significant impact upon American universities until the years following World War I. Actually, the most active developments in the scholarly area have come during the past ten years. Higher education, when considered as a discipline, presumably means the specific academic concern with this subject that is manifested by formally-organized institutions of higher learning. In any case, this is the aspect which will be stressed here. There have been, of course, parallel studies of the field of higher education made by outside organizations—philanthropic foundations, professional societies, governmental agencies, and the like. Investigations of this character will be mentioned only insofar as they appear to reflect the emergence of higher education as a university study. HIGHER EDUCATION
DEVELOPMENT PRIOR TO
1900
EARLY REPORTS
There was a considerable amount of published writing about colleges and universities before the year 1900, either concerning special prob* Professor of American History and Education, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, New Jersey. 169
170
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
1
lems or the history of particular institutions. In the late 1880's, Professor Herbert Baxter Adams, of the Johns Hopkins University, sponsored the publication of a notable series of monographs by the U.S. Bureau of Education which reviewed the history of higher education in various states. His own study of the College of William and Mary was one of the most useful titles in this series. 2 It still seems to be a fact, however, that the first general survey of the development of higher education in the United States was not published until 1906. In that year Charles F. Thwing, then president of Western Reserve University, brought out his History of Higher Education in America.3
THE FIRST
COURSES
Despite the many articles in magazines, alumni recollections, fulllength books on various phases of college life, and the increasing number of institutional histories which appeared, higher education was very slow to gain recognition as a field which deserved the attention of members of a university faculty. Apparently the first individual to give a course on the college level specifically designated as dealing with "higher education" was G. Stanley Hall, president of Clark University, who did so in 1893. 4 Hall, from time to time, came forward to offer work in higher education again in the years that followed, but there were few who followed in his footsteps in the pre-World War I period. One of these was a Clark University colleague, Edmund C. Sanford, who taught such courses during the years 1909 to 1921. Another was Edward Franklin Buchner, a professor of education and director of the College for Teachers at the Johns Hopkins University ' F o r example, see William Lathrop Kingsley ( e d . ) , Yale College: A Sketch of Its History ( N e w York: Henry Holt, 1879) or N o a h Porter, The American Colleges and the American Public ( N e w Haven: Charles C. Chatfield & Co., 1870). * Herbert B. Adams, The College of William and Mary, Bureau of Education Circulars of Information, N o . 1 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1887). 3 Charles F. Thwing, A History of Higher Education in America ( N e w York: D. Appleton and Co., 1906). * For documentation on this point, see Burns Byron Young, ' T h e Rise and Development of Instructional Courses in Higher Education" (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Stanford University, January, 1952)
Higher Education as an Emerging Discipline
171
and himself a product of the Hall regime at Clark. Buchner introduced a course in higher education at Johns Hopkins in 1915 and continued to offer it in subsequent years. There is also the good possibility that a course, which at least bore the title "Higher Education," was offered at the University of Chicago summer session of 1896 by one Charles H. Thurber, a man who later became a professor of education at Chicago. INFORMAL
BEGINNINGS
Of course, the question of how far one can trace back higher education as a university discipline in America depends to a large extent on one's definition of "discipline." If the term were to be used so loosely as to refer to any kind of effort, whether curricular or informal, made by an American college or university to prepare persons for careers in college teaching, then the historian would have to place the beginnings of the emergence of the discipline back in the eighteenth century. Already, by that time, a system of informal post-graduate instruction was in effect for so-called "resident graduates," who were usually also serving as college tutors and thus learning their craft by doing. This system was elaborated somewhat during the first half of the nineteenth century. It does not seem that such a resident-graduate system of training represents anything like a purposeful involvement on the part of the institutions employing it with the total problem of higher education as a field of study and investigation. There is no basis, therefore, for placing the higher education discipline back in the early American college. A closely-related question of historical precedence remains to be iconsidered, however. Does not the appearance of the full-fledged American graduate school upon the scene during the 1870's, climaxed by the dazzling debut of the Johns Hopkins University in 1876, demonstrate a newly-awakened concern for the higher education field on the part of the colleges and universities of the country? Again the answer would have to be, "No." While the new graduate schools in general, and Johns Hopkins in particular, were obviously involved in raising the level of higher learning in the United States, it does not appear that they sought to do this by making a total, systematic study
172
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
of the problems of the entire higher education structure as such. They certainly felt no need to set up special university departments to deal with these matters or to offer instruction in the area. To be sure, they now developed elaborate graduate programs for the training of future college professors. But these programs, oriented in the direction of advanced study of a specific subject-matter field and the encouragement of original research in that field, operated on the assumption that the same pattern of training that was necessary for the prospective research scholar and investigator was the best also for the future college professor. Having established their professional program on this basis, the great American graduate schools saw no need for further exploration or exposition of the overall philosophical, institutional, and methodological aspects of the craft of college teaching.
T H E FIRST H A L F OF THE T W E N T I E T H MAJOR
CENTURY
PROGRAMS
Let us now return to our historical review of the formal appearance of higher education work in this country's institutions of learning. Following World War I, as college enrolments mounted and criticism of existing graduate school methods of training professors increased in various quarters, more higher education courses were introduced. 5 At Teachers College, Columbia, a program in this field was begun by Robert J. Leonard in 1923; by 1930 students at that institution for the first time had the option of majoring in higher education. In 1938, Teachers College boasted that it was offering no less than fifteen fullsemester courses in the subject. Another active center for higher education studies was Ohio State University, where Boyd H. Bode introduced the field in 1928. Still another was the University of Chicago, ' S e e R a y m o n d M. Hughes, "A Study of the G r a d u a t e Schools of A m e r i c a . " Bulletin of the Association of American Colleges, X I ( M a y , 1 9 2 5 ) , 237-245; Association of American Universities, Journal of Proceedings and Addresses of the Thirty-fourth Annual Conference, 1932 ( C h i c a g o : T h e University of Chic a g o Press, 1933), pp. 70-72; "Report of the C o m m i t t e e on College and University T e a c h i n g , " Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors, X I X , Section T w o ( M a y , 1933); also ibid., X X V (April, 1 9 3 9 ) , 169-182, 191-202.
Higher Education
as an Emerging Discipline
173
which offered three courses in higher education in 1927. Also beginning its program during the late twenties was Stanford University, which established two higher education courses in 1929. INFLUENTIAL
REPORTS
At these and other institutions of higher learning interest in the systematic development of higher education as a field of research and instruction continued to grow during the nineteen thirties, but the really significant development of this new university discipline took place following World War II. The trend of the times encouraged it. The pouring into the nation's classrooms of great numbers of veterans studying under the G. I. Bill of Rights sent college enrolments soaring to hitherto unheard-of heights and focused public attention on higher education and its problems. During the late forties and the decade of the fifties this new interest was reflected by the issuance of a series of notable reports, master plans, blueprints, and research studies which emanated from agencies and organizations outside of college walls. In this connection, one thinks immediately of President Truman's Commission on Higher Education of 1946-1947 and President Eisenhower's Committee on Education Beyond the High School of 1956-1957. 6 There comes to mind, too, the formulation of master plans for the expansion and improvement of higher education within particular states, plans such as those referred in the publications issued by the Council of State Governments. 7 Similarly exemplifying an increased interest in the field were the studies sponsored by professional societies. In 1957, the Educational Policies Commission of the National Education Association sponsored one such report. 8 In 1962, the National Society for the Study of Edu" U.S. President's Commission on Higher Education, Higher Education for American Democracy: A Report (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948); The President's Committee on Education Beyond the High School, First Report, 1956; Second Report, 1957 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1957). 7 For two examples, see Council of State Governments, Higher Education in the Forty-eight States: A Report to the Governors' Conference (Chicago: The Council of State Governments, 1952), and Betty S. Greenberg and William L. Frederick (eds.), Reports on Higher Education, An Annotated Bibliography (Chicago: Council of State Governments, March, 1958). 8 Educational Policies Commission, Higher Education in a Decade of Decision (Washington: National Education Association, 1957).
174
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
cation devoted Part Two of its sixty-first yearbook to the problem of education for the professions. 8 Even before 1939, the American Council on Education published a valuable series of monographs on special aspects of higher education, thus supplementing the studies which were regularly appearing in the issues of such publications as the Bulletin of the American Association of Colleges. FOUNDATION
INTEREST
Among the most interesting of the investigations which now appeared were those sponsored by the foundations. The Fund for the Advancement of Education financed the study of The Younger American Scholar by Robert Knapp and Joseph Greenbaum, which was published in 1953. 1 0 The Carnegie Corporation of New York underwrote the costs of Bernard Berelson's extensive study of American graduate education in I960. 1 1 And the Mary Conover Mellon Foundation at Vassar College, along with the Carnegie Corporation, made grants which greatly facilitated the compilation of the various studies of contemporary American higher education which Nevitt Sanford edited in 1962 under the title of The American College.12
THREE
PROGRAMS
The social context we have described was one which served to encourage the study of higher education as an academic discipline. The pioneering courses which had been introduced during the two or three decades preceding 1945 were utilized now as nuclei for expanded offerings. By the early nineteen fifties more than thirty American universities were giving course work in higher education, much of it quite " Education for the Professions, National Society f o r the Study of Education, T h e Sixty-first Y e a r b o o k , Part II ( C h i c a g o : T h e University of C h i c a g o Press, 1962). 10 Robert H. Knapp and Joseph J. Greenbaum, The Younger American Scholar: His Collegiate Origins ( M i d d l e t o w n , Connecticut: W e s l y e a n University, 1 9 5 3 ) . u Bernard Berelson, Graduate Education in the United States ( N e w Y o r k : McGraw-Hill B o o k Co., Inc., 1 9 6 0 ) . 12 Nevitt Sandford ( e d . ) , The American College, A Psychological and Social Interpretation of the Higher Learning ( N e w York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1962).
Higher Education as an Emerging Discipline
175
13
recently instituted. It may be of interest at this point to look briefly at the higher education programs which were under way during these years at three major universities. At the University of Minnesota, Ruth E. Eckert, professor of higher education, taught a one-year sequence of courses in higher education. In addition, no less than eighteen other courses and seminars were announced as being related to the work being done by those concentrating in higher education. 14 At New York University, a distinct Department of Higher Education existed in the School of Education, listing a total of fifteen courses in the field in the 1963 catalogue. 15 These courses seemed especially designed to serve the needs of those intending to pursue a career in the administration of institutions of higher education, although Professor Ellis F. White, chairman of the department, emphasized that they were also "designed generally to prepare graduate students for instruction in higher education." 16 At Stanford University, W. H. Cowley, who held the David Jacks chair as professor of higher education, taught a co-ordinated series of three basic courses in the field, extending over two years, and also three seminar or research courses for more advanced students.17 RECENT EXPANSION
Higher education, then, was indeed beginning to come into its own as an academic discipline by the time the twentieth century had passed its midpoint. We have not as yet spoken, however, of the American academic centers where the deepest involvement with the development of his new discipline took place. These were three in number and their opportunity for trail-blazing work in the field was made " John S. Brubacher and Willis Rudy, Higher Education in Transition (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958), pp. 210-214. J * Ruth E. Eckert, "Study Guide to Ed. C.I. 250. Higher Education in the United States" (6th ed.; Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, September, 1962). 15 N e w York University, School of Education Announcement, The 73rd Session, 1963-1964 ( N e w York: Washington Square, 1963), pp. 142-144. 10 Letter from Ellis F. White to the author, May 28, 1963. " "Prospectus of the Courses Taught by W. H. Cowley" (Palo Alto, California: Stanford University, September, 1960); letter from W. H. Cowley to the author, May 28, 1963.
176
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
possible by the fortunate circumstance that they were able to attract the financial backing of the Carnegie Foundation. These three higher education centers were located at Teachers College, Columbia University, at the University of Michigan, and at the University of California in Berkeley. AT TEACHERS
COLLEGE,
COLUMBIA
UNIVERSITY
In July, 1956, an Institute of Higher Education was established at Teachers College, Columbia. The objectives for the new center were stated at the time as being five in number: (1) A research headquarters for intensive investigation of problems of critical importance in higher education; (2) provision of experienced consultant services; (3) the inservice training of college and university personnel, and the preservice training of prospective administrators, research specialists, and college teachers; (4) the publication and distribution of materials "designed to enlighten the lay public regarding, and to gain their support for, the higher educational program of the country"; (5) the collection and distribution of relevant documentary materials.18 Six years later, the executive officer of the institute, former U.S. Commissioner of Education Earl J. McGrath, reported to President John H. Fischer, of Teachers College, that the institute had found it expeditious to concentrate its work on objectives 1, 4 and 5, while not completely neglecting items 2 and 3. This reflected the emphasis which was called for in the original Carnegie grant, which looked to the institute for research into the curricula of undergraduate professional schools. As a research center, the institute made detailed studies of a number of professional fields, focusing its attention on the relationships between liberal and professional subject matter. U.S. Office of Education funds aided greatly in this phase of the center's work. In addition, Ford Foundation grants made it possible for the executive officer to make a comparative study of the organization and administration of higher education in Europe, Canada, and the United States. With respect to item 4, the publication function, it is worthy of 18
"Prospectus for The Institute of Higher Education" (Teachers College, Columbia University, July, 1956), pp. 1-2. (Mimeographed.)
Higher Education as an Emerging Discipline
177
note that the institute by 1962 had issued fourteen monographs on phases of liberal and professional education and had four more in preparation. Up to that time, over 40,000 copies of the monographs had been published. Furthermore, a series of eleven special studies were put out in mimeographed form, and more than thirty articles or addresses originating in the work of the institute eventually saw print. Finally, a number of consultative services by members of the institute staff were made available to institutions, agencies, and individuals requesting them. 19 AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
As in the case of Teachers College, Columbia, the University of Michigan possessed by the time of the nineteen fifties a department of higher education which was now successful in attracting Carnegie Corporation funds to expand its work. The Michigan department was headed by Algo Henderson and came to include such eminent scholars as John S. Brubacher. The foundation's grant to Michigan led to the setting up there of a Center for the Study of Higher Education which worked in close accord with the pre-existing department of higher education. As we have seen, the main emphasis of the Carnegie-financed Institute of Higher Education at Teachers College, Columbia, was on research and publications. The center at Michigan decided to follow a different tack. Its primary involvement came to be with the training of men for administrative careers in higher education. Each year the center was host to five persons who already had their doctorates but who seemed destined for administration rather than teaching or research. Their status at the University was something like that of the Nieman fellows at Harvard. These men were free to study whatever they wished, but they all attended a postdoctoral seminar on problems of higher education once a week. Some of them also had a kind of internship experience in administration while at the University.20 " Letter from Earl J. McGrath to President John Fischer, Teachers College, Columbia University, November 29, 1962. 20 Letter from John S. Brubacher to the author, May 28, 1963.
178
FREEDOM
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA,
AND
EDUCATION
BERKELEY
Although the higher education unit at the Berkeley campus of the University of California bore the same title as the one at Michigan, namely, Center for the Study of Higher Education, its activities resembled much more closely the ones at Teachers College, Columbia. While courses in various phases of higher education were taught in the University's School of Education, the 1961-1962 Annual Report of the Berkeley center makes it clear that the organization's principal activity was research. Listed in this publication are a number of studies and monographs which may give us an idea of the center's interests and objectives. For example, we find reference here to a work published for the center by John G. Darley entitled Promise and Performance: A Study of Ability and Achievement in Higher Education21 Also listed is a book by the director of the center, Professor T. R. McConnell, which bore the title A General Pattern for American Public Higher Education.22 Among the studies in process by members of the staff, the following subjects were mentioned: "Differential Selectivity and Institutional Impact"; "College Attendance of High School Graduates from Varying Socio-economic and Ability Levels"; "Relationships between the Characteristics and Backgrounds of High School Graduates and Their Subsequent Personal and Educational Development"; "Factors Affecting the Performance of Students Who Transferred from Two- to Four-Year Colleges and Implications for Co-ordination between the Two Types of Institutions"; "Study of Student Development at the University of California at Berkeley"; and "An Intensive Study of the Educational Careers of High-Ability Students." In addition, members of the staff were listed as having published a number of other specialized studies in the area of higher education in various scholarly journals and proceedings. 23 a
John G. Darley, Promise and Performance: A Study of Ability and ment in Higher Education (Berkeley, Calif.: Center for the Study of Education, University of California, 1962). 25 Thomas Raymond McConnell, A General Pattern for American Public Education ( N e w York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1962). " Annual Report, 1961-1962 (Berkeley, Calif.: Center for the Study of Education, University of California, 1962).
AchieveHigher Higher Higher
Higher Education
as an Emerging
APPRAISAL
OF
Discipline
THE C U R R E N T
179
STATUS
Thus, higher education as a serious academic discipline—as an emerging field for study and research, within universities and without—had clearly made its mark by the early nineteen sixties. Much of the development of the discipline, as has been noted, occurred in the United States during the years following World War II. A good deal had been done. Was there still much to be done? Sanford seems to think so, writing in the epilogue to the compendious volume he edited that, "we are far from having produced a body of systematic knowledge that would be satisfying to the scientist." 2 4 The author would agree with this observation as to the limited nature of the results which research in higher education has produced thus far, but he finds that two other aspects of the matter bother him even more. First of all, it seems apparent that the emerging discipline of higher education has not been able, or not been willing, seriously to come to grips with the all-important problem of methods of preparing college teachers. Despite reports and recommendations by graduate school deans and the launching of experimental programs in particular institutions, there has been no concerted national attack, led by university departments and study centers in higher education, on the long-existing scandal of the poor or non-existent methodological preparation of American college professors for the practice of their profession. The unfortunate "cold war" which has been raging for all too many years between the regular academic departments on university campuses and the education schools and departments is undoubtedly a major obstacle to the intelligent solution of this problem. Meanwhile, American higher learning has had to put up with the expression of pious hopes and with the introduction of a few informal or partial efforts to provide proper professional training for the academic craft along with the necessary thorough grounding in advanced subject matter. The resultant situation has remained so bad that James D. Koerner, a particularly vocal critic of teachers colleges and schools of education, could write recently: Sanford, op. cil., p. 1009.
180
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
T h e a c a d e m i c classes I visited, although consistently better than those in Education, were o f t e n dull and pedestrian performances. In the large institutions, graduate assistants, instead of "assisting" the senior faculty, are frequently full-fledged teachers of f r e s h m a n and s o p h o m o r e courses, and they are rarely c o m p e t e n t for this job . . . E v e n the a d v a n c e d courses in a c a d e m i c areas are m u c h t o o o f t e n needlessly pedantic, dry, and unstimulating, especially for students w h o d o not h a p p e n to be majoring in the field involved. A c a d e micians, as e v e r y b o d y k n o w s , are not paid for the quality of their teaching, but chiefly for the quantity of their published r e s e a r c h — an evil as widely recognized in the groves of a c a d e m e as it is ignored."'
The other major weakness in the higher education field as presently organized involves essentially a question of emphasis. It seems to the writer that this relatively new discipline, even more than many of the older ones with which it co-exists on campus, is guilty of missing the woods for the trees. Up to the present, it does not appear that the subject of higher education has been approached in a broad enough framework. American scholars have produced many useful segmental studies and taught a number of helpful courses on specialized aspects of the field. But they have not yet come up with a meaningful synthesis, nor is there any evidence that their compartmentalized work is even related to such a holistic approach. Valuable insights have been gained, particularly in the areas of university administration and student counseling. But these special studies have not been placed in a broad enough, liberal enough humanistic context. Furthermore, despite the studies made by McGrath of the relationships between university developments abroad and those at home, it does not seem to the writer that the bulk of the work in the new higher education discipline has proceeded in a sufficiently comprehensive world context of comparative higher education. There are, of course, notable exceptions to this generalization. One thinks immediately of a book like Oliver C. Carmichael's Universities: Commonwealth and American, A Comparative Study.'2'1 One thinks also of the work of men such as 25
J a m e s D. Koerner, The Miseducalion of American Teachers (Boston: Houghton Mifflin C o m p a n y , 1963), p. 264. " O l i v e r C. Carmichael, Universities: Commonwealth and American, A Comparative Study ( N e w York, H a r p e r & Brothers, 1959).
Higher Education
as an Emerging
Discipline
181
William W. Brickman, Abraham Flexner, I. L. Kandel, and Robert Ulich. But much more remains to be done to place our studies of American colleges and universities in an appropriate global perspective. Perhaps, in all truth, the vast field of American higher education is just too complex, too diverse, for a meaningful synthesis. Nevertheless it would seem incumbent upon those now actively working to help this emerging discipline win the recognition which is certainly due to it in the academic world to try more consistently than has been true before to place their studies within a broader, more unified frame of reference. And it would also seem to be a major responsibility of theirs to turn the full force of the resources now available to practitioners of the discipline on the still essentially unsatisfactory and unsolved problem of the proper professional preparation of college teachers.
The Courts and the Colleges Since
Midcentury
M. M. C H A M B E R S * I T IS I M P O S S I B L E to divorce educational administration from law. Therefore, it is important that administrators should free themselves f r o m popular misconceptions of law and deal with it as a spur to progress rather than as a "wet blanket." The law is often thought of chiefly as regulatory, punitive, or preventive—as a deterrent rather than a stimulator. To be sure, it has its restrictive and restraining features; but fundamentally it is a living and growing expression of beneficent and progressive public policy. It looks to the future of human society, and is deeply concerned with the evolution of human rights and of individual liberty and opportunity, as well as with orderly administration and social leadership. These interests give it a close kinship with the profession of education. Both move toward high goals that are virtually the same. Both law and education wrestle with some of the same deep philosophical issues upon whose resolution the advancement of civilization depends. This is one reason why they should be approached broadly in a comparative and reflective mood, rather than in a spirit of finding cut-and-dried answers. The real questions are those of far-sighted social theory that relate to what is right and what is wrong, what is just and what is inequitable, how to enlarge the freedom of the indivdual as society grows more efficient and humane. There is a timid type of administrator who will do nothing new until he has a favorable opinion from his legal counsel or f r o m the
* Visiting Professor of Higher Education, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. The substance of this discourse is drawn largely from the author's forthcoming book, The Colleges and the Courts Since 1950, to be published in 1964 by the Interstate Printers and Publishers, Inc., Danville, Illinois.
182
The Courts and the Colleges Since Midcentury
183
attorney general. It was not that kind of administrator who established and operated the forerunners of the American public high school, later to be sustained by the courts and later to be provided for in the statutes. Nor was it that kind of administrator who got the pioneer community junior colleges started during the period roughly half a century ago. There is also a type of administrator who gives attention only to the technical prescriptions in the law, such as the proper forms prescribed for statistical reports and whether his budget report for the next fiscal period is due September 1 or October 15. These matters are important, of course, and not to be neglected, but they ought not to prevent major intellectual effort from being applied to the broad and long-range questions of what public higher educational facilities and opportunities will be needed in the ensuing generation. T H E L A W AS A LIVING GROWTH, N O T A CHANGELESS
CODE
Some basis for conjecture as to what will happen next is afforded by a close look at the trends of recent years. During the dozen years since the midpoint of this century, several major tendencies in the laws of higher education in the United States have been apparent. RIGHTS OF
STUDENTS
In the realm of the rights and obligations of students and prospective students, some novel questions have been presented to the courts and decided in unprecedented ways. Consider first the case of the boy in New York City who completed a difficult special honors curriculum in Lafayette High School with an average mark of 84.3 and was refused admission to Brooklyn College as a tuition-free student because the cut-off point for admission to the city colleges was 85. No account was taken of the relative difficulty of the honors curriculum. In the past, it has been unusual for any court to take a hand in matters involving the marking and classification of students. This is recognized as quasi-judicial authority belonging exclusively to teachers and educational administrators. Only upon evidence that it is being exercised unreasonably or maliciously will the courts interfere. In this case, the local supreme court held that the exclusion of the
184
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
student from the college was patently unreasonable and ordered the Board of Higher Education to admit him in the forthcoming term. It also ordered the city board of education and the principal of Lafayette High School to recalculate and adjust upward the boy's academic record to reflect properly his real relative standing. This decision has been reversed by the appelate division. 1 Nevertheless, it has value as a reminder that admission to a tax-supported college is beginning to be interpreted as a right not to be withheld on any arbitrary basis. BROAD D I S C R E T I O N
FOR
A PRIVATE
UNIVERSITY
Attendance at a private institution is not so clearly a right. A good companion-piece for the case already mentioned is another very recent New York case, because it illustrates that non-public institutions generally have a very wide latitude in establishing their own standards of admission, discipline, and retention. St. John's University is a Roman Catholic institution offering secular curriculums and is open to students of all religious persuasions. Actually, about 94 per cent of its students are Catholic. In this situation, four Catholic students participated in a civil marriage ceremony, with two of them as principal parties. This is a breach of canon law, a serious infraction of discipline in a predominantly Catholic university. The four students were promptly expelled after full hearings before a faculty committee and the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees. This raised some difficult issues. The trial judge held the expulsion was unlawful on the ground that the University's reservation of the right to dismiss a student at any time for any reason deemed advisable was too "vague" to stand. He was reversed by the appellate division, where three of the five judges thought this was a case in which the court should not interfere. This view was affirmed by the state court of appeals in a vote of five to two. 2 1
Lesser v. Board of Education and Board of Higher Education of City York, 18 A.D. 2d 388, 239 N.Y.S. 2d 776 (1963); reversing 35 Misc. N.Y.S. 2d 151 (1962) *Carr et al. v. St. John's University, 235 N.Y.S. 2d 802, 12 N.Y. 2d N.E. 2d 18 (1962); affirming 17 App. Div. 2d 632, 231 N.Y.S. 2d 410 which had reversed 34 Misc. 2d 319, 231 N.Y.S. 2d 403 (1962).
of New 2d 896, 84, 187 (1962),
The Courts and the Colleges Since Midcentury
185
In each of the higher courts, the minority found it difficult to countenance the enforcement of a penalty against Catholic students which would not have been applied to the same offense by non-Catholic students. This can be understood if it is remembered that a private college has an undoubted right to teach and enforce the discipline of a specific denomination, and that any college or university can unquestionably maintain standards of conduct different from those of society in general and stricter than those mandated by the general law of the jurisdiction. These two cases were both decided in 1962, almost concurrently. They illustrate that progress can be made toward the concept of higher education as a civil right, while at the same time the sphere of discretion and autonomy of a private university can be maintained. They provide ecouragement to the belief that higher education in this country will not soon be transformed into a monolithic bureaucracy wherein the rights of individuals and of distinctive religious groups might soon be lost. A deliberate attempt has been made thus far to refrain from mentioning the desegregation cases in order to point out the rights of students and of minority groups without commingling them with the heated issue of racial discrimination. The details of these cases which have filled the newspapers need not be repeated, but progress is evident, slow though it may seem. There is no longer any state in the Union where the right of a qualified Negro applicant to be admitted to the state university of his own state has not been specifically declared by the courts. The restraints of the Fourteenth Amendment have not been held to apply to private colleges and universities, 3 but many of these, in the South as well as the North, have voluntarily disavowed racial discrimination and admitted students of all races. SOME RESULTS OF THE THRUST TOWARD
DESEGREGATION
Two results of the progress of a decade against racial discrimination should not be overlooked. One is the fact that the desegregation of z
In re Girard College Trusteeship, 391 Pa. 434, 138 A. 2d 844 ( 1 9 5 8 ) ; Guillory v. Administrators of Tulane University of Indiana, ( U . S . D . C . ) , 207 F. Supp. 554 ( 1 9 6 3 ) ; affirmed in ( U . S . C . A . ) , 306 F. 2d 489 ( 1 9 6 2 ) .
186
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
state universities has a judicial history older than and distinct from the great decisions of 1954 and 1955 which ordered desegregation of public elementary and secondary schools. 4 The famous "all deliberate speed" phrase, which implies some delay, does not apply in university and college cases. The rule here is that a qualified applicant is entitled to prompt admission under the same regulations that apply to other qualified applicants. This is as old as the forthright statement by Justice Wiley Rutledge in the Oklahoma Law School case of 1948, in which he said in effect that the Law School at the beginning of the next term must either admit the qualified Negro applicant or admit no others.® The same principle was again stated in 1957 by a United States court of appeals, in an opinion by Circuit Judge Florence E. Allen, disapproving a plan devised in good faith by the Tennessee State Board of Education for gradual desegregation of the state colleges, under which qualified applicants for admission as Freshmen in Memphis State College would be delayed for five years. 6 A year earlier the United States Supreme Court itself had declared that a Negro applicant for admission to a state university could not be delayed on the basis of considerations applicable to the desegregation of public elementary and secondary schools.7 A second result is a byproduct of efforts toward racial desegregation in other fields. Recently, groups of students in Negro state colleges in Alabama and Tennessee who participated in lunch-room "sit-ins" and bus-line "freedom rides" and similar demonstrations were suspended or expelled merely by notice in the mails and without any semblance of a hearing or opportunity for defense. In both instances, the federal courts held that, although in disciplinary cases against college students the college governing board is not required to afford the accused student a notice and hearing having all the safe4
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeku el ai, 347 U.S. 483, 74 S.Ct. 686, 98 L.Ed. 873 ( 1 9 5 4 ) ; and 349 U.S. 294, 75 S.Ct. 753, 99 L.Ed. 1083 ( 1 9 5 5 ) . s Ada Lois Sipuel v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma et al., 332 U.S. 631, 68 S.Ct. 299, 92 L.Ed. 247 ( 1 9 4 8 ) . ' Booker v. State of Tennessee Board of Education, ( U . S . C . A . ) , 240 F. 2d 689 (1957). 'Hawkins v. Florida, 350 U.S. 413, 76 S.Ct. 464, 100 L.Ed. 486 ( 1 9 5 6 ) ; rehearing denied, 351 U.S. 9 1 5 , 7 6 S.Ct. 693, 100 L.Ed. 1449 ( 1 9 5 6 ) .
The Courts and the Colleges Since Midcentury
187
g u a r d s c u s t o m a r i l y a p p e r t a i n i n g to a trial in a c o u r t of law, a p u b l i c institution, n e v e r t h e l e s s , c a n not dismiss a s t u d e n t s u m m a r i l y w i t h o u t allowing him e v e n a n i n f o r m a l o p p o r t u n i t y t o p r e s e n t a d e f e n s e . 8
Somewhere between the two extremes of a formal hearing with all the trappings of a court trial on the one hand and no hearing at all on the other hand, a college must give the accused student a reasonable chance to know with what he is charged and a reasonable chance to tell his side of the story, before a decision is made to discipline him. The federal court of appeals refrained from specifying precisely how a hearing must be conducted, saying that this might vary a good deal with the circumstances of different cases. It intimated that although the accused might not always have opportunity to hear all the testimony against him or to confront and cross-examine all the witnesses, he should at least be given the names of the adverse witnesses. In any event, thought the court, the hearing should be more than merely an informal interview with an administrative officer and should have "at least some of the rudiments of an adversary proceeding." 9 This principle is intended to be applicable everywhere, and its importance is due in part to the fact that it interrupts a trend of a century or more toward less and less formality in disciplinary proceedings, which in a few recent cases in other states had reached a point where the accused student was expelled with no opportunity for hearing. The right to attend a college or university, particularly a public one, is too valuable to be extinguished so easily. QUESTIONS OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM
There is no issue in higher education more important than the freedom of students and teachers to seek the truth. In recent years, various manifestations of excitement about suspected subversion in the colleges and universities have occurred as a lingering aftermath of World War II and as a feature of "cold war" jitters. Witness the loyalty oath uproar which began in the early fifties and sizzled for as long as ten 'Dixon v. Alabama State Board of Education, (U.S.C.A.), 294 F. 2d 150 (1961); reversing 186 F. Supp. 945 (1960). Certiorari denied, 368 U.S. 930, 82 S.Ct. 368, 7 L.Ed. 2d 193 (1961); the Tennessee case is Knight v. State Board of Education, (U.S.D.C.), 300 F. Supp. 174 (1961). " Dixon v. Alabama State Board of Education, cited in preceding footnote.
188
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
years. Recall the "Red hunts" in leading universities and the "Fifth Amendment dismissals" and the prosecutions for contempt of Congress. Most prominent in the news in recent months have been the sweaty efforts of administrators and governing boards to draft a "speaker policy" for the campus which will maintain a semblance of an open forum for ideas and at the same time placate those who want to exclude visiting speakers whose thoughts are anything other than conventional. In 1962, two of these "speaker policy" cases reached the local supreme courts in New York State. One judge Upstate flatly ordered the Trustees of the State University of New York not to allow a known member of the Communist party to speak on the campus of the University of Buffalo, which had lately become a unit of the State University. A year later this decree was reversed by the unanimous Appellate Division, saying " T h e tradition of our great society has been to allow our universities in the name of academic freedom to explore and expose their students to controversial issues without government interference." 10 Another judge Downstate was equally quick to order Hunter College to revise its "speaker rule" and reconsider the application of a conservative political extremist who had been denied the use of its facilities because a previous meeting addressed by another right-wing extremist had been attended by picketing and provoked some danger of violence. In this case the court's position was that a rule under which a speaker may be excluded merely because his views are unpopular and not those of a majority can not be supported. 1 1 Half a dozen of the loyalty oath cases, Fifth Amendment dismissal cases, and contempt of Congress cases reached the Supreme Court of the United States 12 Without recounting the details, it can be noticed 10
D e c i s i o n of N e w Y o r k A p p e l l a t e C o u r t , T h i r d Division, D e c e m b e r 30, 1963, reversing Egan v. Moore et al., Trustees of Sate University of New York. 235 N . Y . S . 2d 995 ( 1 9 6 2 ) . 11 Buckley v. Meng, 35 Misc. 2d 467, 230 N . Y . S . 2d 924 ( 1 9 6 2 ) . She I ton v. Tucker, 364 U.S. 479, 81 S.Ct. 247, 5 L . E d . 2d 231 ( 1 9 6 0 ) ; Nostrand v. Baimcr, 3 6 2 U.S. 474, 80 S.Ct. 840, 4 L . E d . 2d 892 ( 1 9 6 0 ) ; Slochower's Case, 350 U.S. 551, 76 S.Ct. 637, 100 L . E d . 692 ( 1 9 5 6 ) ; United States v. Deutch, 367 U.S. 456, 81 S.Ct. 1587, 6 L . E d . 2d 963 ( 1 9 6 1 ) ; Barenblatl v. United Stales, 360 U.S. 109, 79 S.Ct. 1081, 3 L . E d . 2d 1115 ( 1 9 5 9 ) ; a n d cases cited in t h e next succeeding f o o t n o t e .
The Courts and the Colleges Since Midcentury
189
that in each case some of the justices, and often a majority, expressed great concern for the freedom of teaching and learning. Seven of the justices now sitting in the court participated in these cases, and no fewer than six of them placed in the record one or more eloquent paragraphs on the necessity of academic freedom. Some of these statements are worthy of being emblazoned on the lintels of colleges and schools everywhere. They constitute at least one permanently valuable product of all the vast furore. 13
PROBLEMS OF
TENURE
Among the tenure cases which reached state supreme courts within the past ten years are a few in which professors innocently or allegedly believed they had permanent tenure, when in fact they had no such rights at all. The details of the cases are a little dreary and need not be recited, because they prove nothing except what should have been obvious. For example, the justly-famed statement of the American Association of University Professors, however admirable it may be, has no legal effect upon anybody's tenure unless the college governing board which employs him has formally adopted the statement or a close approximation of it.14 Furthermore, a university or college may print an elaborate tenure policy in its faculty manual, while explaining in a footnote that this policy is not to be regarded as being a part of the contract of any employee unless expressly written into such individual contract. Obvious as the foregoing two propositions are, they had to be spelled out by the courts in cases involving private institutions in Kentucky and New York. 15 In the case of state institutions, there were two instances during the 1950's, one in North Dakota, and one in " See especially opinions of Justices Hugo Black, Tom Clark, and Felix Frankfurter in Robert M. Wieman et al. v. Paul W. Updegraff et al., 344 U.S. 183, 73 S.Ct. 215, 97 L.Ed. 216 (1952); and opinion of Chief Justice Earl Warren in Sweezy v. State of New Hampshire, 354 U.S. 234, 77 S.Ct. 1203, 1 L.Ed. 2d 1311 (1957). " Scott v. Joint Board of Education of Kentucky and Louisville Conferences of the Methodish Church, (Ky.), 258 S.W. 2d 449 (1953). 15 Scott v. Joint Board, cited in preceding footnote; and Bradley v. New York University, 307 N.Y. 620, 120 N.E. 2d 828 (1954).
190
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
18
South Dakota, wherein the supposedly unsinkable ship of tenure crashed into submerged rocks which wrecked it. In both of these states, the doctrine of the state supreme court is essentially that the constitution and statutes of the state vest the power to employ and discharge professors in the governing boards of the state universities and colleges, and that this power cannot lawfully be delegated or abdicated. This would seem to mean that in these two states a tenure policy formulated and adopted by a university governing board need not be taken seriously unless the board has previously been so authorized by the constitution and statutes of the state. However, this is not the law in all states. In 1954, a professor at the University of Nevada was dismissed by the Board of Regents after due process in accord with its tenure policy. 17 He appealed directly to the state supreme court, alleging that although the Board had given him fair notice of the charge against him and a hearing in conformity with its tenure rules, nevertheless, the decision to dismiss him was unsupported by adequate evidence. The court, far from questioning the tenure policy, reviewed the case and decided that the evidence against the professor, had, indeed, been insufficient to justify dismissal and ordered him reinstated. 18 In 1959, a professor at the Wisconsin State College at Superior was charged with unco-operativeness, disaffection, and the making of statements derogatory to the president and the administration and the Board of Regents. This would constitute good cause for dismissal if proved in a fair hearing. Actually, a subcommittee of the regents staged a so-called hearing at the college, with the accused professor not present; later the full board reviewed the proceedings in a manner that seemed short of strict impartiality and dismissed him. The Supreme Court of Wisconsin, noting the shortcomings of the hearing procedure, ordered the board either to reinstate the professor or to ( N . D . ) , 86 N . W . 2d 31 ( 1 9 5 7 ) ; "Posin v. Stale Board of Higher Education, and Worzelia v. Board of Regents of Education of State, 77 S.D. 447, 93 N . W . 2d 411 ( 1 9 5 8 ) . For critique, see Clark Byse, "Academic F r e e d o m , Tenure, and the Law," in Harvard Law Review 7 3 : 3 0 4 - 3 2 2 ( D e c e m b e r , 1 9 5 9 ) . 17 State ex rel. Richardson v. Regents of University of Nevada, 7 0 N e v . 347, 269 P. 2d 265 ( 1 9 5 4 ) . 18 Stale ex rel. Richardson v. Regents of University of Nevada, 7 0 N e v . 347, 269 P. 2d 265 ( 1 9 5 4 ) .
The Courts and the Colleges Since Midcentury
191
19
conduct a new and impartial hearing. There was no question of the efficacy of the tenure regulations, because the Wisconsin state colleges are covered by what is known as the Wisconsin Teachers' Tenure Act. BROADER
FUNCTIONS AND MORE
AUTONOMY
Two recent state supreme court decisions in Illinois and Michigan concluded in both instances that the operation of a television broadcasting station by a state university is an important public function, not to be obstructed by legal or technical trivialities interposed by commercial broadcasting companies or associations. 20 The Illinois court went further and enunciated an important principle regarding the responsibility of the university board of trustees. It was contended that the board could not lawfully spend public money for the operation of the broadcasting station without a specific line item for that purpose in the appropriation act of the legislature. Unimpressed by this argument, the court rightly declared that neither the legislature nor the courts can substitute themselves for the board of trustees and dictate every item of expenditure in the university budget. 21 Private universities obtain licenses to operate television broadcasting, too. When Loyola University in New Orleans was granted such a license by the Federal Communications Commission, two disgruntled commercial applicants for the same channel sought to have the license declared invalid on the far-fetched ground that Loyola is a Jesuit institution and that its rector was appointed by the head of the Jesuit Order, who at the time was a citizen of Belgium residing in Rome. 22 They argued that actually Loyola University is an agency of the Holy Roman Pontificate, which is a foreign sovereignty, and that the Federal Communications Act forbids the granting of any license to a foreign sovereignty or its representative. The federal court met this argument calmly and explained that it "State ex rel. Ball v. McPhee, 6 Wis. 2d 190, 94 N.W. 2d 711 (1959). " Turkovich v. Board of Trustees of University of Illinois, 11 111. 2d 460, 43 N.E. 2d 229 (1957); and Jackson Broadcasting and Television Corporation v. State Board of Agriculture, 360 Mich. 481, 104 N.W. 2d 350 (1960). a Turkovich v. Trustees, cited in preceding footnote. " Noe v. Federal Communications Commission, 104 App. D.C. 221, 260 F. 2d 739 (1958). Certiorari denied, 359 U.S. 934, 79 S.Ct. 607, 3 L.Ed. 2d 627 (1959).
192
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
was of no weight in this instance. The religious orientation of an applicant for a license is not a relevant matter, and there was nothing in the history of Loyola University to indicate that any untoward, harmful, or hostile foreign influence had ever been exerted through its agency. It is not suddenly to be regarded as a foreign beachhead and denied the right to exercise the functions of a university. Another development of recent years is the participation of private and public universities in urban renewal projects under the Federal Housing Act. The city acquires expensive land in deteriorated areas and sells it to redevelopers for its full reuse value, which is of course much less than its original cost. The city stands one-third of the difference, and the federal government pays two-thirds. The courts of more than one state have held that this is not a use of public funds in aid of a private or sectarian institution, if the participating university is of that character. 23 It is true that the city's power of eminent domain is often used to obtain some of the land by condemnation and that the whole complex transaction often actually enables a university, whether private or public, to obtain needed land for expansion more conveniently and economically than would be possible otherwise, simultaneously with the rehabilitation of the surrounding area. But this is coincident to the accomplishment of the broad public purpose of improving the whole area and is not to be interpreted merely as a conspiracy for the benefit of the university. REMEDY FOR AN INJURED
PARTY
There are many legal trends in progress. One, however, has been continuing for several years and is still one of the best of all examples of an area of the law which is in a state of change. This is the gradual and continuing trend toward holding private and public colleges and universities responsible for their torts, that is, responsible to answer in damages and to indemnify persons who are injured as a proximate result of the negligence of a university or college officer or employee. " For example, Kintzele v. City of St. Louis, ( M o . ) , 347 S.W. 2d 695 ( 1 9 6 1 ) ; 64th Street Residences, Inc. v. City of New York, 4 N . Y . 2d 268, 160 N . E . 2d 396 ( 1 9 5 8 ) .
The Courts
and the Colleges
Since Midcentury
193
For many decades, private colleges were generally held immune from any such liability. The theory was that all the funds and property of such an institution are dedicated to charitable educational purposes and could not be diverted for the payment of indemnities for private grievances. It was said funds should be "protected from the hungry maw of litigation." 24 State universities and other public institutions were also immune from liability, on the simple ground that they are state agencies, and the state cannot be sued unless the legislature has authorized it. This is derived from the medieval doctrine that "The King can do no wrong." 25 The trouble with these theories was that they often produced very harsh results. Innocent injured parties were often left without any effective recourse. Nowadays, many of the institutions have become vastly larger, making it increasingly unlikely that a judgment for damages will make a serious dent in their resources. Liability insurance has become widely available. The feeling has grown among judges and legislators that the doctrine of immunty is unjust and need not be adhered to indefinitely. Thus New York and a small number of other states have established state courts of claims and authorized tort suits against the state in that court. Several recent cases have resulted in judgments awarding damages to persons injured through the negligence of employees at various New York state colleges. 26 California has statutes making junior college districts liable for their torts, and there are recent cases in which the injured parties have won judgments. 27 These are in the minority. The supreme courts in New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, and Texas, among others, have recently reaffirmed the doctrine of state immunity in state university and college tort cases; and this is unu
Ettlinger v. Trustees of Randolph-Macon College, (U.S.C.C.A.), 31 Fed. 2d 869 (1929). "Thomas Edward Blackwell, College Law: A Guide for Administrators (Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education, 1961), p. 148. "Mitchell v. State, 14 A.D. 2d 478, 217 N.Y.S. 2d 641 (1961); Scott v. State, 158 N.Y.S. 2d 617 (1957); Brittan v. State, 200 Misc. 743, 103 N.Y.S. 2d 485 (1951); Leahy v. State, 46 N.Y.S. 2d 310 (1944); Hovey v. State, 287 N.Y. 663, 39 N.E. 2d 287 (1941); Gardner v. State, 281 N.Y. 212, 22 N.E. 2d 344 (1939). " Grover v. San Mateo Junior College District, 146 Cal. App. 2d 86, 303 P. 2d 602 (1956).
194
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
doubtedly still the law in a majority of the states, though there is a perceptible tendency toward change. Now if one looks again at the separate question of the tort responsibility of private colleges, the same sort of movement is found to be under way and somewhat more advanced than in the case of state institutions. As long as twenty years ago, Georgetown University, in the District of Columbia, was held liable for negligence by a federal court in an opinion by Justice Wiley Rutledge, in which he repudiated the theory of charitable immunity. Another federal court in Utah, interpreting Utah law in a case involving Brigham Young University, found that charitable immunity did not prevail in that state. More recently the state supreme courts in Kansas, Minnesota, and Washington State, as well as those of Connecticut and Iowa, have held private colleges liable for their torts. 28 On the other hand, probably a slight majority of the states continues to sustain the doctrine of charitable immunity, at least in part, and most of these also maintain that a college does not waive its immunity by carrying liability insurance. 29 The only way in which the rule of immunity can be changed is through the agency of the state—either by the legislature or by the courts. As yet there have been but few decisions holding a college or university liable only to the extent of the liability insurance carried. This disregards technicalities and proceeds on the assurance that the assets of the charitable corporation are fully protected from depletion if the recovery allowed is limited to the amount of insurance carried It is a species of "common-sense" doctrine, but as yet applied in only a few cases in a few states. 30 29
Noel v. Menninger Foundation, 175 Kan. 751, 2 6 7 P. 2d 9 3 4 ( 1 9 5 4 ) ; Miller v. Macalester College, ( M i n n . ) , 115 N . W . 2d 6 6 6 ( 1 9 6 2 ) ; Jay v. Walla Walla College, 53 Wash. 2d 590, 335 P. 2d 4 5 8 ( 1 9 5 9 ) ; Dickson v. Yale University, 141 Conn. 2 5 0 , 105 A . 2d 4 6 3 ( 1 9 5 4 ) ; Christensen v. Des Moines Still College of Osteopathy and Surgery, 248 I o w a 810, 82 N . W . 2d 741 ( 1 9 5 7 ) ; Frost v. Des Moines Still College of Osteopathy and Surgery, 2 4 8 I o w a 2 9 4 , 79 N . W . 2d 306 (1956). 28 In 1961 Justice M u s m a n n o of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said in his dissenting opinion in the H a h n e m a n n Case (cited a b o v e ) : "Twenty-three states have w h o l l y rejected the principle of tort i m m u n i t y f o r charitable institutions, fourteen states allow a partial immunity, and nine states, of which Pennsylvania is one, allow total immunity . . . F o u r states have not passed o n the question." 80 A s in Moore v. Moyle et al„ 4 0 5 111. 5 5 5 , 9 2 N . E . 2d 81 ( 1 9 5 0 ) ; reversing 3 5 5 111. App. 342, 82 N . E . 2d 61 ( 1 9 4 8 ) .
The Courts and the Colleges Since
PROSPECTS
Midcentury
FOR T H E
195
FUTURE
When a trend is in progress, the eddies are often confusing, and for a time the law lacks the stability and certainty that are desired. At the present time, it is quite hazardous to attempt to predict what the state supreme court in many states will say in a college or university tort case, simply because the law is in a state of flux. For example, in two very recent federal cases, and one state court case, the doctrine of charitable immunity has been sustained in Pennsylvania.31 But in the state court case, the record shows dissents by a strong minority of the judges who hold the opposite view. Who can tell what the decision may be in the next case, especially if the personnel of the court changes somewhat in the meantime? This may be somewhat inconvenient and disconcerting, but changes in the law must take place in order to bring refinements. The "plus" factor in the changes is a perceptible progress toward a more humane law that more and more nearly approximates justice, not entirely untempered by that quality of which Shakespeare sang: "It droppeth as the gentle rain from Heaven." 3 2 Many of the changes now in progress seem to point toward a more sensitive recognition of the worth and dignity of the individual—a tendency to protect him from harsh injustice and to enhance his liberty to make choices for himself. These are signposts of progress in law and in education. 11
Selkow v. City of Philadelphia and Temple University, ( U . S . D . C . ) , 201 F . Supp. 221 ( 1 9 2 6 ) ; Tomlinson v. Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, ( U . S . D . C . ) , 164 F. Supp. 353 ( 1 9 5 8 ) ; Michael v. Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital of Philadelphia, 404 Pa. 424, 172 A. 2d 769 ( 1 9 6 1 ) . *" William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, Scene I, The Complete Works of Shakespeare, W . J. Craig, (ed.) ( N e w Y o r k : Oxford University n . d . ) , p. 242, line 185.
On University Education in Pakistan R O B E R T C. H A M M O C K * THE
DEVELOPING
COUNTRY
PAKISTAN IS a country born in imagination almost a century ago, a country brought into actuality sixteen years past in a horror of burning, migration, mutilation, and massacre that forced the upheaval of fourteen million people from their home regions and brought death to at least a half-million. Wounds of this magnitude are deep. Those that have healed have left scars in mind and spirit, and some of them still are open, hypersensitive to the lightest touch, bringing quick, anguished reaction when probed. Doctrine and ideology brought the nation into being. The Western idea of nationalism has had to develop after the country became independent. It is still developing. With boundaries originally drawn to encompass sections of British India in which Muslims were highly concentrated, Pakistan exists in two sections, divided by over 1,000 miles of India. T h e West is about as large as France and Britain combined, about 310,000 square miles, with a population approaching forty-five million people. The East, at about 55,000 square miles, one-sixth the size of the West, is approaching fifty-five million. In the West, where it has been generalized that the villager gets about by camel, the density of population is about 110 per square mile, while in the East, where he gets about by boat, it is 930 per square mile. The average income in the whole of Pakistan is $63 a year: in the West, $70; in the East $56. Though population growth is still a formidable problem, national income is now growing at a rate twice as fast as population. 1 The economics of * Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania. Mahbub ul Haq, "Plan: Agriculture Takes Second Place," Times Supplement on Pakistan, August 14, 1963. p. viii. 196 1
(London)
On University
Education
in Pakistan
197
the two wings are different, the people are different, the languages are different—only the ideology of Islam and one other fact are held in common. That other is called by Stephens "the cardinal fact of Pakistan's national life: her fear, as she sees it, . . . of being swamped beneath a massive, hostile, nearby Hindu culture." 2 At the time of partition in 1947, there were only three universities in what is now Pakistan. Today, there are six full-fledged ones and four newly upgraded technological and agricultural institutions moving toward qualification as technical universities. Though East Bengal formerly produced, as it still does, most of the world's supply of jute, not a single jute mill was in Pakistan. Today there are fourteen, one of them the largest in the world, able to process over a quarter of the annual crop of a million tons, with the rest going to European and American mills. At the time of partition, only about one-tenth of the million and a half bales of cotton grown there went to mills in Pakistan; today, Pakistan has begun to export cotton cloth. In government, in education, in a legal system, Pakistan began with nothing but a dream in 1947. THE
UNIVERSITIES
When students in Pakistan enter the intermediate college course, they have had ten years of formal education. The college and university course is divided into two parts, generally of two years each: the intermediate course and the degree course. At the end of the intermediate course, the student must pass creditably a university examination in order to be admitted to a degree course. At the end of his degree course, if successful in another examination, he is awarded a university degree. Honours bachelor's degrees and post-graduate courses are available at some of the universities. In the university, the student registers in a specific field (such as commerce or science) and takes nearly all his courses in the specific and closely related fields. The six universities of Pakistan are, in order of their creation, University of the Punjab (Lahore), University of Dacca (Dacca), University of Sind (Hyderabad), University of Karachi (Karachi), University of Peshawar (Peshawar), and University of Rajshahi •'Ian Stephens, Pakistan
(London: Ernest Benn, 1 9 6 3 ) , p. 29.
198
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
(Rajshahi). Rajshahi and Dacca are in East Pakistan; the others are in the West. In 1959, the Commission on National Education appointed by President Mohammed Ayub Khan shortly after he took over in the remarkable revolution of 1958 completed its report. 3 For many reasons, some clear and some obscure, the report's recommendations are slowly and only partially being accepted. One hears in Pakistan that the report is dead; one hears that it is only slow in being implemented. The only clear fact is that little of it is in evidence. It will not be described here, but parts of it will be referred to at appropriate points. ADMINISTRATION
In Pakistani universities, the governor of the province (West or East Pakistan) is the chancellor. As actual head of each university there is a vice-chancellor, appointed by the chancellor. Executive authority is vested in the Syndicate, which is a little like an American board of trustees, with the vice-chancellor as the administrator of their policy. Beneath the Syndicate in the hierarchy is the Academic Council, composed of deans and senior professors. Members are appointed to both the Syndicate and the Academic Council by the chancellor, but some of them are members by virtue of offices they hold. Recent changes, some of them reflected in the description just given, have reduced the degree of autonomy which universities formerly had enjoyed and have brought them under closer control of the provincial governments.
THE
FACULTY
The instructional hierarchy is professor, reader, lecturer, and some lower ranks. Selection of faculty is in the hands of a university committee appointed by the vice-chancellor. At the University of Karachi, for example, such a committee is composed of the vice-chancellor, a judge of the high court, and three other "high-ranking" outsiders. Openings are advertised, and applications are submitted to the reg* Ministry of Education, Report of the Commission (Karachi: Government of Pakistan Press, 1961).
on National
Education
On University Education
in Pakistan
199
istrar of the university, who makes a synopsis of each one and sends it to several experts in the academic field concerned. Frequently these experts include a professor in a British university. The comments of these experts go to the Selection Committee of the university, who then interview and select, sending the recommendation to the Syndicate through the vice-chancellor. This procedure is almost invariably followed in the selection of professors and readers, but the head of the involved department in the university is usually consulted instead of outside experts when lecturers or lower ranks are being selected. A department has an allotment of positions for the various ranks. When one becomes vacant, a man already on the staff in a lower rank may submit his application along with those of others when the position is advertised. The usual initial appointment is for two years, though instructors in low ranks may be appointed for definite, temporary periods. Sometimes a third year of trial may be added. After probation, appointment becomes permanent, with removal only for sufficient cause. All matters in connection with employment, advancement, and dismissal must be approved by the Syndicate, whose actions may be reversed by the chancellor, who is also the governor of the province. OPERATION
The universities, products of a bureaucratic nation, are rigidly bureaucratic and tend to operate autocratically. Channels of official communication within an institution are as immutable and as sacred as those within a military organization. (The figure can also be extended to concepts of rank and position, for there is a definitely observable rank order in university organization. Communication through these channels is maddeningly slow and frequently futile. Ideas move up with incredible difficulty, a difficulty that discourages the proposal of many. Control of staff extends in some institutions and in some departments of others into matters which an American would immediately term the staff member's personal business, even though they may be related to his professional job.) Teaching loads are far from uniform, and they are much heavier than in most American universities. Few staff members have fewer
200
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
than fifteen class hours per week and may have more than twenty. Several department heads with whom I talked carried class loads of twenty hours per week. The typical department head in addition has other duties: he does the monthly payroll for the departmental staff, even down to the peons; he serves on many committees in the university, among them the important Selection Committee and the Syllabus Committee; he directs research; all examination questions, both in the university and in the colleges affiliated with the university, must be co-ordinated and approved by him; and he is charged with reporting on the effectiveness of all the teaching members of his department. In some of the universities, heads of departments must assume full responsibility for the actions of their students in both curricular and extracurricular affairs. Heads therefore spend a good deal of time trying to keep in touch with student organizations and their activities. If the head has a secretarial helper at all, and many do not, the helper is usually a part-time typist, not a taker of dictation. Universities are both teaching universities and examinating universities. Every college (giving the first two years beyond matriculation) is affiliated with a university. The University of the Punjab has about fifty affiliated colleges, whose work and examinations must be approved and minutely checked by the teaching faculty of the main university! Though pay scales differ somewhat among the universities, in general they are these, converted into U.S. dollars: professor, $189.07$315.12 per month; reader, $126.05-$241.58 per month, lecturer, $73.52-$178.56 per month. THE PLAN OF
INSTRUCTION
What I call the "syllabus-textbook-examination coalition" deserves more detailed treatment than perhaps any other aspect of the Pakistani university. A description by Owen published four years ago is still accurate: The content of instruction in both universities and colleges tends to be determined by the examination syllabus. In the colleges, lecturers have no voice in these university-dictated examinations, and student reading becomes governed by the all-important goal of pass-
On University Education in Pakistan
201
ing, with rigid adherence to the prescribed texts and syllabus content. A n unfortunate e m p h a s i s is laid o n "cramming," rote learning, and textbook m e m o r i z a t i o n , to the detriment of original thinking, critical reflection, or any e n c o u r a g e m e n t to see the interrelatedness of different disciplines. Pakistani educators are aware of this unhealthy situation, but until the s y s t e m is c h a n g e d and e x a m i n a t i o n s are dethroned f r o m their present a c a d e m i c e m i n e n c e , it is hard to k n o w h o w it c a n be altered. In the m e a n t i m e , there is a great d e m a n d f o r paperback "cram-books" specifically designed to enable the undergraduate to pass his prescribed tests. 4
The Report of the Commission on National Education recommended that such "cram-books" and examples of previous examinations be barred from publication and sale, but this matter has not yet been acted on by the Assembly.5 The significance attached to examinations is such that a student's career, and perhaps even his marriage, may depend to a great extent upon his place in the announced results. Job advertisements will specify the minimum academic qualifications in terms of honors degrees, and under the system of arranged marriages a young man's career prospects will play a major role in deciding the dowry he can expect from his bride's parents. Pakistani society is extremely competitive and status-conscious and the number of applicants for the few well-paying posts always exceeds the jobs available, with the result that a degree, understandably, symbolizes job possibilities rather than learning acquired for its own sake.6 Courses offered in a department, syllabi for the various courses, and end-of-year or degree examinations are tied together in a causeeffect relationship which makes it impossible to determine which is cause and which is result. The complexity of the situation and its rigidity are increased by the fact that the university determines the examinations for students in all its affiliated colleges. Any change therefore would mean agreement by literally scores of individuals in any one academic department and revisions in courses taught by hundreds of instructors in scores of colleges. * John E. Owen, "University Life in Pakistan," Teachers (December, 1959), 153. 5 Ministry of Education, op. cit., pp. 303, 308. "Owen, op. cit., p. 153.
College
Record,
LXI
202
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
One of the important duties of the Academic Council is to approve all syllabi. The council appoints a syllabus committee to work with syllabi, and there is usually a syllabus committee in each department. Only the Academic Council, then, can make a fundamental change in a syllabus. A syllabus for a course may be initially written and proposed by an individual teacher, but, in its accepted form, it comes back to him with revisions and orders from higher echelons. The syllabus is detailed, and it must be adhered to; the teacher is checked by a superior to determine that he follows it. It lists specific textbooks to be used, and it specifies emphases in terms of time to be spent and values to be given to the various topics included. The student faces an examination which he knows will cover the items in the syllabus and the textbooks which it lists. EXAMINATIONS
AND
CURRICULA
The examination is made by persons who have not taught the student being examined; his paper is marked by persons who have not taught him. The examinations are heavy with demands for memorization and are sadly lacking in requiring that the student think with what he may have learned. The curricula and courses taken by students are predetermined in a package arrangement, with most of the degree requirements included in specified courses and the remainder in limited, restricted electives. Students and instructors speak of "reading for a paper," the combination of "papers" being the year's list of courses. "Paper" refers to "examination," and thus each course which a student takes is only a means to passing the paper in that area at the end of the year. The B.A. Honours program at the University of Karachi suggests the general pattern of undergraduate education in Pakistani universities. It is a three-year program, built on a base of two years of college after the ten years of elementary and secondary schooling. This B.A. Honours course consists of one principal subject (a major), two subsidiary subjects (two minors), and three compulsory subjects. The principal subject consists of eight papers and a "viva voce" (oral examination); each subsidiary subject consists of two papers, and each
On University Education in Pakistan
203
compulsory subject consists of one paper. Each paper (examination) is of three hours' duration. The compulsory subjects are English, Islamic Ideology or (for nonMuslims) a Short History of the Pakistan Movement from 1857 Onwards, natural science, and Urdu, or Bengali. The principal and subsidiary subjects are chosen from these thirteen fields: Islamic history or Islamic studies, economics, philosophy, political science, international relations, psychology, general history, social work, sociology, mathematics, statistics, geography, and a language—Urdu, Bengali, Sindhi, English, Arabic, Persian, or a modern European language. Not only must the instructor adhere to the syllabus (which is determined by—or determines—the examination or paper), but also he is barred from teaching a course in any specialization which he may have acquired in advanced study abroad unless there is a specific paper in that specialization. Another bar to teaching a specialization from study abroad is the very heavy teaching loads which instructors have in the rigid accumulation of papers. Even if an instructor should be bold and stubborn enough to persist in developing a course to which no paper is tied, it would get short shrift from students because examinations are so omnipotent that none but the rare student has room for learning for the sake of what is learned. This inflexibility also makes it next to impossible to develop seminars of students and instructors outside the structured titles of papers. Instructors have no time to add them to their loads and, what is more important, students see no point in worrying themselves with ideas that are not specifically included in the examinations. In an effort to soften the rigidity of the syllabus-textbook-examination coalition, the Report of the Commission on National Education recommended that 25 per cent of the final mark be made up from non-final-examination or "sessional" sources and the other 75 per cent from the final examination. 7 After this recommendation had been generally adopted, it was rescinded by government decree and was one of the issues on which there were strikes by students in some of the universities. The regulation is being followed in various ways, however, in some departments in some institutions, but in others the 25-75 per cent division is forbidden by the university administration. 7
Ibid., pp. 23-24.
204
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
Reports on examination results are made normally about two months after the examinations have been taken. Students are identified by roll numbers, and reports are published in newspapers with roll numbers divided into "Fail" and "Pass," with " P a s s " divided into "First," "Second," and "Third Division." By tradition, only a handful, perhaps 1 or 2 per cent, make First Division; a few more, perhaps 10 per cent, fall into Second Division; and all the rest who pass are in Third Division. Sometimes fewer than half of the candidates pass. Always the percentage of failure is very high. Third Division holds no hope for the future; only First and Second Division open academic and professional gates. LIBRARIES AND
TEXTBOOKS
Textbooks are in tragically short supply, both in libraries and in other sources available to students. Instance after instance occurs in which a certain book is listed in a syllabus as required reading and the students are certain to be examined on it, but the book is completely unavailable to them. Textbooks are always expensive, beyond the reach of many students' ability to buy. With the syllabus-textbookexamination coalition omnipotent and immutable, the fact that the student cannot possibly obtain the textbook is treated as irrelevant. Libraries vary greatly. In two of the eight institutions where I worked in 1963, the stacks are open. Fear of mutiliation of books and lack of staff to supervise students are the major stated reasons for keeping stacks closed, although the generally-held concept of the place of a library in a college or a university differs greatly from that in our own institutions. T h e syllabus-textbook-examination coalition determines that. Budgets for the purchase of materials are small, though in some institutions where librarians are well trained, budgets are much greater than in others. Although governmental restrictions on imports involving foreign exchange have been somewhat relaxed, many professors with good reason still feel strongly that they are cut off f r o m the academic world because of the unavailability of current reports and publications in their disciplines. The organization of libraries differs among the institutions, but in
On University
Education
in Pakistan
205
nearly all there are departmental libraries as well as a main library. Some departmental libraries are completely outside the influence or responsibility of the institution's librarian. It must be remembered, however, that students do most of their work in their specializations, and that lines between departments are much more rigidly drawn than in even our institutions. The values of studying interrelationships among the disciplines and of stimulating individual inquiry beyond the requirements of the syllabus are relegated to second place by the system, and the departmental library supports this segmented concept of education. Librarians and professors generally describe their library collections as "old." In addition to inadequate budgets, the librarian at one university connected this weakness to the syllabus-textbook-examination coalition. He pointed out that it is almost impossible to get a student to read a book not on the list of required textbooks given by an instructor in a course. He also stated that some teachers did not know new and modern materials, but perpetuated out-of-date and sometimes inaccurate books. In general, libraries do not remain open long hours, and regulations concerning the lending of books are startlingly discouraging to the use of them. The library of one college where I worked remains locked all but one hour a day, and the student may check out only one book at a time. Universities are more liberal, but the pressure of the examination operates to restrict the library services in Pakistani institutions. STUDENT
PRESSURES
Before a final summing-up, one other condition of Pakistani universities must be pointed out. Students are powerful in that they can and do strike, riot, and participate otherwise in overt unrest to the extent that they constitute a powerful pressure group which can and does cause very high authority to bend to their will. The University of Peshawar is the only one of the six general universities in Pakistan that has not had a student strike during the last two academic years (1961-1963). The University of Dacca is at the other extreme: it was closed about six months during 1961-1962 and about four and one-half months during 1962-1963. The University was closed by its administration
206
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
during the 1962-1963 session because of well-based fear that students would continue to strike, or to riot as they had done in 1961-1962, in order to press their demands. Demands may be of any sort. Some of the rioting in 1961-1962 was set off by demands that the Bachelor's degree pass course not be extended to three years, as recommended by the Commission on National Education and adopted by the government. Under pressure from the students, the regulation resulting from the recommendation was rescinded. This is only one example; many other causes of protests and strikes are of like nature. How this situation has developed and whether or not politicians of Pakistan and/or other countries use the students to gain political ends are moot points. Student political organizations are active, and alumni of the university may continue full membership in such organizations long after they have left the university. There are no organized extracurricular activities. Sports are participated in individually. There are no sponsored clubs or other organizations of that sort. Each department has an "Association," where lectures are presented; but everyone is required to attend, and this could hardly be termed extracurricular. University life is dull. OTHER
CRITICISMS
Western educators who have worked in Pakistan and Pakistani educators of ability agree on these three criticisms: (1) Education in Pakistan has meager conceptions of its purpose and its values; (2) it is based on misconceptions of the nature of learning and of ways to learn effectively; and (3) the system retains a large measure of autocratic rigidity. ONE
STUDENT'S
DESCRIPTION
This most brief account of some fundamental characteristics of Pakistani education in general and of Pakistani universities in particular presented thus far has been rather diffused, with little focus. I know of no better way to focus it than to present the report of an interview with a Pakistani student. It is dated: "Dacca, March 9, 1963." (When, in the
On University
Education
in Pakistan
207
fall of 1962, I conceived in America the outline which I proposed to use in talking with university and college personnel in Pakistan, included was a section in which I thought to talk with students in the universities. I was too far away from Pakistan in both space and time when I proposed to do that, for it can be done with any hope of valid answers only in rare, special instances. Particularly is this the case at the university of Dacca, where students are suspect and evidently feared by political leaders. T o find a student who would talk would not be difficult, but to find one who would talk with any appreciable degree of non-alignment with student political parties would be almost impossible. And to find one who would talk freely and then not get both himself and the prying American investigator into trouble seemed so remote that I gave up the idea. But through a personal friendship, a responsible boy was found who, after having had the whole matter explained to him, agreed willingly to come for a conversation. Let us call the boy being interviewed, Shahid. This obviously is not his name.) Shahid, just twenty-one, is in Third-Year Bachelor of Commerce Honours at the university of Dacca. He is small, neat, and handsome in a delicate way. He is somewhat active in politics, belonging to the "rightist" group, that is, the pro-American, pro-capitalism group. He is comfortably situated economically. He has an open face, speaks quietly and easily, and seemed to welcome the opportunity to talk. There was no passion in his manner or speech; even when speaking of matters which his intelligence identifies as senseless and irrelevant to good education, matters which affect him and his future profoundly, he maintained a quiet manner, without resignation of a regretful or resentful sort. The reasons for the continuation of the situation in education long after the British have abdicated as rulers are not clear to him; I do not think he seeks to know them. There is nothing he can do, he says; there is nothing anyone can do except wait for "God's miracle"; only He can change matters. The country is doomed, Shahid suggests, unless something can happen. But he cannot think of how it might happen or who might make it happen. He knows he is badly educated. He knows he is not prepared. He knows his future has little hope unless luck comes to his aid. He enjoys what he can, and waits.
208
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
His mind tells him what is wrong, but it does not tell him what to do about it. Shahid's will is not broken; it is more as though it has never existed. Following is Shahid's description of university life: Access of students to instructors is difficult. The first reason is the instructors' teaching loads, which leave little time for anything else. A second, and more important reason, is the traditional gulf between students and instructors. The majority of the instructors discourage students who wish to confer with them; they give short or curt answers; they make themselves difficult to find; they dismiss the student after a brief reply. It does not take long for the student to identify those to whom he can go and those to whom he cannot, and to conduct himself accordingly. In the tutorials, students can ask instructors for help; but there are always other students in the tutorials, and sometimes this arrangement is not satisfactory. In order to get automatic permission to take the final examinations, the student must attend 75 per cent of the classes. Roll is taken every day. If the student has attended 60 to 74 per cent, he can easily get permission to take the examinations. If he has attended less than 60 per cent, he must have a medical certificate to obtain special permission. Most instructors do not know students, and in large classes of 45 to 150, it is easy to "cut" and let someone answer for you. In class meetings, the lecture method is used exclusively by instructors. In the tutorials, sometimes problems are set and worked on in class, with the instructor guiding the work. Sometimes in tutorials, questions are raised, reading assigned, and students told to be ready to write on the question(s) at the next meeting of the tutorial. Sometimes such papers are written outside of class and submitted. These papers are returned with letter marks and a few comments. Sometimes there are oral examinations with marked oral replies. These papers and sessional tests and other judgments of work in the tutorial make up 25 per cent of the final mark, with the final examination as the other 75 per cent. T h e 25 per cent must be passed in order for the student to sit for the final examination. Many textbooks are old, back to the first decade of this century. Most are British. Some of the required books are unobtainable except in the various libraries—University, British Council, United States Information Service—and there is an inadequate number of
On University
Education
in
Pakistan
209
duplicate copies. One book required for approximately 175 students in the same department was available only in the University Library —one copy. I (Shahid) have not so much as seen the cover of it. In the examinations for the degree, which will be held in just a few months, there will be four written examinations. Each will be four hours in length, set inconveniently at 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Each will contain five questions. These will be followed by an individual oral examination, the "viva voce," from the head of the department. The questions on the examinations will be memory questions on the syllabus, on the materials presented in the lectures and in the textbooks. There will be almost no application; nearly all will be theory or information, and it must be memorized. The Controller of Examinations is one of the two most powerful men in the university, the other being the Registrar. (Shahid referred, of course, to power over the students.) The controller manages all the examinations for the university and its affiliated colleges, assigning people to set the questions and doling out the papers for reading. Staff members, who can be from any institution, are paid for reading examinations. The pay scale is M.A., 3 rupees (63«'); Bachelor's, 2 rupees ( 4 2 / ) ; Intermediate, 1 rupee ( 2 1 / ) ; and so on down into annas (16 annas equal one rupee of 2 1 / ) for the matriculation examination. Standards for classification of marks, which are always in percentages, are Pass, 33 per cent; Second Division, 45 per cent; and First Division, 60 per cent. Sometimes readers get as many as 1,000 papers to mark for extra fees. T h e situation is easily comprehended, even if Shahid's 1,000 figure should b e an exaggeration: p a p e r s can be read with n o reference points even approaching objectivity; papers are read by persons who are not familiar with the teaching which a student has received, though theoretically in such a standardized process this would not matter; papers can be read carelessly; grading is theoretically a percentage of the a m o u n t of total information in the syllabus on the point of question. It is obvious that grading can easily become capricious, can single out persons for favor or disfavor, can play the I m m a n e n t Will with all. It is obvious that it is designed with the p u r p o s e of the education system in mind but that this purpose is inbred, narrow, and unclear to its practitioners and that it is still the purpose set down over a century ago for a British-administered colony.
210
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
When I asked Shahid of his motivations in such a situation, he said that 10 per cent of his mark would rest on his own efforts and 9 0 per cent on luck. So he enjoys living as much as he can, does what he thinks will take care of the 10 per cent, knows that he is being shortchanged and that he is short-changing his future, and moves with the times. The idea of preparing for a profession or occupation is not in the situation, for he is being given theory and is not being prepared for a job. He has no plans: the future can take care of itself. He knows that the country is wasting its youth, that it cannot become a country of independence and worthy of respect from its own citizens and others so long as the production of educated leaders is stifled as it is. If he worked hard, what would it bring him, not only in marks but also in education of worth to him?
THE
INEVITABLE
RESULT
With this state of affairs, with the lack of pressure to explore knowledge, with the pressure to memorize crowding out learning to think, with the hopelessness of an education divorced from reality and capricious in its evaluation, with even the degree a symbol and not a substantial reality, with the lack of activities and opportunity to put energies into anything with any hope, with the distance between staff and students so great that little can be known of what is going on in students' minds—what else can be expected than a flocking to some "cause" where energies and frustrations and feelings can be given exit and relief: strikes, riots, education by selfish politicians, protests against the wrong things? What loyalties can be developed in university students? What hope for doing something substantia] for their country can they have?
New African
Universities
DAVID G. SCANLON* IN THE S U M M E R of 1 9 6 3 , Tanganyika's President, Dr. Julius Nyerere, was installed as the first chancellor of the University of East Africa. In his inaugural speech, he emphasized that the East African University must help meet the demands of East Africa, for
. . . the university colleges which comprise this university cannot be islands filled with people who live in a world of their own, looking on with academic objectivity or indifference at the activities of those outside. East Africa cannot spend millions of pounds, cannot beg and borrow for the university unless it plays a full and active part in the urgent tasks of East Africa. Even if it were desirable, we are too poor in money and educated manpower to support an ivory tower existence for an intellectual elite.1 This warning is part of a continuing dialogue that is going on in Africa today by politicians, ministries of education, and expatriate consultants. Basically, the question is one of defining the role of universities in the new African countries. Traditionally, universities have had the responsibility of teaching and advancing knowledge through research. But throughout most of Western history the university and the nation evolved slowly. The universities could join in the religious, political, cultural, or scientific revolutions that swept Europe, or if they chose, they could remain on the fringes of the revolutions, deciding when they would take an active part. Beyond the university were other institutions that played an active role in supplying the nation with the specialists needed for its development, and in some cases survival. The United States, with its radical innovation of the land grant col* Professor of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University. The Reporter (East A f r i c a n ) , July 6, 1963, p. 29.
1
211
212
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
lege in the past century, pioneered in making legitimate areas of study that had been considered beyond the pale of most universities in the West. And even today, the idea that technology and agriculture are proper areas of study is viewed with derision by many of our European university colleagues. The following excerpt from a book published by a British expatriate and a Nigerian university faculty member may also illustrate the view of other Western critics of American higher education: It must be admitted that the appalling backwardness of the American schools creates a vast hunger for further education, comparable to that to be found in West Africa. There is none of the blasé weariness sometimes found in English students. The universities exist to satisfy this hunger, not to fulfil [iic] an abstract ideal of university education, not to give the best training to the best brains, nor indeed to give the best training to the greatest number of people. There is a vast proliferation of so-called universities which have no academic standards and precious few of any other sort. University numbers are much too large; a year or two ago Ohio State University reported a student population of more than 18,000. Does anyone really believe that they are all competent to receive a university education in the sense in which it is understood elsewhere, or that an institution is capable of giving more than mechanical instruction to such vast numbers? It cannot be said too strongly that a first degree at an American university is worth no more than an English Higher School Certificate: even the best universities, Yale and Harvard, are compelled to spend much time imparting instruction which should have been given at school. Further, the combination of enthusiasm and ignorance leads to the inclusion on the curriculum of subjects which ought never to be found in universities, "proofreading," "versification," "guidance for investors," "journalism" and goodness knows what else, and at a later stage (but often too early) theses for higher degrees on such topics as "Photographic Studies of Boiled Icing" or "Administrative Problems of the High School Cafeteria"; the amount of woolly sociology is almost unbelievable. 2 For the student of African education, the remarkable fact today is not only the dialogue that is taking place but the fact that education * Adegoke Olubummo and John Ferguson, The Emergent University, with Special Reference to Nigeria (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1960), pp. 13-14.
New African
213
Universities
has developed so rapidly that the dialogue is necessary. At the close of World War II, higher education in Middle Africa (south of the Sahara and north of the Union of South Africa) was confined to a few courses in a few institutions, such as Fourah Bay College in Sierre Leone. Since 1945, the growth of university institutions has been so rapid that at the UNESCO-sponsored Conference on the Develoment of Higher Education held at Tananarive in September, 1962, it was recommended that the number of university institutions be limited to thirty-two until 1980. There is a great fear that universities will proliferate, and without adequate staff or financing, will weaken the entire higher educational structure of Middle Africa. While there may be pockets of resistance, the general trend is that of parents demanding better educational faciltiies for their children, of African politicians attempting to meet these demands, and of African statesmen concerned with building the kind of intra-structure that will develop their countries into prosperous nations as quickly as possible. The answer to these demands appears to be more educational facilities, particularly at the university level.
HISTORICAL D E V E L O P M E N T OF
EDUCATION
In retrospect, the current demand could have been anticipated as the logical sequence in the developmental history of African education. For all practical purposes, modern education began in the nineteenth century. It was started by missionaries and for the most part remained under their control and financial responsibility until the close of World War I. Following this war, all colonial powers created departments of education in their colonies and began to take a greater responsibility for the financing and management of schools in the territories. Mission groups began receiving small financial grants from the government and were encouraged to expand their activities. It was also during this period that outstanding schools such as Achimoto in the Gold Coast and Makerere in Uganda were founded. These apex schools were to develop into university institutes. While all colonial powers planned to develop education in the territories in the 1920's and 1930's, the world-wide depression starting in 1929 greatly curtailed expansion schemes. The depression was fol-
214
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
lowed by World War II, and both delayed educational planning and development. While there were exceptions, one could say that, throughout most of Middle Africa, it was only after World War II that colonial powers invested large sums of money for educational development. At one end of the educational spectrum, primary education was expanded at a rapid pace. T h e 1950's could well be called the decade of primary school expansion in Africa. At the other end of the educational ladder, universities and institutes of higher education were established. Between 1945 and 1950, four university institutions were founded, and during the next decade an additional thirteen were inaugurated in Middle Africa. By the early 1960's, it was apparent to many African educators that the educational system in much of Middle Africa had reached an impasse. On the one hand, students were completing primary school with no room for them in the secondary schools that had not kept up the same rate of expansion.
THE
SCHOOL
LEAVER
T h e problem of the primary school leaver began to appear. These young people had completed the primary school, could not gain acceptance in a secondary school, and could not find employment in the economy. The answer for many was to leave their homes and join other similar youths in the crowded cities. Politically, the presence of large numbers of unemployed youth could produce an inflammable situation. Economically, the countries could ill afford to have large numbers of its youth group in which a great investment of money had been made not contributing to the society. Socially, the continued effects of unemployment could have unfortunate results on the youth themselves. While the problem of the school leaver continues to plague African educators and economic planners, government officials found that the newly opened universities had difficulty finding properly qualified secondary graduates as students. Faculty-pupil ratios in some instances were as low as 1:5. And as the great majority of the university faculties were expatriates, it meant the universities have been among the most expensive universities in the world to operate. Foreign expatri-
New African
Universities
215
ates serving as faculty require provisions for home leave, educational allowances for their children, who are often in boarding schools in Europe, and numerous other prerequisites normally not associated with faculty salaries. SECONDARY
SCHOOL
EXPANSION
For most African educators the answer appeared to be the expansion of secondary schools. If the secondary schools could be expanded, it would provide (1) greater opportunities for additional education for the increasing number of primary school leavers, and (2) more candidates for the universities. The decision to increase the number of secondary schools was a key recommendation at the Conference of African States on the Development of Education in Africa held in Addis Ababa in May, 1961. 3 At this conference, sponsored by UNESCO and representing the first continent-wide meeting of African educators, delegates from almost every country on the continent planned their own educational development for the next twenty years. The dire need for the expansion of secondary education led to the numerous requests for assistance from overseas and is responsible for the large number of teachers sent by the Peace Corps, Teachers for East Africa, and numerous other programs. Many areas of Africa will have to depend upon large numbers of expatriate secondary school teachers for many years, as the demand for qualified Africans in all sectors of government is so great. While the Addis Ababa conference was concerned with the broad development of education, it was realized by the delegates that a crisis was occurring in higher education in Africa which would require immediate investigation and assistance. HIGHER
EDUCATION
IN B R I T I S H
AFRICA
The university was viewed by many delegates as the center in every country from which economic, social, and cultural improvement could " United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Final Report, Conference of African States on the Development of Education in Africa, Addis Ababa, 15-25 May 1961, (Paris(?): UNESCO, 1961), p. 5.
216
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
take place. Such an approach saw the university and institutes of higher education as the center for producing the high level manpower needed in the pressing desire for social and economic development. It was therefore the feeling of many of the delegates that a conference should be called as soon as possible to consider the problem of higher education in Africa. U N E S C O convened the Conference on the Development of Higher Education in Africa from September 3-12, 1962, in Tananarive at the invitation of the government of the Malagasy Republic. Except f o r the Portuguese territories and the Union of South Africa who were not invited, all of the African countries sent represenatives. T h e great majority of delegates represented universities and institutions of higher education that were less than a generation old. With few exceptions, the universities had been carefully modelled by the colonial powers on European design and were closely aligned to European institutions. Higher education was defined as: all types of education of an institutional nature (academic, professional, technological, teacher education) such as universities, university colleges, liberal art colleges, technological institutes, and teacher-training colleges, for which the basic entrance requirement is completion of secondary education, the usual entrance age is about 18 [sic] years, and in which the courses lead to the giving of a named award (degree, diploma or certificate of higher studies). 4 However, as the conference proceeded, it was evident that the majority of the representatives were most concerned with university education, and the deliberations of the conference illustrate this interest. In the former British territories, the government had assumed an active role in the development of higher education with the appointment in 1943 of two commissions. 5 The first, the Commission on ' U N E S C O , The Development of Higher Education in Africa (Paris: U N E S C O , 1 9 6 3 ) , Preface. 1 Other surveys of the needs of higher education had been made earlier. For example, a C o m m i s s i o n had visited East Africa and reported on the needs of that area. See Report of the Commission on Higher Education in East Africa, C o l o nial Office, C m d . 142 (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1 9 3 7 ) . H o w ever, it was only in the post-World War II period that the British government began allocating funds that would permit the development of institutes of higher education.
New African
Universities
217 6
Higher Education in the Colonies (called the Asquith Commission after its chairman, The Hon. Mr. Justice Asquith), was concerned with an overall review of the problem of university development overseas. The second, the Commission on Higher Education (called the Elliot Commission after its chairman, The Right Hon. Walter Elliot), reported on the special problems of university development in West Africa. 7
THE ASQUITH
COMMISSION
In its Report of 1945, the Asquith Commission set forth the broad guidelines on which university education in Africa developed. It urged the establishing of university colleges. By a university college we mean an institution of higher education at a university level which is not empowered to grant degrees. We believe that there should be no undue delay in converting the colleges into universities.8 This general procedure of having a university college created but having the degree granted by an established university was the procedure used in Britain at that time. From the viewpoint of the commission, this procedure would guarantee to the overseas institution a status in the international university community that would be difficult for any newly created institution to achieve immediately.
THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
PROGRAM
The Asquith Commission requested that the University of London undertake the responsibility of serving as the British university that would actually grant the degrees for the overseas university colleges. * Report of the Commission on Higher Education in the Colonies, Colonial Office, Cmd. 6647 (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1945). * Report of the Commission on Higher Education in West Africa, Colonial Office, Cmd. 6655 (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1945). ' Report of the Commission on Higher Education in the Colonies, op. cit., pp. 12-13.
218
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
The University of London had made available its degrees for overseas students for over a century and in the process had devised a scheme whereby students from abroad could gain a London "external" degree if they had fulfilled the qualifications necessary for acceptance and if other provisions set by the University had been met. In 1946, the University announced it would accept into a plan of special relations overseas colleges which showed that their constitutions, faculty, and resources were adequate for a university institution and which had an academic body responsible for formulating academic policy. This policy must include the encouragement of a liberal course of education and of corporate life among the students, the promotion of research and willingness to accept the responsibilities of intellectual leadership in the community which it serves.9 New institutions which show they are designed to meet the requirements are accepted into a provisional special relationship immediately. This is a great advantage to the institution, for it enables them to prepare students for degrees immediately. An institution that has been in existence but is unable to meet the demands established by London must wait until its facilities reach the London standard before being accepted into special relations. The University will assist the overseas institution by advice and consultation on how it can improve and enter into the special relations program.
THE
INTER-UNIVERSITY
COUNCIL
In addition to the program of the University of London, a second body that has assisted the growth of higher education in former British Africa is the Inter-University Council for Higher Education Overseas. 10 The council, formed in 1946, consists of representatives from " A . M. Carr-Saunders, New Universities Overseas (London: George Allen & U n w i n Ltd., 1 9 6 1 ) , p. 46. " T h e council w a s formed in March 1946 as the Inter-University C o u n c i l for H i g h e r Education in the Colonies. In 1955 the title w a s changed to the InterUniversity Council for Higher Education Overseas.
New
African
Universities
219
British and overseas universities, the educational advisor to the Secretary of State, and other m e m b e r s invited to serve. The council functions as an advisory body with funds supplied by the Colonial Development and Welfare Acts. 1 1 A major function of the council has been to assist overseas institutions in the recruiting of staff. The council, if requested, will advertise vacancies overseas and will establish selection committees to select staff for the university abroad. In addition, the council has assisted in the development of academic programs, construction of new buildings, and the acquisition of books for overseas libraries. A great deal of the success of the council has undoubtedly been due to the personal contacts maintained by the member of the council staff and the overseas staff. Members of the council frequently visit the overseas universities, and members of the staff of universities abroad are welcomed by the council when they are in Britain. THE UNIVERSITY GRANTS ADVISORY
COMMITTEE
The main body concerned with the expenditure of British government funds for higher education in the colonies is the University Grants Advisory Committee. This committee consists of members appointed by the Secretary of State and two representatives nominated by the Inter-University Council. The committee's major function has been to advise the Secretary of State on the expenditure of funds for higher education overseas. These three bodies, the University of London, the Inter-University Council, and the Grants Advisory Committee were the main agencies responsible for guiding the development of higher education throughout former British Africa. There has always been a close relationship between the three groups, and one is always impressed with the fact that many of the British working in higher education in Africa have known each other for some time. Undoubtedly, this close personal relationship contributes to the success of the program. 11
The Colonial Development and Welfare Acts are roughly analogous to grants made for educational purposes abroad under the foreign aid program of the United States.
220
FREEDOM
THE FRENCH-SPEAKING
S I T U A T I O N IN M I D D L E
AND
EDUCATION
AFRICA
AFRICA
In former French Africa, the only institution offering higher education before World War II was the School of Medicine and Pharmacy at Dakar. In 1948, a University Institute was founded and placed under the supervision of the Universities of Paris and Bordeaux. The institute was controlled by the federal Director-General of Education, with a council of education and laymen serving in an advisory capacity. In 1950, the institute became an Institute of Advanced Studies, with separate schools for medicine, law, letters, and natural science. The curriculum of the institute was identical with that of the French universities, except that a few African studies were offered. The diplomas and certificates it issued were the same as the French universities. The creation of the institute was greeted by mixed reaction on the part of African leaders. Some welcomed the new institute, but many others were afraid that the new institution would offer inferior diplomas and that its very existence would reduce the number of scholarships offered to African youth for study in France. Some of the suspicions voiced by the Africans proved to be correct. For in the early years that followed its creation, the diplomas and certificates issued by the institute, while equal to those of the French universities, did not go beyond the level of license. By the allocation of large sums of money, the government was able to raise the level of the institute, and in 1957, the institute became the University of Dakar. Since achieving independence, six additional university institutions in former French Middle Africa have been opened or are in the process of opening. 12 With the exception of Guinea, where French assistance ceased as a result of the political break in 1958, the new univeru
Université Fédéral du Cameroun, Centre d'Enseignemení Supérieur de Brazzaville, Université de la Guiñeé et du Mali (Sciences), Centre d'Enseignemení Supérieur (Ivory Coast), Université de Madagascar, Université de la Guiñeé et du Mali (Arts).
New
African
Universities
221
sity institutions have adhered to their primarily French curriculum. T h e y have, for the most part, been managed by the Ministry of Education in France, with the cooperation of French universities. The ministry pays a large share of the operating costs of the universities, and with the assistance of metropolitan universities, selects faculty members and pays the salaries of overseas staff.
THE
CONGO
A note should also be made of university education in the Congo. However, of all areas of Middle Africa, higher education in the Congo was the least developed among the colonial territories. Formal secondary education that would prepare students for the university was not started until 1948. The first university institution, Louvanium, was opened in 1 9 5 4 with a large European enrolment of students. T w o years later, a state university was opened in Elizabethville. The basic problem that has plagued Congolese educators is finding enough qualified secondary students to attend the two universities. While this is a problem in many sections of Africa, it is particularly acute in the Congo, where formal secondary education started decades behind the French and British territories. While the Belgians might point with pride at the high literacy rate in the Congo and the development of technical education, the scarcity of formal education on the secondary and university levels has left a tragic legacy.
P R E S E N T PROBLEMS OF HIGHER
EDUCATION
This was the general background of higher education when the delegates met at Tananarive in September, 1962. There were few delegates present who did not sense the urgency of the need to expand higher education and expand it rapidly. High level manpower is essential if the planned social and economic construction of Africa is to take place. Delegates attempted to produce a program for the development of higher education. While there were many pressing problems, the m o s t acute questions were concerned with the staffing, financing, and content of higher education.
222
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
STAFFING
While financing and the content of education are critical issues, the m a j o r factor in the development of higher education is staffing. It is assumed that Africans will staff their own universities as soon as possible. However, until enough Africans can be qualified, there will be a need to supply foreign, or as they are generally referred to in British reports, "expatriate" staff. In 1961, approximately 7 3 per cent of university staffs in Middle Africa were expatriates. Britain, F r a n c e , Belgium and the United States at the present time supply the largest number. 1 3 It was estimated by the conference that 5 , 0 0 0 to 5 , 5 0 0 of the expatriate teachers would be needed in English language universities of Africa. 1 4 This figure is based on the assumption that the expatriate faculty m e m b e r s will remain for five years, for in past, the average university faculty m e m b e r serving abroad has remained for this period. Five years would be an excellent tour of duty in terms of p r o fessional contribution to the A f r i c a n university. While individual staff members obviously vary in the time it takes t h e m to adjust to a new university position, past experience has shown that few can adjust their particular area of specialization to a completely new situation in less than a few years. In addition, the stability of the university requires a core of senior staff m e m b e r s w h o remain long enough to help in the actual construction of the curriculum and the m a n a g e m e n t of the university. Few universities in the West would have been built if they were staffed by short-term consultants. T h e r e is little argument as to the desirability of having faculty m e m b e r s remain for as long as they are invited to do so by the university. T h e r e is no indication in the report as to how m a n y of the 5 , 0 0 0 to 5 , 5 0 0 staff members will be required f r o m the United States. H o w ever, if one assumes that one-half will be A m e r i c a n university faculty members, then perhaps the n u m b e r should be re-examined. F o r while 13
A. M. Carr-Saunders, Staffing African Universities (London: The Overseas Development Institute, 1963), p. 9. " UNESCO, The Development of Higher Education in Africa, op. cit., p. 29.
New African
Universities
223
the desirability of long-term contracts is generally accepted, there is the very real problem of recruiting American staff members for longterm tours of duty. Ordinarily, there is no great difficulty in finding American faculty members who are willing to spend six months, a year, or possibly two years abroad. However, unless the individual is actively engaged in research that is related to the area where he will be teaching, there is a reluctance to leave his home institution, his research, and his colleagues for what is viewed as a long-term tour abroad. Furthermore, the expatriate faculty needed in African universities will be senior staff members, for it is assumed that in this interim period many young Africans will become qualified and fill many of the junior positions now held by expatriates. The need for senior staff will compound the difficulty of recruiting. In this regard, the French-language universities appear to have a distinct advantage, for these are under the Ministry of Education and university teachers have civil service status. Throughout France, there is a unified salary scale and pension plan; there is also a common approach among the universities to appointments and promotions. While the universities make their own appointments, it is the State that approves the appointment. Under this scheme, it is possible for a university instructor to accept a post overseas and know that his rights, including promotion and pension, are safeguarded. It is because of this close cooperation between the universities and the State that French educators believe they can meet the demands for expatriate faculty for the next two decades. Carr-Saunders, commenting on the difficulty of finding staff for the English-speaking African universities, wrote, It is estimated that enrolments in United States universities and colleges will double or more in the next fifteen years, that the number of university students in Canada will increase at the rate of 10 per cent per annum between 1960-61 and 1970-71, and that the number of university students in Great Britain will increase by 70 per cent between 1960-61 and 1973-74. There is serious doubt in these countries whether the number of additional teachers can be found, if the high standards required of a university teacher are to be maintained. Therefore, it will not be easy to find teachers of the necessary quality for work overseas. It is against this background of
224
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
g e n e r a l s c a r c i t y that t h e p r o b l e m of the r e c r u i t m e n t of
expatriate
teachers must be discussed.15
FINANCING
While staffing is undoubtedly the basic problem, there is also the question of how the universities can be built and financed during this twenty-year period. At the present time, approximately .35 per cent of the university age group is actually enroled in higher education in Middle Africa. The Tananarive conference envisages 1.51 per cent of the relevant age group population enroled in 1980. This figure appears modest in terms of the population of Middle Africa. At the present time, there are 188,000,000 people in the region, with only 46,000 enroled in higher education. It is estimated that by 1980 the population will rise to 264,000,000, and it is hoped that 274,000 students will be enroled in higher educaton. 16 For the foreign visitor, it often appears that one way to reduce the cost of higher education would be to reduce the cost of construction. In terms of buildings, there are many African universities that surpass those found in many areas of Europe or the United States. No one interested in higher education could wish for anything except the best for the new African universities, but the best does not necessairly mean the housing of bicycle racks in better buildings than those many elementary school children have in the simple rural schools. One can share the concern of the former colonial educators for providing as high level an atmosphere as possible for the young men and women who will be the future leaders. But many African educators today are questioning some of the costly standards of the past. By tradition, in many universities no student shares a room, yet for the most part, the rooms are large and could easily accommodate another student. By this and other techniques, the cost of higher education could be reduced considerably. In addition, the traditional view of having all students reside on the campus may well be financially impossible. More students could be accommodated in the universities if the size of the universities was not " Ibid., p. 17. " U N E S C O , The Development
of Higher
Education
in Africa,
op. cit., p. 22.
New African
Universities
225
determined by the number accommodated by the residence halls. Again, we can share the view of those who saw the desirability of having the students work and live in a university atmosphere. The problem of students finding adequate housing in the crowded urban area has been acute. Students have very little money, and they need a living area where they can study. As difficult as this problem is, the day student, as opposed to the resident student, may be a necessity if the needs of higher education are to be met. Another area where expenses might be reduced is in the ratio of students to staff. The Tananarive report recommends a ratio of fifteen degree students for each staff member by 1980. 17 At the present time the ratio in many institutes of higher education is much lower. It is not unusual to find a European expatriate teaching a class with only two or three students. This is understandable at the present time, for it represents the embryo stage for many universities; in order to introduce a variety of areas for study, it is necessary to have staff, although the number of students may be limited. However, this places a great financial burden on the country, for expatriate staffs are very expensive. The target of fifteen students to one staff member is highly desirable from an educational point of view, but in the pressure to build higher education rapidly, African educators may find it is necessary to increase the number students per faculty member. The idea of reducing building costs, of increasing the number of day students, and of sharing facilities with other territories was discussed at the Tananarive conference. Assuming such economies were put into effect, the delegates attempted to estimate the cost for the next twenty-year period. In making these estimates, delegates were projecting revenue it was assumed would accrue as a result of anticipated economic development. The costs of higher education were considered within the general required expenditure for financing all levels of education in Middle Africa. The following figures represent, therefore not only the costs of higher education but the total needed for all levels of education development, of which higher education would receive its share. By 1965, Middle Africa will need foreign aid to meet an educational deficit of 500 million dollars. By 1970, Middle Africa 17
ibid., p. 71.
226
F R E E D O M
AND
E D U C A T I O N
will have a deficit of 875 million dollars, and this figure will taper off to 357 million dollars by 1980. 18 These figures are based upon what the estimated cost will be to build an educational system, what is anticipated in the way of revenue, and what the deficit will be. T o meet the deficit will require the largest foreign aid assistance program for education by international organizations, individual friendly governments, and private organizations that the world has ever seen. Should the anticipated economic development of the states falter, then the deficit will be larger than anticipated. The relationship of education to economic development is like a delicate spider web. It is hoped that educated personnel will contribute to the economic development of the country so that revenue will be accumulated for education and other social services. Should an imbalance occur, a politically dangerous situation can arise. F o r many years, India has been concerned with absorbing the ever-growing surplus of liberal arts graduates. Many emerging countries are growing through a stage when the expected reward for achieving an educational level is no longer realistic. If, for decades, a young man who graduated from the primary or elementary school was assured of a position in government or business, then today parents may still assume that their children will obtain this type of position if they complete elementary school. In fact, the conditions may well have changed so that today the position requires a secondary or high school education. We have gone through much the same process in the United States, when, for years, a high school diploma served as a requirement for many positions. Today, we hear increasingly that a college degree is now required. But while we have had many years to accustom our thinking to higher educational requirements, the shift in Africa has been much more abrupt. Within a few short years, the flood of primary or elementary school graduates has absorbed all government and business positions and has left in its wake a group of young men whose expectation has never materialized. The same can happen on the high school or even university level if the economic structure has not expanded rapidly enough to absorb the graduates. Like a spectre in the wings is the tragic example of Haiti, a country that is one of the least developed " Ibid.,
p. 7 4 .
New
African
Universities
227
of all Latin America. It has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world, and its health problems are legion. Despite this dire need at home, one finds scores of Haitians who are university graduates in those areas so badly needed at home serving in international organizations in other countries. The basic reason for this apparent paradox is that Haiti cannot afford to hire her own graduates. Therefore, for the young educated Haitian who may be intensely dedicated to helping his own people, there is little alternative except to serve abroad, particularly in French-speaking Africa. Should economic development fail to keep pace with educational development, then only tragedy will result. The funds for education will diminish, and the young man who undoubtedly at great personal and family sacrifice has received an education will be left with little except angry frustration. It is this delicate balance between education and economic development that must be maintained. In the face of overwhelming demands on the part of African parents for an education for their children, it will be no easy task for African leaders to decide how much of a limited budget should be allocated to the various levels of the educational ladder. CONTENT OF THE
CURRICULUM
The third general area to be considered by the delegates at Tananarive was the adaptation of the curriculum to the needs of modern, independent African society. Delegates agreed that, "The task of the university in Africa in the cultivation of African cultures and national needs as well as in fostering economic and social development, requires a fundamental reconsideration of the contents of its curricula and possibly of its structure." 19 In suggesting that the African universities should reconsider their curricula and possibly their structure, delegates were suggesting an evaluation of the inherited European model to see how it can be adapted to Africa. (In establishing universities in Africa, European educators had tended to recreate in Africa the same pattern with which they were familiar in Europe. There was a genuine feeling among many expatriates that unless the African model were similar to its European counterpart it could hardly be ™ Ibid., p. 75.
228
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
viewed as higher education. Attempts were made with varying degrees of success to adapt syllabi and curricula; for the most part the changes were peripheral, and the hard core of the curriculum remained the same. For many European educators this was desirable, as it would guarantee in the international community a full acceptance of the new universities.) This might well be considered the first stage in the development of the African universities, and it was a period that was welcomed by many Africans as well as Europeans. Educational programs that were not similar to the European model were often viewed with suspicion. There was, on the part of many African educators, a fear that the educaton offered in Africa would be inferior and could well be a ruse to keep Africans from attaining social and economic advancement. Over forty years ago, the Phelps-Stokes report urged the adaptation of African education to the African environment. 20 Visitors could find many areas where African school children were learning the alphabet by saying the familiar "A is for apple," although the child had never seen an apple, and there probably were no apples within a thousand miles. And if the visitor remained in the area until the child reached the letter "M," he would hear the child say "M is for mittens," although the area might well be a tropical one where no one had actually seen mittens or could really understand why they were used. On the secondary school level, the curriculum was also very similar to that of the European academic school. Except in the Congo, where academic secondary education started so recently, the emphasis in both British and French Africa was on an academic approach that would prepare the student for an examination that was similar, if not practically identical, to the examination given in England and France. For all practical purposes, the examination was the stepping stone to the university. Today, these examinations are still the general rule in most areas of Africa. A pattern emerged which is not dissimilar from that evidenced by 50
Thomas Jesse Jones, Education in A frica: A Study of West, South, and Equatoral Africa by the African Education Commission, under the auspices of the Phleps-Stokes Fund and Foreign Mission Societies of North Europe and Europe ( N e w York: Phelph-Stokes Fund, 1922), p. 20.
New African
Universities
229
the history of education in the United States. The secondary schools became preparatory schools for the university. However, in the case of Africa, the great difference was that the university was imported and was hardly different in terms of curriculum from the university in England or France; therefore, the secondary school, too, had to be similar if the students were to have a fair opportunity on the examination. Undoubtedly, another reason for the lack of African material in the curriculum was the scarcity of knowledge about Africa and things African. A little over a decade ago when my wife and I returned from our first tript to Africa, it was possible to maintain a file on all matters pertaining to Africa that appeared in the major newspapers and periodicals. And I must admit the file was rather thin. Books on Africa were, for the most part, of the travelogue variety. There was very little in the social sciences or in other areas that form the basis for curriculum development. During the past decade, particularly the past five years, there has been a great interest in Africa, and as a result, historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and political scientists are producing the materials that can be used for building a genuine African curriculum. With independence, African leaders need no longer fear that an educational pattern different from the European model is inferior. There is, throughout Africa, a reawakened interest in the African cultural heritage and the desire to create an African culture that will blend the best of the past with the requirements of a modern state. These factors suggest that the inherited European traditions in Africa will undergo a radical reform. In the British, French, and Belgian tradition, the literary and humanities aspects of the curriculum were stressed. Africa, like any other area, will continue to need a literary curriculum, but if it is to meet the challenge of economic development, it will require a far greater percentage of its students in scientific and technological courses. The very idea that modern technological subjects should be offered on the university level is in itself an educational revolution. The Tananarive delegates recommended that, ". . . admission to universities and other forms of higher education should be of the or-
230
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
der of 60 per cent to scientific and technological courses and 40 per cent to courses in the arts." 21 THE
CHALLENGE
TO THE
UNIVERSITIES
The declaration by Nyerere that the University of East Africa will not be an "ivory tower existence for an intellectual elite" is one that would be shared by most African political leaders and educators. In the process of nation building, the universities of Africa have a heavy responsibility. It is the university that can serve as a center for a vast adult education campaign through extension classes. It is the university that will be the center for research in the behavioral sciences as well as the areas of science and technology. Unlike western Europe and the United States, there are no other institutions capable of carrying on basic research. It is the university that can share in the very process of nation building by helping build national unity. Nyerere indicated the obligations of most African universities when he said, It is a hard and challenging task which this university has to accept. Its members must serve East Africa as menials, collecting and disseminating the facts we ought to want. At the same time they must be the torch-bearers of our society, and the protectors of the flame, should we in our urgency, endanger its brightness. 22 21
Ibid., p. 7 6 . " The Reporter
( E a s t A f r i c a n ) , op. cit., p. 30.
Appendix Schoolmen's Week Committees and Program, 1963
ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS OF THE UNIVERSITY GAYLORD P . H A R N W E L L , President DAVID R . GODDARD, Provost; CARL C H A M B E R S , Vice-President for Engineering Affairs; I . S . RAVDIN, Vice-President for Medical Affairs; G E N E D . G I S B U R N E , Vice-President for Student Affairs; STUART H . CARROLL, Secretary. SCHOOLMEN'S WEEK STAFF General Chairman—HELEN HUUS, Associate Professor of Education Executive Secretary—RICHARD S. HEISLER, Assistant to the Dean, Graduate School of Education Administrative Assistant—ALICE M . LAVELLE Coordinators: Elementary Education—MARY E. COLEMAN, Associate Professor of Education Higher Education—WILLIAM W. BRICKMAN, Professor of Education Secondary Education—ALBERT I. OLIVER, Associate Professor of Education GENERAL COMMITTEE FOR SCHOOLMEN'S WEEK Members Representing the University: WILLIAM E . ARNOLD, P r o f e s s o r of E d u c a t i o n FRANCIS B E T T S ,
Director, Houston Hall
R . JEAN BROWNLEE, D e a n , College f o r W o m e n MARVIN FARBER,
Professor of Philosophy
JOHN F . FOGG, JR., D i r e c t o r , M o r r i s A r b o r e t u m JEREMIAH FORD,
II, Director, Intercollegiate Athletics
MRS. ALBERT M . GREENFIELD, A s s o c i a t e T r u s t e e MORRIS HAMBURG,
Associate Professor, Economic and Social Statistics
J . FREDERICK HAZEL, P r o f e s s o r of C h e m i s t r y JOHN H . KEYES, B u s i n e s s M a n a g e r CHARLES L E E ,
Vice-Dean, Annenberg School of Communications
MRS. JOHN F . LEWIS, JR., A s s o c i a t e T r u s t e e THERESA S. L Y N C H , Dean, School of Nursing JOHN F. MELBY, Director, Office of Foreign Students
ROY F . NICHOLS, V i c e - P r o v o s t FROELICH G . RAINEY, O T T O SPRINGER, Dean
Director, University Museum of the College
E. CRAIG SWEETEN, D i r e c t o r of D e v e l o p m e n t MRS. THOMAS RAEBURN WHITE, A s s o c i a t e T r u s t e e
Director of Data Processing and Research Members Outside the University: HELEN C. BAILEY, Former Associate Superintendent, School District of Philadelphia P H I L I P B. CAPPALONGA, Supervising Principal, Narberth Borough School District, Narberth, Pa. A N T H O N Y R. CATRAMBONE, Superintendent, Camden Public Schools, Camden, New Jersey MATTHEW W. GAFFNEY, Superintendent, Abington Township Schools, Abington, Pa. G. C. GALPHIN, Dean of Admissions, Drexel Institute of Technology, Philadelphia, Pa. A L L E N C. H A R M A N , Superintendent, Montgomery County Schools, Norristown, Pa. W E B S T E R C. H E R Z O G , Superintendent, Chester County Schools, West Chester, Pa. ERNEST WHITWORTH,
THOMAS HOWIE, Superintendent, Alexis I. duPont Special School District, Wilmington, Delaware HAROLD F. MARTIN, Superintendent, Upper Merion Township School District, King of Prussia, Pa. GEORGE E. RAAB, Superintendent, Bucks County Schools, Doylestown, Pa. MAURICE STRATTAN, Superintendent, Paoli Area High School System and Tredyffrin-Easttown Elementary Schools, Berwyn, Pa. EARL F. SYKES, President, West Chester State College, West Chester, Pa. G. BAKER THOMPSON, Superintendent, Delaware County Schools, Media, Pa.
UNIVERSITY
of
PENNSYLVANIA
Schoolmen's Week Program FIFTY-FIRST CONFERENCE OCTOBER 9-12, 1963 Schoolmen's Week is supported financially by, and planned co-operatively with, the University of Pennsylvania, Association for Childhood Education, Delaware Valley Reading Association, Drexel Institute of Technology, Philadelphia Principals Association, Philadelphia Suburban Elementary Principals Association, Philadelphia Teachers Association, Private School Teachers Association of Philadelphia and Vicinity, and the following school districts: Abington Township, Avon-Grove Area Jointure, Brandywine Area, Bristol Borough, Camden City, Central Bucks Jointure, Cheltenham Township, Chester City, Chichester Jointure, Clifton Heights, Coatesville, Conshohocken, Council Rock, Darby-Colwyn Jointure, Deep Run Valley Jointure, Delaware County, Downingtown Jointure, Doylestown Borough, Folcroft Borough, Garnet Valley Jointure, Haverford Township, Interboro, Kennett Consolidated, Lansdowne-Aldan Jointure, Lower Merion Township, Media, Montgomery County, Narberth, Nether Providence, New Hope-Solebury Jointure, Norristown, North Penn Jointure, Octorara, Oxford Area Consolidated, Penn-Delco Union, Pennridge Jointure, Phoenixville, Phoenixville Area Jointure, Pottstown, Quakertown Community Jointure, Radnor Township, Ridley Park, Ridley Township, Rose Tree Union, Sharon Hill, Springfield Township (Delaware County), Springfield Township (Montgomery County), Swarthmore-Rutledge Union, Tredyffrin-Easttown-Paoli Area, Unionville-Chadds Ford, Upland Borough, Upper Darby Township, Upper Merion Township, West Chester Borough, West Chester Jointure, Wilmington, and Yeadon.
Acknowledgments Schoolmen's Week wishes to acknowledge its indebtedness to the following individuals and organizations for their cooperation in developing the 1963 program:
C O N T R I B U T I N G SPECIALISTS
Administration—LEE O. GARBER, Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania; Art—LOUISE B. BALLINGER, Lecturer on Education, University of Pennsylvania; Guidance—RODERIC D. MATTHEWS, Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania; Library—MARY HELPS, Secretary, Delaware County School Librarians Association; Modern Foreign Language—RUTH KROEGER, President, Modern Foreign Language Association of Philadelphia and Vicinity; Music Education—HELEN MARTIN, Assistant Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania; Nursery-Kindergarten—-MARY LANG, Lecturer on Education, University of Pennsylvania; Philosophy of Education— FREDERICK C. G R U B E R , Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania; Reading—E. G I L L E T K E T C H U M , President, Delaware Valley Reading Association; Science—J. FREDERICK H A Z E L , Professor of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania; R. J. CHINNIS, Lecturer on Education, University of Pennsylvania; Vocational Education and Practical Arts—WALTER B. JONES, Director, Vocational Teacher Education, University of Pennsylvania.
PLANNING
COMMITTEE
Chairman of Professional Committee, Educational Secretaries Association, Philadelphia; MARIAN BAILLIE, Supervisor of Special Education, Delaware County Public Schools, Media, Pa.; L O U I S E B . BALLINGER, Lecturer on Education, University of Pennsylvania; ELIZABETH BARTEN, H e a d of Biology Department, Swarthmore High School, Swarthmore, Pa.; A L B E R T A . BELL, President, Personnel and Guidance Association, Philadelphia; R o s s BORTNER, Assistant Superintendent, Chester County Schools, West Chester, Pa.; A N N A BRAUN, Chairman, Pennsylvania H o m e Economics Association, Southeastern District; NORMAN CALHOUN, Assistant Superintendent, Delaware County Schools, Media, Pa.; EDNA CARROLL, President, Adult Education Council of Philadelphia; M A R Y CARTER, Principal, Radnor Senior High School, Radnor, Pa.; R O B E R T J. C H I N N I S , Lecturer on Education, University of Pennsylvania; S A M U E L CLAUSER, Director of Guidance, Conestoga Senior High School, Berwyn, Pa.; R O B E R T H . COATES, Director, School Extension, School District of Philadelphia; FRANCES N . CRAWFORD, Reading Specialist, Abington Junior High School, Abington, Pa.; RICHARD L. CURRIER, Assistant Regional Superintendent in Charge of Secondary Education, T h e Pennsbury Schools, Fallsington, Pa.; JOHN C. DAVIS, Director, St. Albans International Seminars, St. Albans School, Washington, D . C . ; M A R I E DOBISCH, Wilson Junior High School, Philadelphia; ETHEL G . ENCKE, Southeastern Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation, Radnor, Pa.; R U T H E W I N G , President, Philadelphia H o m e and School Council; W I L L I A M M. F R E N C H , Chairman, Education Department, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa.; MARTHA A. G A B L E , Director, Radio and HAZEL ASHHURST,
234
A
cknowledgments
235
Television Education, School District of Philadelphia; LEE O. GARBER, Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania; ALMA H. GARSIDE, Nurse-Co-ordinator, District #2, School District of Philadelphia; HARRY GASSER, Assistant Superintendent, Montgomery County Schools, Norristown, Pa.; JAMES GRACE, Chairman, Education Department, St. Joseph's College, Philadelphia; ROBERT GRIMM, Supervisor of Elementary Education, Upper Darby Township School District, Upper Darby, Pa.; FREDERICK C. GRUBER, Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania; JOSEPH C. HALL, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Cheyney State College, Cheyney, Pa.; ALLEN C. HARMAN, Superintendent, Montgomery County Schools, Norristown, Pa.; GEORGE HARRIS, Chairman, Education Department, Villanova University, Villanova, Pa.; MARY H E L P S , Secretary, Delaware County School Librarians Association, Broomall, Pa.; GEORGE HOEHLER, President, Phi Delta Kappa, Upper Darby, Pa.; DAVID A. HOROWITZ, Associate Superintendent of Schools, School District of Philadelphia; MIRIAM E. JONES, Principal, The Friends School, Haverford, Pa.; E. G I L L E T KETCHUM, President, Delaware Valley Reading Association, Philadelphia; MARJORIE E. KING, Teacher of Foreign Languages, Springfield Township Public Schools, Montgomery County, Chestnut Hill, Pa.; GEORGE K L I N E , Associate Professor of Physiology and Russian, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pa.; RUTH KROEGER, President, Modern Foreign Language Association of Philadelphia and Vicinity, Philadelphia, Pa.; FLORENCE LOOSE, Counselor, Wilmington High School, Wilmington, Delaware; LOUISE L O W E , Director of Elementary Education, Springfield Township Schools, Montgomery County, Chestnut Hill, Pa.; EVELYN G . MARCANTONIO, Lecturer on Education, University of Pennsylvania; H E L E N MARTIN, Assistant Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania; RODERIC D. MATTHEWS, Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania; EVERETT MCDONALD, JR., Superintendent, Centennial Area Joint Schools, Johnsville, Pa.; RUTH MELSON, Mathematics Coordinator in Elementary Schools, Haverford Township School District, Havertown, Pa.; E M I L H. MESSIKOMER, Director, Undergraduate Program, West Chester State College, West Chester, Pa.; R U T H W E I R MILLER, Executive Director, World Affairs Council of Philadelphia; A N N E M. OSBORNE, Director of Curriculum, Upper Darby Township Schools, Upper Darby, Pa.; ELIZABETH OSTERLUND, Associate Professor of Education, Temple University, Philadelphia; WILLIAM D. O W E N , Dean of Admissions, University of Pennsylvania; ANNA PIRSCENOK, Assistant Professor, Slavic Languages and Literature, University of Pennsylvania; ELIZABETH PORTER, Counselor, Central Bucks Joint High School, Doylestown, Pa.; ELWOOD PRESTWOOD, Assistant Superintendent, Lower Merion Township Schools, Ardmore, Pa.; MARJORIE RANKIN, Dean, College of Home Economics, Drexel Institute of Technology, Philadelphia; ARNOLD REICHENBERGER, Professor of Romance Languages, University of Pennsylvania; MARY C. RENNER, Director of Audio-Visual Instruction, Upper Darby Township Schools, Upper Darby, Pa.; EDNA M. RENOUF, Elementary Supervisor, Springfield Township Schools, Delaware County, Springfield, Pa.; LAWRENCE V. ROTH, Principal, William Dick School, Philadelphia; SAUL SACK, Associate Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania; BENJAMIN SCHLEIFER, Director of English Department, Central High School, Philadelphia; JOSEPH S . SCHMUCKLER, Teacher of Chemistry, Haverford Senior High School, Havertown, Pa.; HUGH SHAFER, Associate Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania; CLAYTON K. SHENK, Head of Social Studies Department, Upper Darby High School,
236
F R E E D O M
AND
E D U C A T I O N
Upper Darby, Pa.; H E L E N SHIELDS, Assistant Professor of Education, Beaver College, Glenside, Pa.; JOHN W. SHIRLEY, Provost, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware; H . HALLECK SINGER, Assistant Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania; I. EZRA STAPLES, Assistant to the Associate Superintendent, School District of Philadelphia; RUDOLPH SUKONICK, President, Association of Teachers of Mathematics of Philadelphia and Vicinity, Philadelphia; MALVENA F. TAIZ, Assistant Professor, Physical Education for Women, University of Pennsylvania; CLEORA TEFFEAU, Principal, Francis X. McGraw School, Camden, N. J . ; STANLEY TRACTON, President, Philadelphia Science Teachers Association, Philadelphia; CHARLES TWINING, President, Philadelphia Teachers Association, Philadelphia; A. EVELYN WALKER, Principal, Bala Elementary School, Bala-Cynwyd, Pa.; HAROLD H . WINGERD, Assistant Superintendent, West Chester Public Schools, West Chester, Pa.; DOROTHY Y O C U M , President, Suburban Philadelphia Business Teachers Association, Chester, Pa.; MARECHALN E I L E. YOUNG, Acting Auxiliary District Superintendent, School District of Philadelphia. ORGANIZATIONS
Adult Education Council of Philadelphia; Association for Childhood Education; Association of Teachers of Mathematics of Philadelphia and Vicinity; Commission on Secondary Schools, Middle States Association; Delaware Valley Programing Association of the National Society for Programed Instruction; Department of Elementary School Principals, Southeastern District; Educational Secretaries Association; English Club of Philadelphia; Folk Dance Leaders Council of Philadelphia; Heart Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania; Home Economics Association of Philadelphia; International Reading Association, Delaware Valley Branch; Kappa Delta Epsilon; Kappa Phi Kappa; Modern Language Association of Philadelphia and Vicinity; Pennsylvania Association of Women Deans and Counselors; Pennsylvania Home Economics Association, Southeastern District; Pennsylvania Learning Resources Association; Pennsylvania Music Educators Association, Southeastern District; Pennsylvania School Administrators Association, Eastern Division; Pennsylvania School Counselors Association; Personnel and Guidance Association of Greater Philadelphia; Phi Delta Kappa; Philadelphia Home and School Council; Philadelphia Science Teachers Association; Philadelphia Teachers Association; Pi Lambda Theta; School of Education Alumni Association, University of Pennsylvania; School Librarians Association of Delaware, Montgomery, and Chester Counties; School Librarians Association of Philadelphia and Vicinity; SeventyFive Club; Southeastern Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation; Southeastern District Council of Social Studies; Special Education Association; Suburban Philadelphia Business Education Association; World Affairs Council of Philadelphia.
Wednesday, October 9 9:30 A . M . 1—The Role of Analysis in Educational Philosophy Auditorium, Second Floor, Annenberg School of Communications, 3623 Locust Street
Chairman: MARVIN FÄRBER, Professor and Chairman, Department of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania Speaker: HARRY S. BROUDY, Professor of Education, University of Illinois, Urbana, IU. 2— Are You a Law-Breaking Parent? (In co-operation with the Philadelphia Home and School Council) Auditorium, OrexeI,
32nd and Chestnut Streets Chairman: RUTH E . EWING, President, Philadelphia Home and School Council, School District of Philadelphia Speakers:
B. ROSENBERG, Special Deputy Attorney General, Department of Revenue, Harrisburg; JOSEPH W. MAX, Inspector, Juvenile Aid Division, Philadelphia Police Department; KATHERINE SAXON, Representative, District #4, Philadelphia Home and School Council EDWARD
3—Workshop for Evaluation Chairmen (In co-operation with the Commission on Secondary Schools, Middle States Association) Room 100, lllman Building, 3944 Walnut Street
(This is an all-day workshop to acquaint beginning chairmen with their responsibilities in the 1 9 6 3 - 6 4 secondary school evaluations. Participation is by invitation.) Chairman: ABLETT H . FLURY, Executive Secretary, Commission on Secondary Schools, Philadelphia Greetings: ALBERT I. OLIVER, Associate Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania Consultants: HERMAN E. WESSEL, Area Supervisor, Intern Teaching Program for College Graduates, Temple University, Philadelphia; JOHN F. BROUGHER, Professor of Education, Shippensburg State College, Shippensburg, Pa. 2:00 P.M. 4—Problems in the Education of Minority Peoples in the Soviet Union.... Auditorium, Second Floor, Annenberg School of Communications, 3623 Locust Street
237
238
F R E E D O M WEDNESDAY,
Chairman: W I L L I A M Pennsylvania
W . BRICKMAN,
AND
OCTOBER
E D U C A T I O N 9,
2:00
P.M.
Professor of Education, University of
Speaker: YAROSLAV BILINSKY, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware
4:00 P.M. 5—The N e w Universities in A f r i c a Annenberg
Auditorium, Second Floor, School of Communications, 3623 Locust Street
Chairman: FRANK S. LOESCHER, General Secretary, U.S.-South Africa Leader Exchange Program, Inc., Philadelphia Speaker: DAVID G . SCANLON, Professor of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City 6—Problems of S c h o o l - A g e C h i l d r e n (In co-operation w i t h the Educational Secretaries Association of P h i l a d e l p h i a Auditorium, lllman Building, 3 9 4 4 Walnut Street Chairman: H A Z E I , M . ASHHIJRST, Senior Secretary, Penn Treaty Junior High School, Philadelphia Speaker: G E R T R U D E K . POLLAK, Director of Family Life Education, Family Service of Philadelphia 7—Newest Developments in A d u l t Education (In co-operation w i t h the A d u l t Education Council of P h i l a d e l p h i a a n d the Division of School Extension, School District of P h i l a d e l p h i a ) R o o m 2, University Museum, 33rd and Spruce Streets Chairman: R O B E R T H . of Philadelphia
COATES,
Director of School Extension, School District
Panel: Program Director, National Training Laboratory, Washington, A. H U R S T , Managing Director, Communications Arts Center, Chicago, 111.; N A T H A N I E L G. W E B B , Training Administrator, The Electric Storage Battery Company, Philadelphia CURTIS MIAL, D. C.; J O H N
Thursday, October 10 9:00
A.M.
8—Conservation Tour Marktey
Eisenhower Senior Street a n d Coolidge Boulevard,
High School, Norristown
Chairman: L. R. BRENDLINGER, Assistant Superintendent, Montgomery County Schools Participants will meet at the High School and proceed as follows: (a)
Eastern State Game Farm Wildlife and Wildlife Habitat—JOSEPH BUDD, Superintendent (b) Clarence Reinford Farm Conservation Practices—CHARLES B. S. SLATON, U. S. Soil Conservation Service, Assistant to the State Conservationist ( c ) Wissahickon Watershed P. L. #566 Flood Control Program—PAUL M. FELTON, Executive Director, Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association ( d ) Amchem Research Farm Research on Herbicides—CHARLES JACK, Farm Manager (e) (Location to be determined) Woodland Management—W.P. MOLL, District Forester, Department of Forests and Waters Note: Only 40 persons can be accommodated on this all-day tour. Cards of admission may be obtained by writing to Schoolmen's Week, Attention: Conservation Tour, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 4, Pa. Enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope. 9:30 A.M. 9—Basic C o n c e p t « in Current R e a d i n g Procedures (In c o - o p e r a t i o n w i t h t h e D e l a w a r e V a l l e y R e a d i n g Association)....Irvine Auditorium, 3 4 0 1 Spruee Street Chairman: E . GILLET KETCHUM, Supervisor of Re-education Clinic, Psychological Services, Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia Speaker: ALBERT J. HARRIS, Director, Educational Clinic, Queens College of the City of New York, Flushing, Long Island 1 0 — P r o g r a m e d Instruction: P a n a c e a o r P l a c e b o ? (In c o - o p e r a t i o n w i t h t h e D e l a w a r e V a l l e y P r o g r a m i n g Association of t h e N a t i o n a l Society f o r P r o g r a m e d Instruction—Part I of a T w o Part Sequence) Auditorium, Asbury Church, 33rd and Chestnut Streets Chairman: HUGH M. SHAFER, Associate Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania 239
240
FREEDOM THURSDAY,
AND
OCTOBER
EDUCATION 10,
9:30
A.M.
Speakers: JEROME LYSAUGHT, Instructor on Programed Instruction, University of Rochester, Rochester, N . Y.; JOSEPH TUCKER, Consultant on Programed Instruction, Cresap, McCormick and Paget, New York City 11—Tensions
in Guidance
(In c o - o p e r a t i o n
with
the
Personnel
Guidance Association of G r e a t e r P h i l a d e l p h i a ) ....
Christian
Association,
3601
and Auditorium,
Locust
Street
Chairman: ALBERT A . BELL, District Executive Director, B'nai B'rith Vocational Service, Philadelphia Moderator: EDWARD J . SHOBEN, JR., Professor, Department of Psychological Foundations and Services, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City Panel: JOHN E . FREE, Director, Counseling Service, University of Pennsylvania; ELMER R . RITZMAN, Counselor, Springfield Township Senior High School, Montgomery County; ROBERT C. TABER, Director, Division of Pupil Personnel
and Counseling, School District of Philadelphia
12—The Impact of Research on L a n g u a g e Teaching Towne Building,
Room
220 S. 33rd from Smith
(inter
314, Street WalkJ
Chairman: ALFRED ROBERTS, Chairman, Foreign Language Department, West Chester State College, West Chester Speaker: ANDRE MALECOT, Professor of Romance Languages, University of Pennsylvania 13—English f o r the S l o w - L e a r n i n g Adolescent
(Snellenburg
Lecture Hall),
Dietrich
f-IJ
Hall,
3620
Locust Street
Chairman: JOSEPH W . BINGEMAN, Supervising Principal, Ambler Joint School District Speakers: ELIZABETH WARNER, Teacher of English, Upper Dublin Senior Fort Washington; R U T H GILMORE, Teacher of Developmental
Reading, Sharon Hill High School, Sharon Hill
High School, and Remedial
1 4 — W h a t ' s N e w in Elementary School O r g a n i z a t i o n ?
Main
Chairman:
MARK
Auditorium,
Drexel,
32nd
and Chestnut
Streets
C. NAGY, Principal, Ithan Elementary School, Wayne
Speaker: STUART E. DEAN, Specialist for Elementary School Organization and Administration, Office of Education, U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Washington, D. C.
A
241
ppendix
THURSDAY,
OCTOBER
10,
9:30
A.M.
15—Providing Emotional Security in the Secondary School Classroom.... Room 101 North, Student Activities Center, Drexel, Southwest Corner, 32nd and Chestnut Streets Chairman: MARIAN H . BAILLIE, Supervisor of Special Education, Delaware County Public Schools Speaker: L . KATHRYN DICE, Director, Bureau of Special Services for Pupils, Department of Public Instruction, Harrisburg Discussants: ELMER LISSFELDT, Supervising Principal, Upper Moreland Township School District; FRANCES LINK, Coordinator of Secondary Education, Cheltenham Township School District; MARY JANE LEADER, Parent, Gladwyne
16—Materials for the Improvement of Reading for the Academic Student in High School Auditorium, Institute of l o c a l and State Government, 39th and Walnut Streets Chairman: GRACE H I L L HOTTENSTEIN, Coordinator of Reading, Pottstown Public Schools Discussants: DAVID WILSON, Reading Teacher, Norristown School District; GLADYS GALLAGHER, Reading Consultant, Secondary Schools, Upper Merion Township School District; GERALD FLETCHER, Reading Coordinator, Lansdale Public Schools
17—The Homerooms Problem or Opportunity? Auditorium, lllman Building, 3944 Walnut Street Chairman: MARECHAL-NEIL E. YOUNG, Acting Auxiliary District tendent, School District of Philadelphia Demonstration:
Superin-
Pupils f r o m Audenried Junior High School, Philadelphia
Moderator: JUSTYNE WILLIS, Teacher of English, Audenried Junior High School, Philadelphia Discussants: CLARE ZELLEY, Vice Principal, Audenried Junior High School, LIONEL H. JACKSON, Teacher of English, Nether Providence Senior
Philadelphia; High School,
Wallingford 18—Art Workshop
Room 301, lllman Building, 3944 Walnut Street
(The same as Program 81) Chairman: MARY C. RENNER, Director of Audio-Visual Instruction, Upper Darby Township Schools
242
FREEDOM
THURSDAY,
AND
OCTOBER
EDUCATION
10,
9:30
A.M.
Director: J A N E B E T S E Y W E L L I N G , Emeritus Professor of Education, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan Assistant: L U C I L L E W . C A R L T O N , Teacher of Art, Highland Park School, Upper D a r b y Note: Only 40 persons can be accommodated. Cards of admission may be obtained by writing to Schoolmen's Week, Attention: Art Workshop, G r a d u a t e School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 4, Pa. Enclose a selfaddressed, stamped envelope. 1 9 — W h a t D o the Disciplines H a v e to Offer to the H i g h S c h o o l Social Science P r o g r a m ? R o o m 213, L a w School, 1 0 0 S. 34th Street Chairman: EMMA L. BOLZAU, Assistant to the Associate Superintendent, School District of Philadelphia Speakers: A R T H U R P. D U D D E N , Associate Professor of History, Bryn M a w r College; E V E R E T T S. L E E , Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania; H O W A R D A. M E Y E R H O F F , Professor of Earth Sciences, University of Pennsylvania; J O S E P H SCHWARTZBERO, Assistant Professor of Geography, University of
Pennsylvania; JAMES T. TOSCANO, Assistant Professor of Political University of Pennsylvania
Science,
2 0 — E d u c a t i o n ' s M a j o r P r o b l e m : The School D r o p o u t Auditorium, University Museum, 33rd and Spruce Streets Chairman:
RUTH
W. H A Y R E , Principal, William Penn High School, Philadelphia
Speaker: D A N I E L SCHREIBER, Director, "Project: School Dropouts," National Education Association, Washington, D. C. 2 1 — S c i e n c e R e s e a r c h in the H i g h School Leidy Hamilton
Laboratory Walk and
R o o m 10, of Biology, 3 8 t h Street
( A report on supervised student research supported by a grant f r o m the Heart Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania.) Chairman: PAUL MCCLURE, C h a i r m a n , Science Department, Lansdowne-Aldan Joint School System Speakers: E. S T E E S , Teacher of Biology, Kennett Consolidated High School, Kennett S q u a r e — E x p l a n a t i o n of Grant and How It Led to 1961, 1962, and 1963 Research; REBECCA A T K I N S O N , Student, Kennett Consolidated High School, Kennett Square—Presentation of Problem; SUSAN HANNUM, Student, Kennett Consolidated High School, Kennett S q u a r e — H o w Problem was Solved; PATRICIA N E I L , Student, Kennett Consolidated High School, Kennett Square— Chromatography of Gibberelllc Acid-Treated Penicillin; ROGER MARSTON, Student. Kennett Consolidated High School, Kennett Square—Conclusions NANCY
A
243
ppendix
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1 0 , 9 : 3 0
A.M.
Demonstrations: ( A ) Storage and transfer of penicillium, and ( B ) Culture of physarum polycephalum Motion Picture: A 16 mm. film will be shown on "Techniques Used in Research" (film produced at the Kennett Consolidated High School) 2 2 — H i g h e r Education a s a n E m e r g i n g Discipline .. Medical Alumni Hall, Moloney Building, University of Pennsylvania Hospital, Spruce Street at 36th Street Chairman: SAUL SACK, Associate Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania Speaker: W I L L I S RUDY, Professor of American History and Education, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, New Jersey
11:00 A.M. 23—First General Session
Irvine Auditorium 3 4 0 1 Spruce Street Curtis Memorial Organ
Organ Prelude at 10:45 a.m
FREEDOM A N D E D U C A T I O N Chairman: H E L E N H U U S , Associate Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania Introduction of the Speaker: MRS. ALBERT M. GREENFIELD, Associate Trustee, University of Pennsylvania Speaker: HAROLD TAYLOR, Educator, Author, and Former President of Sarah Lawrence College
2:00 P.M. 2 4 — S e r v i n g Schools Through B o o k s a n d Libraries (In co-operation w i t h the School Librarians Association of D e l a w a r e , Chester, a n d M o n t g o m e r y Counties) Delia Robbia Room, Sheraton Motor Inn, 39th and Chestnut Streets Chairman: Pennsylvania
RONALD SCHAFER,
School
Libraries
Librarian, Pottsgrove High School, Pottstown in
action
Speaker: JOHN R O W E L L , Director of School Libraries, Department of Public Instruction, Harrisburg 2 5 — W o r k s h o p on P r o g r a m e d Instruction in the D e l a w a r e V a l l e y (In co-operation with the D e l a w a r e V a l l e y P r o g r a m i n g Association of the National Society for P r o g r a m e d Instruction—Part II of a Two-Part Sequence) Auditorium, Asbury Church 33rd and Chestnut Streets
244
FREEDOM THURSDAY,
Section Workshop Co-ordinator: N. County Schools Workshop
AND
OCTOBER
EDUCATION 10,
2:00
P.M.
A—Elementary Assistant Superintendent, Delaware
DEAN EVANS,
Consultants:
HOWARD DAVIS, Co-ordinator, delphia; CLAYTON E . BUELL,
Programed Instruction, School District of PhilaAssistant to Associate Superintendent, School
District of Philadelphia Section Workshop Co-ordinator: HUGH M . University of Pennsylvania Workshop
Consultants:
E L M E R CRAIG, Manager, School HARRY E . SMITH, Vice Principal,
B—Secondary Associate Professor of Education,
SHAFER,
Sales, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York; Northeast High School, Philadelphia
Section C—Industry Workshop Co-ordinator: R. N O E L BAIRD, Supervising Analyst, Managerial and Professional Development, Re-entry Systems Department, General Electric Company, Philadelphia Workshop Consultant: JAMES L . BECKER, Co-ordinator, Programed Instruction, RCA Educational Services, RCA Service Company, Cherry Hill, N. J. 26—Discovery in Arithmetic
Auditorium,
(The s a m e a s P r o g r a m 71) Chairman: PETER Bryn Mawr Speaker:
LONGMIRE,
MORTON BOTEL,
Christian Association, 3601 Locust Street
Teacher, Bryn Mawr Elementary School,
Assistant Superintendent, Bucks County Schools
27—The Museum as a Source of Enrichment for Art in the Elementary School Auditorium, Second Floor, Commercial Museum, 34th and Convention Avenue Chairman: LOUISE Pennsylvania
B . BALLINGER,
Lecturer on Education, University of
Speaker: BYRHL PLATTENBERGER, Supervisor of Art, Tredyffrin-Easttown School District 28—Dramatic P l a y in the Elementary Curriculum .. W-51 (Alumni Dietrich Hall, 3620 Locust Chairman: PHYLLIS F. GOLDSTEIN, Teacher, School, Philadelphia
A . L.
Hall), Street
Fitzpatrick Elementary
Speaker: H E L E N L . SAGL, Associate Professor of Education, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
A ppendix
245
THURSDAY, OCTOBER
10, 2 : 0 0
P.M.
29—Children's Misconceptions in Social Studies 1-8 (Daroff Lecture Hall), Dietrich Ha/I, 3620 Locust Street
Chairman: ELLEN HOFFMAN, Teacher, Primos Elementary School, Primos Speaker: RICHARD D. BUCKLEY, Instructor in Education, University of Pennsylvania 30—Changes in Society and the Social Studies Curriculum Auditorium, Drexef, 32nd and Chestnut Streets
Chairman: KENNETH MERRIMAN, Teacher of Social Studies, Keith Junior High School, Hatboro Speaker: MERRILL F . HARTSHORN, Executive Secretary, National Council for the Social Studies, National Education Association, Washington, D. C. 31—The Poetics of Translation
Men's Lounge, Brexel, 32nd and Chestnut Streets
Chairman: MARJORIE E. KINO, Teacher of Foreign Languages, Springfield Township Senior High School, Montgomery County Speaker: S. PALMER BOVIE, Professor, Department of Classics, Douglass College, New Brunswick. New Jersey 32—Guidance for a Changing World of Work Picture Oallery, Drexel, 32nd and Chestnut Streets
Chairman: FRED H . GLANDINQ, Area Co-ordinator, Vocational Teacher Education, University of Pennsylvania Speakers:
HELEN F . FAUST, Assistant Director of Vocational Guidance, School District of Philadelphia; DONALD J. DIFFENBAUGH, Assistant Superintendent, Montgomery County Schools 33—Nuclear Education in the High School: Its Place In the Curriculum.... Rooms 246 A-B, Library Center, Drexel, 3243 Woodland Avenue
Chairman: JOSEPH S. SCHMUCKLER, Teacher of Chemistry, Haverford Township Senior High School, Havertown Speaker: GRAFTON D . CHASE, Professor of Chemistry, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science 34—Opportunities for Nutrition Education in the School Lunch Program Room 101 South, Student Activities Center,
Drexel,
Southwest Corner, 32nd and Chestnut Streets
Chairman: R. ALBERTA HUGHES, Head. Department of Institutional Administration, Drexel Institute of Technology, Philadelphia
246
F R E E D O M THURSDAY,
AND
OCTOBER
E D U C A T I O N 10,
2:00
P.M.
Speaker: JANET MCFADDEN, Assistant H e a d , T e c h n i c a l Services Section, F o o d Distribution Division, A g r i c u l t u r a l M a r k e t i n g Service, U. S. D e p a r t m e n t of A g r i c u l t u r e , W a s h i n g t o n , D . C . 3 5 — S c i e n c e in the P r i m a r y G r a d e s Auditorium, Institute of Local and State Government, 3 9 f h and Walnut Streets Chairman: RUTH TOMLINSON, T e a c h e r , C h e l t e n h a m E l e m e n t a r y School, Cheltenham Speaker: BEATRICE J. HURLEY, P r o f e s s o r of E d u c a t i o n , N e w Y o r k University, N e w Y o r k City 3 6 — W o r k s h o p in C r e a t i v e M u s i c
Auditorium, lllman Building, 3 9 4 4 Walnut Street
Chairman: HELEN E. MARTIN, Assistant P r o f e s s o r of E d u c a t i o n , University of Pennsylvania Speaker: MARTHA ROSENBERG, Music C o n s u l t a n t , Play Schools Association, Inc., N e w Y o r k City 3 7 — K i n d e r g a r t e n Practices: W h i c h O n e s H e l p ? W h i c h O n e s H i n d e r ? R o o m 1 0 0 , lllman Building, 3 9 4 4 Walnut Street (The s a m e a s P r o g r a m 102) Chairman:
HOYLANDE WHITE, Emily L o w e r K i n d e r g a r t e n , W e s t t o w n
Speaker: MILDRED THURSTON, Director, Early C h i l d h o o d E d u c a t i o n , University of Chicago, Chicago, 111. 3 8 — D o C h i l d r e n H a v e Too M u c h ?
Room 213, Law 100 S. 34th
School, Street
Chairman: STANLEY ALPRIN, Supervisor, Child Study T e a m , Burlington C o u n t y , B o r d e n t o w n , N . J. Speaker:
PHILIP MECHANICK, Medical D i r e c t o r , P h i l a d e l p h i a Psychiatric C e n t e r
3 9 — J u n i o r H i g h School Poets
McClelland Hall 37th and Spruce
Lounge, Streets
( T h e L o u n g e m a y b e r e a c h e d t h r o u g h t h e d o r m i t o r y t o w e r at 37th and S p r u c e Streets. T u r n left within the d o r m i t o r y area, pass t h r o u g h a r c h , and descend t h e s t o n e steps. T h e L o u n g e is located u n d e r t h e a r c a d e , extending to t h e right.) Chairman: LAURA LONG, C h a i r m a n , English D e p a r t m e n t , A v o n - G r o v e H i g h School, W e s t G r o v e
Area
Speaker: WILLIAM CORASICK, T e a c h e r of English, B e n j a m i n F r a n k l i n H i g h School, P h i l a d e l p h i a 4 0 — I n d i v i d u a l Differences in Science Medical
School,
Lecture R o o m D , 36th and Hamilton Walk
247
Appendix THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2 : 0 0 Chairman: R O B E R T Pennsylvania
P.M.
Lecturer on Education, University of
J . CHINNIS,
Speaker: HAROLD TANNENBAUM, Chairman, Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Graduate School of Education, Yeshiva University, New York City 4 1 — S i g n i f i c a n t Research in R e a d i n g University Museum,
Auditorium, 33rd and Spruce Streets
Chairman: WESLEY SCHNEYER, Assistant Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania Speaker: ARTHUR W. HEELMAN, Director, University Reading Center, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park 4 2 — L e g a l Responsibilities of the S c h o o l N u r s e .... Medical Alumni Hall, Moloney Building, University of Pennsylvania Hospital, Spruce Street at 36th Street Chairman: A L M A H . of Philadelphia Speaker:
GARSIDE,
PHILIP DAVIDOFF,
Consultant: NORA T . of Philadelphia
Nurse-Co-ordinator, District §2, School District
Principal, Shaw Junior High School, Philadelphia
HERON,
Nurse-Co-ordinator, District
4 3 — C h i l d r e n ' s Social V a l u e s
Room
#8,
School District
1 5 4 , Law School, 100 S. 34th Street
(The s a m e a s P r o g r a m 9 5 ) Chairman:
MARTIN J. WARNICK, Principal, Henry C. Lea School, Philadelphia
Speaker: EUNICE SHAED N E W T O N , Associate Professor of Education, Howard University, Washington, D. C.
3:45 P.M. 4 4 — T h e Adolescent a n d His Literature (In c o - o p e r a t i o n w i t h the English Club of P h i l a d e l p h i a ) .... Irvine Auditorium, 3401 Spruce Street Chairman:
IVA B. BYERS, Teacher of English, Girls High School, Philadelphia
Speaker: ROBERT G. CARLSEN, Professor of English and Education, State University of Iowa, Iowa City 4 5 — F u t u r e Responsibilities for Distributive Education Auditorium, Asbury Church, 33rd and Chestnut Streets Chairman: GEORGE MCGORMAN, Co-ordinator of Distributive Education, Sun Valley Senior High School, Green Ridge, Chester
248
FREEDOM
AND
THURSDAY, OCTOBER
EDUCATION 10,
3:45
P.M.
Speaker: HARRY W . KETCHUM, Director, Marketing Information Division, Business and Defense Services Administration, U. S. Department of Commerce, Washington, D. C. Discussion Leader: SAMUEL W. CAPLAN, Director, Distributive Education Department, College of Education, Temple University, Philadelphia 4 6 — B u s i n e s s E d u c a t i o n , 1 9 6 3 (In c o - o p e r a t i o n w i t h t h e S u b u r b a n P h i l a d e l p h i a B u s i n e s s E d u c a t i o n A s s o c i a t i o n ) .. Sunday S c h o o l R o o m , A s b u r y C h u r c h , 33rd and Chestnut Streets
Chairman: DOROTHY B. YOCUM, Teacher of Business Education, Sun Valley High School, Green Ridge, Chester Speaker: ARTHUR HERTZFELD, Director, Commercial and Distributive Education, School District of Philadelphia 4 7 — U t i l i z i n g the N e w J u n i o r H i g h S c h o o l C r i t e r i a Auditorium, Christian Association, 3 6 0 1 Locust Street
Chairman: CLAYTON E. BUELL, Assistant to the Associate Superintendent, School District of Philadelphia Speakers:
STEPHEN A. KALAPOS, Co-ordinator of Secondary Curriculum, Springfield Township Schools, Montgomery County; HERMAN M. WESSEL, Area Supervisor,
Intern Teaching Program for College Graduates, Temple University, Philadelphia; WILLIAM J. WARNER, Principal, Souderton Area Joint Junior High School, Souderton 4 8 — S e c o n d a r y S c h o o l E v a l u a t i o n s : A P r o b l e m s Clinic (Alumni Hall), Dietrich Hall, 3620 Locust
W-51 Street
(This meeting is designed especially for schools that will be evaluated in 196364, but others interested in school evaluation procedures are invited.) Chairman: ALBERT I. OLIVER, Associate Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania Speakers:
JOHN K. BARRALL, Principal, Media High School, Media; MICHAEL P. BOLAND, Registrar, St. Joseph's College, Philadelphia; ROSAMOND CROSS, Headmistress, The Baldwin School, Bryn Mawr; CLAYTON I. FARRADAY, Head of the Upper School, Friends Central School, Overbrook; RICHARD K . SMITH, Principal,
Springfield Senior High School, Delaware County
49—Effective M a t e r i a l s f o r T e a c h i n g F o r e i g n L a n g u a g e in D e p t h (In c o - o p e r a t i o n w i t h the M o d e r n L a n g u a g e A s s o c i a t i o n of P h i l a d e l p h i a — P a r t I of a Three-Part Sequence) 1-8 (Daroff Lecture Hall), Dietrich Hall, 3 6 2 0 Locust Street
Moderator: HELEN BLACK, Teacher of Foreign Languages, Abington Senior High School, Abington
249
Appendix THURSDAY,
OCTOBER
10,
3:45
P.M.
How Should the Textbook Contribute to Foreign Language
Learning?
Speaker: PHILIP ARSENAULT, Secondary Supervisor, Foreign Language Instruction, Montgomery County, Maryland Contributing Publishers: Chilton Books; D. C. Heath and Company; Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc.; Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. 50—Swap Session on Problems of the Slow Learner in Junior High School Mathematics Men's Lounge, Drexel, 32nd and Chestnut Streets Chairman: FLORENCE LOOSE, Teacher of Mathematics, Wilmington High School, Wilmington, Delaware Speakers: ODETTE HARRIS, Vice-Principal, Sayre Junior High School, GEORGE M C A N U L T Y , Teacher of Mathematics, Drexel Hill Junior
Philadelphia; High School, Drexel Hill; LEO A. HOLMES, Teacher of Mathematics, Douglas Junior High School, Chester 51 —Symmetry and the Nature of Scientific Knowledge (In co-operation with the Philadelphia Science Teachers Association) Campbell Auditorium, Basic Science Building, Drexel, Northwest Corner, 32nd and Chestnut Streets Chairman: STANLEY TRACTON, Teacher of Science, Leeds Junior High School, Philadelphia Speaker: HERBERT B . CALLEN, Professor of Physics, University of Pennsylvania 52—The Culturally Deprived Child and the School Library (In co-operation with the School Librarians Association of Philadelphia and Vicinity) Rooms 246 A-B, Library Center, Drexel, 3243 Woodland Avenue Chairman: JUDITH R . MARCUS, Librarian, Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School, Philadelphia Meeting the Educational
Needs of the Culturally Deprived
Child
Speaker: VERNON F . HAUBRICH, Assistant Professor of Education, Hunter College, New York City Moderator: Louis R. BALLEN, Co-ordinator for Human Relations, School District of Philadelphia The Role of the School Library in Helping the Culturally Deprived
Child
Speakers: Elementary—HARRIET BROWN, Supervisor of Elementary School Library Service, Board of Education, New York City
FREEDOM
250
AND
THURSDAY, OCTOBER
EDUCATION 10, 3 : 4 5
P.M.
Junior High—SYLVIA R. MARDER, Librarian, Gillespie J u n i o r High School, Philadelphia Senior High—BEATRICE E. DOWN IN, Director of Libraries, Abington Township School District Technical School—INEZ Philadelphia
BIEBERMAN, Librarian, Bok Technical High School,
Note: Guests and friends of Schoolmen's Week are invited to c o m e in at 5 : 1 0 p.m. for showing of new films dealing with school library service, with comments b y RACHAEL W .
DEANGELO.
5 3 — A n Active Elementary School Physical Education P r o g r a m in a Limited Space (Demonstration) Auditorium, lllman Building, 3 9 4 4 Walnut Street Chairman: M I L L A R D R O B I N S O N , Director of H e a l t h and Physical Education, Swarthmore School District Speaker: M A R V I N R E E S , Director of Physical Education, Oak L a n e D a y School, Glenside 54—The Courts a n d the Colleges Since M i d - C e n t u r y Room 273, Law School, 100 S. 34th Street Chairman:
LEE O. GARBER, Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania
Speaker: M. M. CHAMBERS, Visiting Professor, Center for the Study of Higher Education, University of Michigan, A n n A r b o r , Michigan 55—The H i g h School Research P r o g r a m of the Heart Association of Southeastern P e n n s y l v a n i a Lecture Room D, Medical School, 36th and Hamilton Walk Moderator: R O B E R T W . N E A T H E R Y , Director, Science Museum, T h e Franklin Institute, Philadelphia Panel: M A R I E , Head, Science D e p a r t m e n t , St. M a r i a Goretti High School, Philadelphia; C . RICHARD SNYDER, Teacher of Biology, R a d n o r Township Senior High School, R a d n o r ; T H E O D O R E H . V A R B A L O W , Teacher of Biology, Olney H i g h School, Philadelphia SISTER C A M I L L A
56—Old
W i v e s ' Tales: The Teachers P l a g u e (In co-operation with Association for C h i l d h o o d Education, Philadelphia) Auditorium, University Museum, 33rd and Spruce Streets
Chairman: ISABEL C. K E L L E Y , Principal, T h o m a s Potter School, Philadelphia Speaker: E L I Z A B E T H B . H U R L O C K , Lecturer on Education, University of Pennsylvania
251
A ppendix THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 3 : 4 5
P.M. Weightman
57—Creative Dance at the College Level
33rd
and
Spruce
Hall, Streets
Chairman: MALVENA TAIZ, Assistant Professor of Physical Education for Women, University of Pennsylvania Participating Dance Groups: Bryn Mawr College—Leader, ANN MASON; Swarthmore College—Leader, AELENE TERATA; Temple University—Leader, CATHIE PIRA; University of Pennsylvania—Leader, MALVENA TAIZ 58—Residential Psychiatric Treatment of C h i l d r e n a t the Eastern P e n n s y l v a n i a State School a n d Hospital, Bensalem Township R o o m 154, Law School,
100 S. 34th
Street
Chairman: CLAIR LECOMPTE, Teacher of Retarded Educable Teen-agers, Torresdale School, Philadelphia Speaker: HUBERT NESTOR, Staff Child Psychiatrist, Eastern Pennsylvania State School and Hospital, Bensalem Township, Bucks County
4:00 P.M. 5 9 — W h a t W e K n o w A b o u t T e e n - a g e M a r r i a g e s (In c o - o p e r a t i o n w i t h the H o m e Economics Association o f P h i l a d e l p h i a ) R o o m 101 South,
Southwest
Student Corner,
Activities 32nd
and
Center,
Drexel,
Chestnut
Streets
Chairman: ROSEMERE BAUM, Teacher of Home Economics, George Washington High School, Philadelphia Speaker: VLADIMIR DE LISSOVOY, Associate Professor, Child Development and Family Relationships, College of Home Economics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Friday, October 11 9:00 A.M. 60—Pennsylvania Music Educators Association, Southeastern District .... Havorford Township Senior High School, East Darby Road, Havertown
PMEA
Southeastern
District
9:00 A.M. Executive Committee
Meeting
10:00 A.M. PMEA Regular Session Chairman: W I L L I A M I F E R T , Head of Music Department, Downingtown Joint Senior High School, Downingtown Music Program: Springfield, Delaware County, Elementary School Band—PAUL S T O U F F E R , Director; Elementary School Chorus, Cardington-Stonehurst School, Upper Darby—MOLLIE G W Y N N E , Director; West Chester Junior High School A Cappella Chorus—RUTH S H A F E R , Director; Plymouth-Whitemarsh Touring Vocal Ensemble—MARCELLUS K U H N , Director; H a v e r f o r d Senior High School Orchestra—RUDOLPH L. TECCO, Director
Luncheon
available
in school
12:15 P.M. cafeteria
1:45 P.M. Instrumental Music Clinic Chairman: C A L V I N W E B E R , Band Director, Haverford Junior High School, Havertown Clinician: D O N A L D B. N O R T O N , Professor of Music, Glassboro State College, Glassboro, N. J. (Donald B. Norton presented through the courtesy of Albert A. Knecht, Inc., Philadelphia) Demonstration Group: Haverford Junior High School Clarinet Choir, Havertown General Music in the Secondary School Chairman: M I L D R E D BECK, Vocal Supervisor of Music, Junior High Schools, School District of Philadelphia Blue Prints for Musical Understanding Speaker: SAUL FEINBERG, Music Teacher, A b r a h a m Lincoln Junior-Senior High School, Philadelphia Music in the Elementary School Chairman: C H A R L O T T E SHOEMAKER, Music Consultant, Cheltenham School District 252
Appendix
253
FRIDAY, OCTOBER Learning
11, 9 : 0 0
A.M.
to Listen: A Vital Aspect of Children's
Musical
Growth
Speaker: GLADYS TIPTON, Professor of Music Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City 61—Workshop in Elementary School Arithmetic Chatham Park Elementary School, Allston and Olen Arbor Roads, Havertown, Pa. Chairman: RUTH MELSON, Co-ordinator of Elementary School Mathematics, Haverford Township School District Morning Session: Observations of teaching procedures in the classrooms Afternoon Session: Workshop Note: Participants are asked to attend both sessions. Lunch will be served by the school at cost. Tickets may be obtained by writing to Schoolmen's Week, Attention: Arithmetic Workshop, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. 19104. Please indicate what grades you prefer to observe, in order of choice, and whether you wish a lunch reservation. Enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope.
9:30 A.M. 62—Agriculture and Guidance
New Bolton Confer, Kennett Square
Opening Session: Chairman: C. F. H . WUESTHOFF, Supervisor of Agriculture Education, Bucks, Lehigh, Montgomery, and Chester Counties 10)00 A.M. New Facilities and Services in Veterinary Medicine Discussion Leader: CHARLES HOLISTER. Director, N e w Bolton Center of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine 12)00 NOON Luncheon
at New Bolton
Center
1:30 P.M. Adjusting Programs to Future Agriculture Needs Discussion Leader: ( T o be announced) Effective Uses of School Greenhouse and Nurseries Discussion Leader: ( T o be announced) 63—Enriching the Arithmetic Program for the Upper Elementary Grades (In co-operation with the Philadelphia Teachers Association).... Henry C . Lea School, 47th and Locust Streets Chairman: I. EZRA STAPLES, Assistant to Associate Superintendent, School District of Philadelphia
FREEDOM
254
AND
FRIDAY, OCTOBER Discussion
Leader:
EDUCATION 11, 9 : 3 0
A.M.
SIDNEY S. BOSNIAK, P r i n c i p a l , E m l e n School, P h i l a d e l p h i a
Demonstration Teacher: CHARLES E. MARSHALL, A r i t h m e t i c C o l l a b o r a t i n g T e a c h e r , C u r r i c u l u m Office, S c h o o l District of P h i l a d e l p h i a Assistant: LIONEL LAUER, A r i t h m e t i c C o l l a b o r a t i n g T e a c h e r , C u r r i c u l u m Office, S c h o o l District of P h i l a d e l p h i a Classroom
Teacher:
FLORENCE GROSSMAN, T e a c h e r , L e a School, P h i l a d e l p h i a
6 4 — S m o k i n g a n d C a n c e r (In c o - o p e r a t i o n w i t h S o u t h e a s t e r n District f o r H e a l t h , P h y s i c a l Education, a n d R e c r e a t i o n ) Irvine
Auditorium,
3 4 0 1 Spruce
Street
Chairman: ETHEL G . ENCKE, D i r e c t o r of G i r l s ' Physical E d u c a t i o n and Athletics, R a d n o r Senior H i g h School, R a d n o r Speaker: SIDNEY WEINHOUSE, D i r e c t o r , F e l s Institute R e s e a r c h , T e m p l e versity, P h i l a d e l p h i a 6 5 — C h a l l e n g i n g the M a t h e m a t i c a l l y T a l e n t e d S t u d e n t .... Second
Floor,
Annenberg
S c h o o l of
Uni-
Auditorium,
Communications,
3623
Locust Street
Chairman: PINCUS SCHUB, Assistant P r o f e s s o r of M a t h e m a t i c s , U n i v e r s i t y of Pennsylvania Speaker: J. G . KF.MF.NEY, P r o f e s s o r of M a t h e m a t i c s , D a r t m o u t h College. Hanover, N. H. 6 6 — P r o g r a m s f o r C h i l d r e n of L i m i t e d E x p e r i e n c e 124- 7 2 6 - 7 28, First Floor, Communications,
Seminar Annenberg 3623
Rooms School
Locust
of
Street
Chairman: MARY E. COLEMAN, Associate P r o f e s s o r of E d u c a t i o n , University of Pennsylvania Speakers: ERCELL WATSON, Assistant P r o f e s s o r of S e c o n d a r y E d u c a t i o n , T e m p l e U n i versity, P h i l a d e l p h i a ; NANCY B. FAIRFAX, T e a c h e r , D u n b a r School, P h i l a d e l p h i a ; MABEL V. PROCTOR, T e a c h e r , G o t w a l s School, N o r r i s t o w n 6 7 — F l a n n e l B o a r d s a n d H o o k L o o p B o a r d s (In c o - o p e r a t i o n w i t h the P e n n s y l v a n i a L e a r n i n g R e s o u r c e s A s s o c i a t i o n ) .... Asbury
Church,
33rd
and
Chesnut
Auditorium, Streets
Chairman: ARTHUR MACDONALD, A u d i o - V i s u a l D i r e c t o r , A b i n g t o n T o w n s h i p S c h o o l District Speaker: IVAN G . HOSACK, D i r e c t o r , I n s t r u c t i o n a l M a t e r i a l s C e n t e r , University of P i t t s b u r g h , a n d A l l e g h e n y C o u n t y S c h o o l District, P i t t s b u r g h
Appendix
255
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1 1 , 9 : 3 0
A.M.
6 8 — W h a t ' s N e w in Business Education? (In co-operation with the Suburban Philadelphia Business Education Association) Sunday School Room, Asbury Church, 33rd and Chestnut Streets Chairman: DOROTHY B. Y O C U M , Teacher of Business Education, Sun Valley High School, Green Ridge, Chester Panel: Educational Consultant, International Business Machines Corporation, Philadelphia—Typing and Office Practice; I. DAVID SATLOW, Professor (Retired), New York University, New York C i t y — B o o k k e e p i n g ; O L E E N HENSON, G r a d u a t e Student, Temple University, Philadelphia—Programed Learning in Shorthand. MARION W O O D ,
69—Linguistic Approaches to R e a d i n g : A n Evaluation Christian Association, 3601
Auditorium, Locust Street
Chairman: LORETTA SCUDERI, Teacher, Sharswood Elementary School, Philadelphia Speaker: A R T H U R W . H E I L M A N , Director, University Reading Center, T h e Pennsylvania State University, University Park 70—The U n g r a d e d P r o g r a m in H i g h School .. Auditorium, Second Floor, Avenue Commercial Museum, 34th and Convention Chairman:
CHARLES W I L L I A M S ,
Principal, Lincoln High School, Philadelphia
Speakers: Teacher of Mathematics, Lincoln High School, Philadelphia; Teacher of Biology, Lincoln High School, Philadelphia; W I L L I A M DODIES, Teacher of Physical Science, Lincoln High School, Philadelphia; RICHARD R O B I N S O N , Teacher of English, Lincoln High School, Philadelphia KARL KALMAN, HENRY
MARCUS,
71—Discovery in Arithmetic (The s a m e a s P r o g r a m 26)
Room
310, College
Hall
Chairman: HARRY GASSER, Assistant Superintendent, Montgomery County Schools Speaker:
MORTON BOTEL,
Assistant Superintendent, Bucks County Schools
7 2 — H o w His Physical Environment Has Affected M a n Room 159, Law School, 100 S. 34th Street Chairman:
HARRY HENLY, Assistant Superintendent, Delaware County Schools
Speaker: GERALD E. KARASKA, Assistant Professor of Geography, University of Pennsylvania
256
FREEDOM
AND
FRIDAY, OCTOBER
EDUCATION 11, 9 : 3 0
A.M.
7 3 — C o n f l i c t i n g A s s u m p t i o n s in the T e a c h i n g o f E n g l i s h (In c o - o p e r a t i o n with the English Teachers of Greater Philadelphia) Auditorium, D r e x e / , 3 2 n d and Chestnut Streets
Chairman: THOMAS F . LOUGHREY, Cardinal Dougherty High School, Philadelphia Speaker: ROBERT G. CARLSEN, Professor of English and Education, State University of Iowa, Iowa City 7 4 — I n d u s t r i a l A r t s C a n M e e t the N e e d s of C h a n g i n g T i m e s Men's Lounge, D r e x e l , 32nd and Chestnut
Streets
Chairman: WILLIAM P. HARTMAN, Adviser, Industrial Arts Education, Department of Public Instruction, Harrisburg Speaker: WILLIAM R . MASON, Directing Supervisor, Industrial Arts, Department of Instruction, Board of Education, Cleveland, Ohio 7 5 — T a k e T i m e t o M o t i v a t e S t u d e n t s T h r o u g h U s e of S i m p l e R e s e a r c h Projects Qrand Hall, Student Activities Center, Drexel, Southwest Corner, 32nd and Chestnut Streets
Chairman: FRANK TANCREDI, Teacher of Biology, Yeadon High School, Yeadon Speaker: KENNETH D. KANE, Head, Science Department, Unionville-Chadds Ford Schools Participants: Students from the Unionville-Cbadds Ford High School, Unionville 76—The Elementary School Librarian a s a Co-operating Teacher R o o m s 2 4 6 A-B, Library Center, Drexel, 3 2 4 3 Woodland Avenue
Chairman: MOLLY HERMAN, Teacher, Oxford Valley School, Fairless Hills Speaker: BETSY HOFFMAN, Chairman, Elementary School Libraries, Haverford Township School District 7 7 — T h e C o n t r i b u t i o n of H o m e Economics E d u c a t i o n t o the P r e p a r a t i o n of Girls a n d W o m e n for H o m e Retailed Production a n d Service W a g e - E a r n i n g Occupations R o o m 101 South, Student Activities Center, Drexel, Southwest Corner, 3 2 n d a n d Chestnut Streets
Chairman: MARJORIE RANKIN, Dean, College of Home Economics, Drexel Institute of Technology, Philadelphia Speaker: ALBERT E. JOCHEN, Assistant Commissioner of Education, State of New Jersey, Trenton 7 8 — S t e p s in P r e p a r i n g C h i l d r e n f o r R e p o r t W r i t i n g Auditorium, Institute of Local and State Government, 3 9 t h and Walnut Streets
Chairman: CLAIRE SHTOFMAN, Teacher, Highland Park School, Upper Darby Speaker: HELEN L. SAGL, Associate Professor of Education, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
A ppendix
257
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 9 : 3 0
A.M.
79—Teaching Reading Through Junior High School Science: A Demonstration Auditorium, lllman Building, 3944 Walnut Street Chairman: FRANCES N. School, Abington
CRAWFORD,
Demonstrator: CLAIR G. Township Schools Demonstration
Reading Specialist, Abington Junior High
JR., Reading Consultant, Upper Dublin
BROWN,
Group: Students from Upper Dublin Township Schools
80—Science in the Kindergarten Chairman: VIRGINIA Glenside
B . HALLER,
Speaker: BEATRICE J . New York City
HURLEY,
Room 100, lllman Building, 3944 Walnut Street
Teacher, Glenside-Weldon Elementary School, Professor of Education, New York University,
81—Art Workshop Room 301, lllman Building, 3944 Walnut Street (The same as Program 18) Chairman: MARY C. RENNER, Director of Audio-Visual Instruction, Upper Darby Township Schools Director: JANE BETSEY WELLING, Emeritus Professor of Education, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan Assistant: LUCILLE W. Upper Darby
CARLTON,
Teacher of Art, Highland Park School,
Note: Only 40 persons can be accommodated. Cards of admission may be obtained by writing to Schoolmen's Week, Attention: Art Workshop, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 4, Pa. Enclose a selfaddressed, stamped envelope. 82—Evaluation in Science .... Room 213, Law School, 100 S. 34th Street Chairman: ROBERT C. Glassboro, N. J.
BLOUGH,
Campus School, Glassboro State College,
Speaker: HAROLD TANNENBAUM, Chairman, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Graduate School of Education, Yeshiva University, New York City 83—Effective Materials for Teaching Foreign Language in Depth in the Elementary School: Language, Culture (In co-operation with the Modern Language Association of Philadelphia—Part II of a Three-Part Sequence) McClelland Hall Lounge, 37th and Spruce Streets (The Lounge may be reached through the dormitory tower at 37th and Spruce Streets. Turn left within the dormitory area, pass through arch, and descend the stone steps. The Lounge is located under the arcade, extending to the right.)
258
FREEDOM FRIDAY,
AND
OCTOBER
EDUCATION 11,
9:30
A.M.
Chairman: HARRY WEINMANN, Teacher, Schuylkill Township Elementary School, Phoenixville Speaker: AGNES K. MEMMING, Professor of Education, Kutztown State College, Kutztown 8 4 — I m p l e m e n t i n g P o s t - H i g h S c h o o l T e c h n i c a l E d u c a t i o n .. Classroom
Education
Building,
S c h o o l of Nursing,
320
S. 3 4 t h
A,
Street
Chairman: WILLIAM BRUNTON, Director, Vocational Education, School District of Philadelphia Speakers: GEORGE W. ELISON, Director, Vocational Education, Allentown Public Schools —Industrial Chemistry; CATHERINE F. GRANT, Assistant Director, Vocational Education, School District of Philadelphia—Medical Technology; FRANK COYLE, Field Director, U. S. Department of Labor, Philadelphia—Mechanical Technology Auditorium,
8 5 — C h a n n e l 12 C o m e s t o D e l a w a r e V a l l e y
University
Museum,
33rd
and
Spruce
Streets
Chairman: MARTHA A. GABLE, Director, Division of Radio-Television Education, School District of Philadelphia Demonstration TV Lesson—Station WHYY-TV "Books in Action"—dramatized excerpts f r o m Treasure Island and a panel of junior high school pupils. Produced by ABNER MULER, Radio-TV Assistant, Division of Radio-Television Education, School District of Philadelphia Discussants: WIU.ADINE BAIN, Head, Department of English, Barratt Junior High School, Philadelphia; PAUL KEISERMAN, Head, Department of English, Fels Junior High School, Philadelphia The Tri-State Instructional Objectives
Broadcasting
Council—Its
Functions,
Operation,
Speaker: G. BAKER THOMPSON, Superintendent, Delaware County Schools Station WHYY—All
Day, Every
Day
Speaker: RICHARD S. BURDICK, Executive Vice-President and General Manager, Station WHYY, Philadelphia 8 6 — M a n a g e m e n t o f t h e P h e n y l k e t o n u r i e (PKU) C h i l d a t H o m e a n d a t School
Medical
Alumni
University
Hall,
Moloney
of Pennsylvania 36th
and
Spruce
Building, Hospital, Streets
Chairman: KATHRYN N. ABBOTT, School Nurse, Pennbrook Junior High School, North Wales
259
A ppendix FRIDAY,
OCTOBER
11,
9:30
A.M.
Speaker: J U N E DOBBS, Pediatrician, St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, Philadelphia PKU Mental Deficiency Can Be Prevented (A film presentation) Discussion Leader: DORIS HAAR, Public Health Nurse Consultant in Cerebral Disfunctions, St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, Philadelphia 87—Making Decisions in the Admissions Office .... W - 5 I (Alumni Hall), Dietrich Hall, 3620 Locust Street Chairman: DONALD F . PUGLISI, Counselor, Abington Senior High School, Abington Speaker: JOHN C. H O Y , Dean of Admissions, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore
11:00 A.M. 88—Second General Session
Irvine Auditorium, 3401 Spruce Street Organ Prelude at 10:45 a.m Curtis Memorial Organ FREEDOM A N D EDUCATION Chairman: RICHARD S. HEISLER, Assistant to the Dean, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania Introduction of the Speaker: DAVID GODDARD, Provost, University of Pennsylvania Speaker: EDWARD D. EDDY, JR., President, Chatham College, Pittsburgh
1:00 P.M. 89—Schoolmen's Week: Its Worth to the Elementary School Principal (In co-operation with the Department of Elementary School Principals, Southeastern Region) Egyptian Room, University Museum, 33rd and Spruce Streets (A Panel of Elementary School Principals Discussing, Reviewing and Evaluating Five Selected Schoolmen's Week Sessions) Chairman:
GLADYS
E. CREAGMILE, Principal, McCloskey School, Philadelphia
Moderator: ERNEST O. K O H L , Superintendent, District # 6 , School District of Philadelphia
2 : 0 0 P.M. 90—Bones and Behavior: What Physical Anthropology Tells About Children Irvine Auditorium, 3401 Spruce Street Chairman: JOANNA P. WILLIAMS, Assistant Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania Speaker: W I L T O N M . KROGMAN, Chairman and Professor of Physical Anthropology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
260
FREEDOM FRIDAY,
AND
OCTOBER
EDUCATION 11,
Auditorium,
91—Books f o r Children
A n n e n b e r g School of
2:00
P.M.
Second
Floor,
Communications,
3623
Locust Street
Chairman: H E L E N Hirus, Associate Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania Speakers:
Author and Illustrator, Rye, N . Y . ; JAMES DAUGHERTY, Author and Illustrator, Weston, Conn.; VIRGINIA L E E BURTON, Author and Illustrator, Gloucester, Mass. JEANNE BENDICK,
Panel:
RUTH CRAWFORD, Teacher, Erdenheim Elementary School, Springfield Township, Montgomery County; ANN MCGINTY, Teacher, Spring Mill School, Conshohocken; VIRGINIA NIXDORF, Teacher, Devon School, Devon
Rooms
92—Innovations in Industrial Arts
First Floor,
A n n e n b e r g School of
124, 126, 128,
Communications,
3623
Chairman: FRANCIS H . Public Schools
SPICKLER,
Locust Street
Teacher of Industrial Arts, Nether Providence
Speaker: WILLIAM T . KELLY, Assistant Director, Division of Vocational and Industrial Arts Education, School District of Philadelphia Demonstrators:
Teacher, William Tennent High School, Johnsville—Appliance Service and Maintenance; DWIGHT W. COPE, President, Cope Plastics, Godfrey, Illinois—Plastics; EARL ECKEL, Collingdale High School, Collingdale —Power Mechanics
BERNARD MYERS,
93—Head
over
Heels f o r
the
Overhead
(In co-operation
w i t h the Auditorium, and Chestnut Streets
Pennsylvania Learning Resources Association)
Asbury
Church,
33rd
Chairman: MARY C. RENNER, Director of Audio-Visual Instruction, Upper Darby Township School District Speaker: RICHARD P. WEAGLEY, Professor, Audio-Visual Department, West Chester State College, West Chester 9 4 — G a n g Control: W h o s e Responsibility?
Christian
Association,
3601
Auditorium, Locust Street
Chairman: HOWARD D. PINDELL, Supervisor of Intake, Juvenile Division, County Court of Philadelphia Speakers:
H. KNEISEL, Executive Director, Crime Prevention Association, Philadelphia Association for Youth; JOSEPH MAX, Inspector, Juvenile Aid Division, Philadelphia Police Department; JAMES L. WHIT-SETT, Director, Youth Conservation Services Division, Department of Public Welfare, Philadelphia
STEPHAN
A ppendix
261
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2 : 0 0 P . M . Auditorium,
95—Children's Social Values
Second
floor.
Commercial Museum, 34th a n d Convention Avenue (The same as P r o g r a m 4 3 )
Chairman: GLADYS PHILLIPS, Principal, Gulph Road Elementary School, King of Prussia Speaker: EUNICE SHAED NEWTON, Associate Professor of Education, Howard University, Washington, D. C. 96—Topics f o r Mathematics in the Secondary School On co-operation with Association of Teachers of Mathematics of
W-51
a n d Vicinity)
Dietrich
Philadelphia
(Alumni
Hall),
Hall, 3 6 2 0 Locust Street
Chairman: RUDOLPH SUKONICK, Teacher of Mathematics, Edison High School, Philadelphia Speaker: J. G. KEMENEY, Professor of Mathematics, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N. H . 97—Changing Concepts in Industrial Education .. W-1
(Ballantyne
Hall),
Dietrich Hall, 3 6 2 0 Locust Street
Chairman: JOHN W. STRUCK, State Director of Vocational Education, Department of Public Instruction, Harrisburg Speaker: WILLIAM R . MASON, Directing Supervisor, Industrial Arts, Department of Instruction, Board of Education, Cleveland, Ohio 9 8 — O u r Greatest Challenge: Human Relations .... Auditorium, 3 2 n d and Chestnut
Drexel, Streets
Chairman: Louis R. BALLEN, Co-ordinator for Human Relations, School District of Philadelphia Speakers: Co-ordinating Secretary, Committee on Human Relations, Department of Public Instruction, Harrisburg; OLIVER S. HECKMAN, Regional Superintendent, Neshaminy Joint School District; MARECHAL-NEIL E . YOUNG, Acting Auxiliary District Superintendent, School District of Philadelphia RICHARD B . ANLIOT,
99—Nuclear
Education in the
Science
High School: Experiments in Men's Lounge, 3 2 n d and Chestnut
Nuclear
Drexel, Streets
Chairman: JOSEPH S. SCHMUCKLER, Teacher of Chemistry, Haverford Township Senior High School, Havertown Speaker: GRAFTON D. CHASE, Professor of Chemistry, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science
262
F R E E D O M FRIDAY,
AND
OCTOBER
E D U C A T I O N 11,
2:00
P.M.
100—Factors Effecting C o l l e g e A d m i s s i o n s T o d a y R o o m s 2 4 6 A-B, Library Center, Drexel, 3 2 4 3 Woodland Avenue
Chairman:
MARY
H.
CARTER,
Principal, Radnor Senior High School, Radnor
Speakers: J O Y Z E L L E P. CLARK, Counselor, Swarthmore High School, Swarthmore; S A M U E L L . CLAUSER, Counselor, Conestoga High School, Berwyn; J E W E L C . F O L E Y , Counselor, Radnor Senior High School, Radnor; ISABELLE S. J O N E S , Counselor, North Penn High School, Lansdale; R O B E R T E . L E S L I E , Counselor, Upper Darby High School, Upper Darby; M A R Y E. L I N D E N M U T H , Counselor, Lansdowne-
Aldan High School, Lansdowne
101—Effective M a t e r i a l s f o r T e a c h i n g Foreign L a n g u a g e in D e p t h : L a n g u a g e , Culture, Literature (In c o - o p e r a t i o n w i t h the M o d e r n L a n g u a g e A s s o c i a t i o n of P h i l a d e l p h i a a n d V i c i n i t y — P a r t 111 of a T h r e e - P a r t Sequence) R o o m 101 North, Student Activities Center, Drexel, Southwest Corner, 3 2 n d and Chestnut Streets
Using the New Materials in Foreign Language Moderator: R U T H P . KROEGER, Modern Language Instructor, Ambler Campus, Temple University, Ambler Panel:
BROTHER D A N I E L BENEDICT, Teacher of French, West Philadelphia Catholic High School for Boys; T H E O D O R E S T O M E L , Teacher of Spanish, Marple-Newtown Senior High School, Newtown Square; E U G E N E F. H O G E N A U E R , Teacher of German, Westtown School, Westtown; ELEANOR L. SANDSTROM, Head of Foreign Language Department, Philadelphia High School for Girls
102—Kindergarten Practices—Which Ones Help? R o o m 100, / l l m a n Building, (The s a m e a s P r o g r a m 37)
Chairman:
M I L D R E D SULLIVAN,
Which Ones Hinder? 3 9 4 4 Walnut Street
Director, Mildred Sullivan School, Rosemont
Speaker: M I L D R E D T H U R S T O N , Director, Early Childhood Education, University of Chicago, Chicago, 111. 1 0 3 — E v a l u a t i o n of E x p e r i e n c e - C e n t e r e d Units in Eighth G r a d e Science.. R o o m 2 1 3 , Law School, 100 S. 3 4 t h Street
Chairman: J O S E P H D. M O O R E , Director of Secondary Education, Paoli Area High School System Speaker: W I L L I A M F . G E S S N E R , Assistant Professor of Physical Science, East Stroudsburg State College, East Stroudsburg Discussants:
F A R E S E , Curriculum Co-ordinator, Pennsbury Senior High School, Yardley; D U A N E BAIR, Chairman, Science Department, William Penn Junior High School, Yardley
JOSEPH
263
A ppendix FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1 1 , 2 : 0 0
P.M.
1 0 4 — T e a c h i n g L a r g e Classes in English C o m p o s i t i o n Auditorium, University Museum, 33rd and Spruce Streets ( A demonstration with the overhead projector) Chairman: HELEN B. DONALDSON, Teacher of English, Penn Crest High School, Lima Speaker: EDWIN L. PETERSON, Professor of English and Education, University of Pittsburgh 1 0 5 — E d u c a t i o n in P a k i s t a n .... Medical Alumni Hall, Moloney Building, University of Pennsylvania Hospital, Spruce Street at 36th Street Chairman: NORMAN D. PALMER, Professor of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania Speaker: ROBERT C . HAMMOCK, Professor of Education, University of Pennsylvania
4:00 P.M.
106—Third General Session
Irvine Auditorium, 3401 Spruce Street A M E R I C A ' S R E N D E Z V O U S W I T H DESTINY Chairman: CHARLES LEE, Vice-Dean, Annenberg School of Communications, University of Pennsylvania Speaker: HELEN GAHAGAN DOUGLAS, F o r m e r Congress woman f r o m California, Stateswoman, Crusader, and Humanist
Saturday, October 12 9:30 A.M. 1 0 7 - T h « W o r l d Affairs Council o f Philadelphia (In co-operation w i t h the Philadelphia Board of Trade a n d Conventions) ..
Commercial
Museum,
34th and Convention
Ballroom, Avenue
(Interscholastic Senior High School Forum) The Challenges to Education in Opposing Ideologies Moderator: CHARLES K. HAY, Auxiliary District Superintendent, School District of Philadelphia Speaker: CHARLES T. VETTER, JR., Office of Public Information, U. S. Information Agency, Washington, D. C. Participants: Almost 400 students representing over 100 public, private, and diocesan schools in the Delaware Valley area participate regularly in this series of Interscholastic Senior High School Forums, the first of which is scheduled as part of Schoolmen's Week. The purpose of this program is to stimulate interest in foreign affairs, to provide opportunities for students to become well informed in the field, and to encourage civic responsibility for American foreign policy. The Forums are planned and managed by the students through their elected Student Councils, with the assistance of the Student Activities Department of the World Affairs Council and the faculty advisors from the schools. The program serves to illustrate the contribution of a community agency towards enriched educational experience. Seats are available for spectators; teachers of social studies may find this meeting particularly valuable.
Luncheon and Dinner Meetings Wednesday, October 9 6:00 P.M. 108—Dinner Meeting: Guidance a n d Personnel W o r k e r s (In c o - o p e r ation with
Personnel
Philadelphia)
and
Guidance
Faculty
Association of G r e a t e r Club, 3600 Walnut Street
Chairman: JOHN J. ROONEY, Associate Professor of Psychology, LaSalle College, Philadelphia Tensions in Guidance Speaker: EDWARD JOSEPH SHOBEN, JR., Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City Reservations with check should be sent not later than Friday, October 4, 1963, to E. Bruce Kirk. 2503 Lombard Street, Philadelphia 46, Pa. Price—$3.00 264
A
265
ppendix
LUNCHEON
AND
DINNER
MEETINGS
109—Dinner Meeting: Eastern Division Pennsylvania School Administrators Association Faculty Club, 3600 Walnut Street Chairman: ROBERT E. JOHNS, Supervising Principal, Brandywine Area Joint Schools The Law as It Relates to Religion in Public Education Speaker: PERCIVAL RIEDER, Attorney for Abington School District Reservations should be sent to Harold Martin, Superintendent, Upper Merion School District, King of Prussia, Pa., by October 1, 1963. (Telephone 265-1500) Price—$3.10
Thursday, October 10 12:00 NOON 110—Education Alumni Association, University of Pennsylvania Egyptian Room, University Museum, 33rd and Spruce Streets Chairman: MARY H. CARTER, Principal, Radnor Senior High School, Radnor Freedom and Education Speaker: HAROLD TAYLOR, Educator, Author, and Former President of Sarah Lawrence College Reservations, accompanied by check for $3.00 payable to the Education Alumni Association, should be sent by October 4, 1963, to Evelyn Marcantonio, Graduate School of Education, 3812 Walnut Street, Philadelphia 4, Pa. (Phone 594-7344). Tickets will not be mailed. Reservations will be checked at the door. Friends and guests of Schoolmen's Week are welcome to attend this luncheon.
12:30 P.M. I l l —Luncheon Meeting: Librarians Association of Delaware, Chester, and Montgomery Counties Delia Robbia Room, Sheraton Motor Inn, 39th and Chestnut Streets Meeting §24 will follow the luncheon Chairman: BETSY HOFFMAN, Elementary Library Chairman, Haverford Township School District Reflections of an Author-Ballerina Speaker: REGINA WOODY, Dancer and Author, Elizabeth, N. J. Reservations, accompanied by check for $3.25 (gratuity and tax included) should be sent by October 4, 1963, to Betsy Hoffman, Haverford Township School District, East Darby Road, Havertown, Pa. Tickets will not be mailed. Reservations will be checked at the door. Friends and guests of Schoolmen's Week are welcome to attend the luncheon.
266
F R E E D O M LUNCHEON
AND
AND
E D U C A T I O N
DINNER
MEETINGS
6:00 P.M. 112—Dinner M e e t i n g : Pennsylvania Southeastern District
Home
Economics Association, Ryder Club, Drexel, 3 2 n d and Chestnut Streets
Chairman: ANNA K. BRAUN, Teacher, Child Development Laboratory, Philadelphia High School for Girls The Responsibility
of Home
Economists
With Regard
to the
Aging
Speaker: HELEN JUDY BOND, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University, New York City Reservations should be sent to A n n a K. Braun, 618A School Lane House, 5450 Wissahickon Avenue, Philadelphia 44, Pa., by October 4, 1963 113—Dinner M e e t i n g : School Librarians Association of Philadelphia a n d Vicinity Rooms 34-35, Student Activities Building, Drexel, 3 2 n d and Chestnut Streets This dinner follows Program $52 and is an opportunity for an informal meeting with the program speakers. Send reservations and check to Alice Barts, Librarian, Huntingdon Junior High School, Susquehanna Road, Abington, Pa., by October 5, 1963. Tickets will not be sent, but reservations will be checked at the door. All friends and guests of Schoolmen's Week are invited to attend. Price—$3.25 114—The Seventy-Five Club
Sheraton Motor Inn, 39th and Chestnut Streets
Chairman: HARRY R. HENLY, Assistant Superintendent, Delaware County Schools Education
South
of the
Border
Speaker: L E S L I E W . KINDRED, Professor of Educational Administration, Temple University, Philadelphia Reservations shoud be made through Harry R. Henly, Assistant Superintendent, Delaware County Schools, Court House Annex, Media, Pa., by Friday, October 4, 1963.
6:15 P.M. 115—Phi Delta K a p p a a n d Pi L a m b d a Theta Dinner Meeting Faculty Club, 36th and Walnut
Streets
Chairman: T H E O D O R E E. F . G U T H , Supervisor, Division of Vocational and Industrial Arts Education, School District of Philadelphia Teachers
for Our
Speaker:
ALLEN
Times C. H A R M A N , Superintendent of Schools, Montgomery County
267
Appendix LUNCHEON
AND D I N N E R
MEETINGS
Presentation of third annual Phi Delta Kappa graduate award for outstanding scholarship to a candidate for the Ed.D. degree in the Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Spring 1963. Presentation of Philadelphia Alumnae Chapter, Pi Lambda Theta, Grant-in-Aid to a full-time graduate woman student in education. Informal dinner for all Pi Lambda Thetans and Phi Delta Kappans regardless of chapters, and guests. For reservations, write Phi Delta Kappa, 3812 Walnut Street, Philadelphia 4, Pa., by October 5, 1963. Price—$3.00
12:00 NOON
Friday, October 11
116—Luncheon Meeting: Department of Elementary School Principals, Southeastern Region Cgyptian Room, University Museum, 33rd and Spruce Streets Meeting #89 will follow the luncheon Please send reservations to Gladys E. Creagmile, Principal, John F. McCloskey School, Pickering and Gowen Avenue, Philadelphia 50, Pa., by October 4, 1963. Price—$3.00 117—Luncheon Meeting: Pennsylvania Association of Women's Deans and Counselors Picture Gallery, Drexel, 32nd and Chestnut Streets Chairman: ELIZABETH B . PORTER, Counselor, Central Bucks High School, Doylestown A Realistic Approach
to Career
Choosing
Speaker: MARGARET MARY KEARNEY, Educational Director, Radio and TV Station, WCAU, Philadelphia Please send reservations with check to Elizabeth B. Porter, Central Bucks High School, Doylestown, Pa., by October 4, 1963. Price—$2.75
12:30 P.M. 118—Luncheon: Industrial Arts and Vocational Education Christian Association, 3601 Locust Street An opportunity to eat together is provided for Industrial Arts and Vocational Education personnel and friends. N o program. Send reservations to H. Halleck Singer, 3810 Walnut Street, Philadelphia 4, Pa., by October 4, 1963. Please specify fish or meat. Price—$2.25
1:00 P.M. 119—Luncheon (In co-operation with the Suburban Philadelphia Business Education Association) Marlyn Hotel, 40th and Walnut Streets An opportunity to eat together is provided for teachers of Business Education and others interested in this field. No program. Reservations should be sent to Dorothy B. Yocum, Sun Valley High School, Green Ridge, Chester, Pa., by October 1, 1963.
Index Participant
Program
Abbott, Kathryn N Alprin, Stanley Anliot, Richard B Arsenault, Philip Ashhurst, Hazel M Atkinson, Rebecca Audenried Junior High School Students
86 38 98 49 6 21 17
Baillie, Marian H 15 Bain, Willadine 85 Bair, Duane 103 Baird, R. Noel 25 Balien, Louis R 52, 98 Ballinger, Louise B 27 Barrall, John K 48 Barts, Alice 113 Baum, Rosemere 59 Beck, Mildred 60 Becker, James L 25 Bell, Albert A 11 Bendick, Jeanne 91 Benedict, Brother Daniel 101 Bieberman, Inez 52 Bilinsky, Yaroslav 4 Bingeman, Joseph W. .. 13 Black, Helen 49 Blough, Robert C 82 Boland, Michael P 48 Bolzau, Emma L 19 Bond, Helen Judy 112 Bosnick, Sidney S 63 Botel, Morton 26, 71 Bovie, S. Palmer 31 Braun, Anna K 112 Brendlinger, L. R 8 Brickman, William W. 4 Broudy, Harry S 1 B rougher, John 3 Brown, Clair G., Jr 79 Brown, Harriet 52 Brunton, William 84 Bryn Mawr College Students 57 Buckley, Richard D. .. 29 Budd, Joseph 8 Buell, Clayton E 25, 47 Burdick, Richard S 85 Burton, Virginia Lee .... 91 Byers, Iva B 44 Callen, Herbert B Caplan, Samuel W
51 45
of
Program
Participant
Participants Program
Cardington-Stonehurst School Chorus 60 Carlsen, Robert G. .. 44, 73 Carlton, Lucille W. .. 18, 81 Carter, Mary H. .. 100, 110 Chambers, M. M 54 Chase, Grafton D. .. 33, 99 Chinnis, Robert J 40 Clark, Joyzelle P 100 Clauser, Samuel L 100 Coates, Robert H 7 Coleman, Mary E 66 Cope, Dwight W 92 Corasick, William 39 Coyle, Frank 84 Craig, Elmer 25 Crawford, Frances N. .. 79 Crawford, Ruth 91 Creagmile, Gladys E 89, 116 Cross, Rosamond 48 Daugherty, James Davidoff, Philip Davis, Howard Dean, Stuart E DeAngelo, Rachael DeLissovoy, Vladimir Dice, L. Kathryn Diffenbaugh, Donald Dobbs, June Dodies, William Donaldson, Helen B. Douglas, Helen Gahagan Downin, Beatrice E. Dudden, Arthur P
91 42 25 14 52 .. 59 15 J. 32 86 70 .. 104 ..
106 52 19
Eckel, Earl 92 Eddy, Edward D„ Jr... 88 Elison, George W 84 Encke, Ethel 64 Evans, N. Dean 25 Ewing, Ruth E 2 Fairfax, Nancy 66 Farber, Marvin 1 Farese, Joseph 103 Farraday, Clayton I. .. 48 Faust, Helen F 32 Feinberg, Saul 60 Felton, Paul M 8 Fletcher, Gerald 16 Flury, Ablett H 3 Foley, Jewel C 100 Free, John E 11 268
Participant
Program
Gable, Martha 85 Gallagher, Gladys 16 Garber, Lee 54 Garside, Alma H 42 Gasser, Harry 71 Gessner, William F 103 Gilmore, Ruth 13 Glanding, Fred H 32 Goddard, David 88 Goldstein, Phyllis F 28 Grant, Catherine F 84 Greenfield, Mrs. A. M. 23 Grossman, Florence .... 63 Guth, Theodore E. F 115 Gwynne, Mollie 60 Haar, Doris 86 Haller, Virginia B. 80 Hammock, Robert C. .. 105 Hannum, Susan 21 Harman, Allen C 115 Harris, Albert J 9 Harris, Odette 50 Hartman, William P 74 Hartshorn, Merrill F. .. 30 Haubrich, Vernon F 52 Haverford Junior High School Clarinet Choir 60 Haverford Senior High School Orchestra 60 Hay, Charles K 107 Hayre, Ruth W 20 Heckman, Oliver S 98 Heilman, Arthur W... 41, 69 Heisler, Richard S 88 Helps, Mary W Ill 72, 114 Henly, Harry R Henson, Oleen 68 Herman, Molly 76 Heron, Nora T 42 Hertzfeld, Arthur 46 Hoffman, Betsy 76, 111 Hoffman, Ellen 29 Hogenauer, Eugene F... 101 Holister, Charles 62 Holmes, Leo A 50 Hosack, Ivan G 67 Hottenstein, Grace Hill 16 Hoy, John C 87 Hughes, R. Alberta 34 Hurley, Beatrice J. .. 35, 80 Hurlock, Elizabeth B. .. 56 Hurst, John A 7 Huus, Helen 23, 91 Ifert, William 60
269
Appendix INDEX OF PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS
Participant Jack, Charles Jackson, Lionel H Jochen, Albert E Johns, Robert E Jones, Isabelle S
Program 8 17 77 109 100
Kalapos, Stephen A. .. 47 Kaiman, Karl 70 Kane, Kenneth D 75 Karaska. Gerald E 72 Kearney, Margaret Mary 117 Keiserman, Paul 85 Kelley, Isabel C 56 Kelly, William T 92 Kemeney, J. G 65, 96 Ketchum, E. Gillet .... 9 Ketchum, Harry W 45 Kindred, Leslie W 114 King, Marjorie E 31 Kirk, E. Bruce 108 Kneisel, Stephan 94 Kohl, Ernest 0 89 Kroeger, Ruth P 101 Krogman, Wilton M. .. 90 Kuhn, Marcellus 60 Lauer, Lionel 63 Leader, Mary Jane 15 LeCompte, Clair 58 Lee, Charles 106 Lee, Everett S 19 Leslie, Robert E 100 Lindenmuth, Mary E. .. 100 Link, Frances 15 Lissfeldt, Elmer 15 Loescher, Frank S 5 Long, Laura 39 Longmire, Peter 26 Loose, Florence 50 Loughrey, Thomas 73 Lysaught, Jerome 10 MacDonald, Arthur .... 67 Malecot, Andre 12 Marcantonio, Evelyn .. 110 Marcus, Henry 70 Marcus, Judith R 52 Marder, Sylvia R 52 Marie, Sister Camilla .. 55 Marshall, Charles E. .. 63 Marston, Roger 21 Martin, Harold 109 Martin, Helen E 36 Mason, Ann 57
Participant
Program
Mason, William R. .. 74, 97 Max, Joseph W 2, 94 McAnulty, George 50 McClure, Paul 21 McFadden, Janet 34 McGinty, Ann 91 McGorman, George .... 45 Mechanick, Philip 38 Melson, Ruth 61 Memming, Agnes K. .. 83 Merriman, Kenneth .... 30 Meyerhoff, Howard A. 19 Mial, Curtis 7 Miller, Abner 85 Moll, W. P 8 Moore, Joseph D 103 Myers, Bernard 92 Nagy, Mark C Neathery, Robert W. .. Neil, Patricia Nestor, Hubert Newton, Eunice Shaed 43, Nixdorf, Virginia Norton, Donald B Oliver, Albert 1
14 55 21 58 95 91 60
3, 48
Palmer, Norman D 105 Peterson, Edwin L 104 Phillips, Gladys 95 Pindell, Howard 94 Pira, Cathie 57 Plattenberger, Byrhl .... 27 Plymouth-Whitemarsh Touring Vocal Ensemble 60 Pollak, Gertrude K 6 Porter, Elizabeth B 117 Proctor, Mabel V 66 Puglisi, Donald F 87 Rankin, Marjorie 77 Rees, Marvin 53 Renner, Mary C. 18, 81, 93 Rieder, Percival 109 Ritzman, Elmer R 11 Roberts, Alfred 12 Robinson, Millard 53 Robinson, Richard 70 Rooney, John J 108 Rosenberg, Edward B... 2 Rosenberg, Martha .... 36
Participant Rowell, John Rudy, Willis
Program 24 22
Sack, Saul 22 Sagl, Helen L 28, 78 Sandstrom, Eleanor L. .. 101 Satlow, I. David 68 Saxon, Katherine 2 Scanlon, David G 5 Schäfer, Ronald 24 Schmuckler, Joseph S. 33,99 Schneyer, Wesley 41 Schreiber, Daniel 20 Schub, Pincus 65 Schwartzberg, Joseph .. 19 Scuderi, Loretta 69 Shafer, Hugh M 10, 25 Shafer, Ruth 60 Shoben, Edward J., Jr 11, 108 Shoemaker, Charlotte .. 60 Shtofman, Claire 78 Singer, H. Halleck 118 Slaton, Charles B. S. .. 8 Smith, Harry 25 Smith, Richard K 48 Snyder, C. Richard 55 Spickler, Francis H 92 Springfield Elementary School Band 60 Staples, I. Ezra 63 Stees, Nancy E 21 Stomel, Theodore 101 Stouffer, Paul 60 Struck, John W 97 Sukonick, Rudolph 96 Sullivan, Mildred 102 Swarthmore College Students 57 Taber, Robert C 11 Taiz, Malvena 57 Tancredi, Frank 75 Tannenbaum, Harold 40, 82 Taylor, Harold 23, 110 Tecco, Rudolph L 60 Temple University Students 57 Terata, Ailene 57 Thompson, G. Baker .. 85 Thurston, Mildred 37, 102 Tipton, Gladys 60 Tomlinson, Ruth 35 Toscano, James T 19
270
FREEDOM
AND
EDUCATION
INDEX OF PROGRAM
Participant
Program
Tracton, Stanley Tucker, Joseph Unionville-Chadds Ford High School Students University of Pennsylvania Students Upper Dublin Township Students ..
51 10 75 57 79
Varbalow, Theodore H. 55 Vetter, Charles T., Jr. .. 107 Warner, Elizabeth Warner, William J
13 47
Participant
Program
Warnick, Martin J Watson, Ercell Weagley, Richard P Webb, Nathaniel G Weber, Calvin Weinhouse, Sidney Weinmann, Harry Welling, Jane Betsey 18, Wessel, Herman M. .. 3, West Chester Junior High School A Cappella Chorus .. White, Hoylande
43 66 93 7 60 64 83 81 47 60 37
Participant
PARTICIPANTS
Program
Whitsett, James L 94 Williams, Charles 70 Williams, Joanna P 90 Willis, Justyne 17 Wilson, David 16 Wood, Marion 68 Woody, Regina Ill Wuesthoff, C. F. H 62 Yocum, Dorothy B. .. 46, 68, 119 Young, Marechal-Neil E. .. 17, 98 Zelley, Clare
17
Index AAUP, 37, 189 Academic freedom, 187 Adams, Herbert B., 170 Affluent society, 43 Africa, higher education in, 211 African culture, 227, 229 Allen, Florence E., 186 Allentown State Hospital, 82 Alphabet, in reading, 93 American Council on Education, 174 American Vocational Association, 164 Appendix, Schoolmen's Week Committees and Programs, 1963 Arts, 21 Asquith Commission, 217 Association of American Geographies, 137 Atlas, use of, 140 Atomic energy, risks, 153 Augmented Roman Alphabet, 94 Austin, Mary, 92 Automation, 68, 159 Baldwin, James, 23 Basic research, in Africa, 230 Bertrand, Alvin L., 72 Blackwell, Thomas Edward, 193 Bloomfield, Leonard, 106 Bode, Boyd H., 172 Bradley, Beatrice E., 100 Brickman, William W., 181 Brigham Young University, 194 Brubacher, John S., 175 Bruner, Jerome, 98 Buckley, Richard Dale, 118 Buchner, Edward Franklin, 170 Burchill, G. W., 78 Carmichael, Oliver C., 180 Carr-Saunders, A. M., 218
Carson Pirie Scott Company, 76 Carson, Rachel, 22 Censorship, 23 Chambers, M. M„ 182 Character development, in school, 46 Chase, Grafton D., 151 Child psychiatrists, 87 Children's language, 108 Citizenship, 120 Civil rights, 34 Clark, Kenneth, 50 Clymer, Theodore, 95 College students, 31 Commission on Higher Education, 173 Committee on Education Beyond the High School, 173 Communism, 16, 123 Comprehensive high schools, 162 Compulsory subjects, 203 Conant, James B., 20, 49, 152 Concept development, 56 Concrete experiences, 58 Conference of African States, 215 Controversial issues, 123 Council for Basic Education, 104 Council for Human Services, 64 Council of State Governments, 173 Courts, and higher education, 182 Cowley, W. H., 175 Creative thinking, in science, 148 Cuban crisis, 36 Culturally deprived, 53, 60 Culture, 128 Curriculum, for teachers, 21; in Africa, 227 Darley, John G., 178 Davis, Allison, 48 Demonstrations, 147 Desegregation, 185
272 Deutsch, Martin, 49 Diederich, Paul B., 114 Discipline, 44 Disciplines, contribution of, 18 Downing, John A., 94 Dropouts, 66; in Maryland, 71; parents of, 72; rate, 67; reducing, 48 Druding, Aleda, 51 Dunbar School, 51 Durkin, Dolores, 100 Eastern State School and Hospital, 81 Eckert, Ruth E„ 175 Economic activities, 136; development, 158, 227 Eddy, Edward D., 31 Education, crisis in, 13; importance of, 5; industrial, 158; financial support, 25; meaning of, 17; need for, 151; nuclear, 151; of parents, 54 Educational Policies Commission, 173 Educators, 20 Elementary science program, 144 Élite, scholarly, 37 Emilv Griffith Opportunity School, 160 Eminent domain, 192 Englund, Fred W., 77 Environment, 121, 135 Evaluation, self, 111 Expatriate teachers, 222 Experience-poor children, 57 Experimentation, 147 Fairfax, Nancy B., 51 Family help, 85 Federal Communications Commission, 191 Feirer John J., 162 Fermi, Enrico, 151 Fifth Amendment, 188 Financing education, 25 Fischer, John H., 176 Flexner, Abraham, 181 Ford Foundation, 65 Foundation for Reading Improvement, The, 104 Fourteenth Amendment, 185
INDEX
Freberg, Stan, 20 Freedom, 16; meaning of, 26 Friedman, Herbert H., 137 Fries, Charles C., 106 Geography, 131, 139 Gotwals School, 62 Graduate schools, 171 Great Cities School Improvement Program, 51 Greenbaum, Joseph, 174 Green Bay, dropout program, 78 Guidance, 74 Haiti, 226 Hall, G. Stanley, 170 Hammock, Robert C., 196 Honours Program, 202 Hardy, Dorothy, 55 Harris, Albert J., 91 Heilman, Arthur W., 103 Henderson, Algo, 177 Higher education, 169 Higher Horizons Program, 73 Holmes, Eloise, 52 Holmes, Jack A., 99 Horn, Earnest, 95 Hughes, Raymond M., 172 Human relations, 130 Immunity, doctrine of, 193 Individual differences, 98, 149; in science, 143 Indulgence, results of, 45 Industrial education, 158 Initial Teaching Alphabet, 94, 101 Inter-University Council for Higher Education Overseas, 218 Islam, 197 Issues, in education, 27 Jacob, Philip, 32 Jewish Vocational Service, 77 Johns Hopkins, 171 Jones, Thomas Jesse, 228 Justice, 26 Jute, 197 Kandel, I. L., 181
273
Index Karaska, Gerald J., 131 Kaufman, Arnold, 19 Keller, Charles P., 135 Kennedy, John F., 35, 66 Khan, Mohammed Ayub, 198 Kingsley, William Lathrop, 170 Knapp, Robert H„ 174 Koemer, James D., 180
NEA, 37 Neal, John P., 137 Nestor, Hubert, 81 Nyerere, Julius, 211
Law, and higher education, 183 Leavitt, Jerome E., 62 Lee, Everett S., 127 Leonard, Robert, 172 Levine, Jane, 97 Libraries, 204 Limited background, effects of, 49 Linguistic principles, 93 Linguistics, 101, 103 Linguists, 108 Listening, 115 "Lit Professor" (poem), 18 Loyalty oath, 187 Loyola University, 191
Pakistan, 196; libraries, 204; student life, 207 Parent education, 54, 61 Parents, 59, 61 Patriotism, 120 Peace Corps, 33, 215 "Perkins Bill," 165 Philadelphia schools, 52 Philosophers, 19 Physical laws, 140 Pines, Maya, 9 6 , 1 0 4 Pitman, Sir James, 94 Pope, The, 34 Pre-kindergarten year, 64 Preschool programs, 50 Proctor, Mabel V., 59 Program, for nuclear education, 155 Psychologists, 19 Psychology of learning, 96 Public policy, 182
Maps, 140 Marx, Karl, 43 Mason, William R „ 158 Meyer, Martin, 73 McConnell, Thomas, 178 McGrath, Earl J., 176 Mechanick, Phillip, 43 Meiklejohn, Alexander, 29 Middle Africa, 220 Middle-class ideals, 121 Miller, S. M., 71 Minister, Elizabeth, 54 Misconceptions, social studies, 118 Mitchell, Charles, 60 Moore, James, 72 Morality, 34 Morrison, Coleman, 92 Murphey, Rhoads, 127 National Council for Geographic Education, 137 National income, 196 National Science Foundation, 154 National Science Teachers Association, 143
Observation, 145 Oral examinations, 209 Owen, John E., 200
Radiation, 53 Radioisotopes, uses of, 156 Readiness test, 64 Reading, 91, 103; for slow-learners, 110; materials, 105; teacher training for, 104 Reinforcement, 101 Reiterman, Milton, 77 Religion, 20 Rights of students, 183 Rowan, Helen, 96 Rudy, Willis, 169 Rutledge, Wiley, 186 Sanford, Edmund C., 170 Sanford, Nevitt, 174 San Francisco Housing Authority, 77 Saturday Review, 20 Scanlon, David G., 211
274 Schneider, H e r m a n and Nina, 147 Schreiber, Daniel, 66 Schwartzberg, Joseph E., 139 Seaborg, Glenn T., 151 Shayon, R. L., 20 Smillie, Wilson G „ 127 Smith, Marion B„ 72 Social conscience, 38 Social studies, 118 Sociology, 127 South Vietnam, 16 Soviet Union, 22 Space capsules, 19 Spatial interactions, 132 "Speaker policy," 188 Special education, 83 Speech problems, 54 Spelling, 95 Stafford, William, 17 St. John's University, 184 Strickland, Ruth G., 108 Student life, 208; politics, 206; strikes, 205 Talent Preservation Program, 75 Tananarive report, 225 T a n n e n b a u m , Harold E., 143 Taylor, Harold, 13 Teacher training, 104; nuclear, 154 Teachers College, 172, 176 Teaching load, 199; machines, 26; techniques, reading, 111 Tenure, 189 Test ban treaty, 14 Textbooks, 204 The First R, 92 The Torchlighlers, 92 Thompson, Bertha, 137 Thrift, 46 Thurber, Charles H., 171 Thurber, Walter A., 147
INDEX Thwing, Charles F., 170 Ulich, Robert, 181 Unemployed, 24 Unemployment, 69; of A f r i c a n youth, 214 U N E S C O , 213 United Nations, 29 Universities, in Pakistan, 197 University of California, 178 University of Dakar, 220 University of London, 218 University of Michigan, 177 University of Nevada, 190 U. S. Department of Agriculture, 70 Uzzle, Burk, 159 Values, 14 Verplanck, W. S., 96 Vocabulary, social studies, 124 Vocational school, 164 W a r m a n , Henry J., 133 Warner, Elizabeth Lloyd, 110 Washburne, Carleton, 100 Watson, Ercell I., 48 Wheeler, Keith, 159 White, Ellis F., 175 White, Gilbert F., 139 Whitman, Walt, 29 Willis, Benjamin, 48 Wisconsin State College, 190 Wolfbein, Seymour L., 68 Word identification, 93 World College, 15 Writing, 114 Young, Burns Byron, 170 Youth Development Project of Minneapolis, 69