National Reports

...Basing himself on wide experience as a teacher in the United States and abroad, Dr...

...Anderson pinned on a McCarthy button after the defeat and pledged vigorous support to her erstwhile opponent in his race to become the state's second Democratic Senator...

...yet they were in no position to deny him the support he sought in the fight for convention endorsement...

...the European schools were largely dedicated to the education of moneyed or titled elites, and based themselves on stable traditions and relatively homogeneous populations...

...Yet the roar of laughter which greeted Dr...

...They included scientists, philosophers, sociologists, historians and professional educators who have devoted their careers to education...

...He served the farmers as Harold Stassen's dairy and food commissioner...

...The convention hassle with Mrs...

...I'd rather have a good teacher working with a poor curriculum than a bad teacher and a fine curriculum...

...He argued it was time for the United States to adopt a system of comprehensive, standardized examinations which would test students for what they know...

...Nevertheless, McCarthy (during the Joe McCarthy heyday, he was known as "the other McCarthy" or "our McCarthy") presents an appealing figure as a candidate...

...He has given up a safe seat in the House and impressive seniority on its Ways and Means Committee to try it...

...population into a more or less homogeneous mass...

...He has a handsome mien and his graying temples give his 42 years a youthful dignity as he deplores demagogiiery and cynicism and argues for a moral voice in national politics...

...But his victory can come only as the result of a widespread Democratic sweep which reflects a general discontent with Eisenhower's five years...

...Childs presented a moving account of the historic role played by the American public or common school in educating our youth and shaping an identifiable American heritage...

...and that the number of professional courses in methods and philosophy of teaching should be sharply reduced and taught preferably in the MA year, along with internship in practice teaching...

...They were providing job-training, which could be better learned on the job, and social adjustment, which properly belonged to home and church...

...Woodring pointed out that 80 per cent of the history teachers in the nation's public schools were graduates of liberal-arts colleges...

...Hook's view was challenged by some participants, who claimed his philosophical neutralism was less innocent than it appeared...

...If it can do this, it will meet the present challenge to American education...

...The conferees agreed unanimously that the worth of a college degree varied enormously from one institution to another and that, on the public-school level as well, graduates differed enormously in performance and achievement...

...if the present trend continued, there would be few left, except on the graduate-school level, a quarter-century hence...

...Richard Heindel, Presidentelect of Wagner College, and Dean John Diekhoff of Western Reserve criticized the proliferation of courses in the typical liberal-arts curriculum...

...A group of old-line Farmer-Laborites, opposed to Governor Orville Freeman, usually enters the primaries with the rallying cry of "bossism"—and made it stick in 1956 when Estes Kefauver trounced Adlai Stevenson in the bid for the Minnesota delegation...

...school systems which overlooks these differences in background and purpose is misleading...

...The less qualified students, said Professor Hook, require special classes and a broad vocational training which should not become a means of de-humanization and which should avoid the social distinctions that accompany educational differentiation...

...Bush won general assent when he deplored the level of preparation in basic disciplines freshmen bring to the colleges...

...They blamed it on faculties and teachers attempting to maintain vested course interests at the expense of unity and coherence in the curriculum...

...But intellectual training should be distinguished from extra-curricular activity, and nothing should be permitted to interfere with the essential function of the public schools...

...He learned his politics the hard way...

...The panelists felt that less differentiation was required in the college liberal-arts curriculum, with the humanities and the sciences forming the core of the content...

...Knutson will have to fight another Democrat for renomi-nation and the campaign, barely begun, already has dropped to the level of personal recriminations and low gossip...

...There was general agreement with Bestor's position, but Dr...

...The other issue may be more decisive...

...What is the future of teachers' colleges...

...McCarthy has two political obstacles to overcome: He is from the Twin Cities and he is a Roman Catholic...

...But, in addressing the problem on its own terms, the conferees could reach no convincing explanations nor agree on any widely-shared solutions...

...Freeman Butts of Columbia University's Teachers College added that teachers' colleges were slowly disappearing from the American educational scene...

...If the public schools were called upon to engage in extra-curricular activities, the school day should be lengthened accordingly...

...It was felt, too, that special courses in the sciences should be made available to students not pursuing scientific careers...

...In all, the four sessions produced over twelve hours of informal and wide-ranging give-and-take...

...In 1958, they say, he'll be running in a Democratic year and on a ticket which will oppose Freeman for re-election as Governor...

...Woodring, 40 per cent of our public-school teachers come from private liberal-arts colleges, 40 per cent from large liberal-arts universities, and only 20 per cent from the teachers' colleges...

...Any comparison between European and U.S...

...He certainly will get enthusiastic support and financial help from his union friends...

...Anderson's refusal to contest the primary makes McCarthy's nomination about as near a certainty as one can predict...

...What are the essential elements of the curriculum...

...He urged a more flexible system which would permit students to advance at their own speed...

...Charles Boehm, Pennsylvania superintendent of instruction, blamed the Carnegie unit system for dictating a standardization of achievement levels in terms of time blocks devoted to given courses...

...James Allen, commissioner of education in New York State, thought Bestor's proposal was impractical on a centralized nationwide scale because of the wide degree of autonomy under which state school systems operate...

...The conferees agreed unanimously that teaching was the weakest link in the American educational system, and no one dissented from Dr...

...The task of the common school today is to train uncommon students...

...But he welcomed the idea on the statewide level and blamed the degree of control which cities and towns have over their local schools for resulting frequently in lax standards...

...Like Humphrey, he is a political science professor turned practician...

...More important, Thye has an enviable record as a vote-getter: In 1944, he was elected Governor by the largest majority ever rolled up in Minnesota in the face of Roosevelt's re-election, and in 1952 he ran well ahead of Eisenhower in the final returns...

...Bestor declared, it would bring about a reconstruction of educational methods, for the use of standard tests would tend to reduce emphasis on formal course credits and on credit hours and emphasize actual knowledge...

...What is the proper role of the school...

...In general, said Dr...

...The American public school today faces a new challenge: It must remain true to the democratic ethos that determined its historic role, providing equal educational opportunity for all, but it must do so without sacrificing the need for rigorous achievement and exacting standards...

...Knutson, if she wins the primary, can go on to beat the Republican in November...

...It is no secret that McCarthy's desire for the Senate dismayed some of labor's top strategists who regard him as a bulwark against the Dixiecrat-Republi-can majority in the House...

...some have helped shape prevailing educational philosophies...

...It threw its doors open to all and attempted to educate all without (save for the Negroes) discrimination...

...In the words of Dr...

...American youth had little appreciation of the roots of their democratic tradition...

...Here, as in the discussion of so many other problems, the conferees agreed on the need to differentiate according to schooling levels...

...The Democratic appetite for victory is sharpened by the hope that at least one of the four remaining Republican Congressional seats may go their way—the strongly agricultural First District where a Republican barely squeaked through in a by election several months ago...

...Woodring substantially agreed that teachers should be required to have an MA degree...

...Paul Woodring of the Fund for the Advancement of Education cited experimental evidence which tends to prove that homogeneous classes of students grouped according to ability learn better, faster, and with more satisfaction than mixed groups of students...

...Anderson effectively destroys "bossism" as an issue for the malcontents...

...Professors Nagel and Hook stressed the importance of teaching critical method, of giving students a feeling for criteria of evidence, norms of validity and rules of consistency, as against emphasis on memory and learning by rote...

...He agreed that education of this segment of the school population should not interfere with or dilute the education of the other three-quarters, but argued that, conversely, the education of the better endowed should not be a ground to deprive the poorly endowed of their educational rights...

...Lindsay, "to have to teach students how to read and write...

...He earned his apprenticeship as a local school-board president and Farm Bureau leader...

...Were such a system put into practice, Dr...

...Ed Thye, Minnesota's senior Senator, is not a spectacular politician and he has been in the shadow of his junior, Hubert Humphrey, for the last decade...

...Related to content was the issue of teaching methods...

...Hook questioned whether experimental findings would confirm what most of the participants felt had been a general deterioration of standards in the public-school system over the years...

...His view was sharply challenged by a number of the participants, who thought he was drawing misleading parallels between the political sciences and the natural sciences...

...Today, however, the conditions out of which the U.S...

...But McCarthy shouldn't have any serious difficulties in this year's primary...

...How should standards of achievement and performance be measured...

...They remember that he entered the Senate in 1946 when the Republicans swept the Midwest and was reelected in 1952 during the Eisenhower landslide...

...he argued for a philosophically neutral, empirical approach to educational problems...

...The unanimous view was that the schools were doing this job badly...

...But this analysis disregards some basic facts about Thye as a veteran politician...

...Teachers' colleges are familiar scapegoats for the ills of American education, but the few attempts to belabor them at this conference were quickly rebutted...

...In his paper, Dr...

...How good are American schools...

...These problems provided a focus for the discussion of how the schools were training their students to cope with their responsibilities as citizens...

...The primary task of the schools was intellectual training and discipline...

...they were ill-equipped to understand critical political issues...

...In the Senate, he has voted consistently against the Eisenhower-Benson farm policies, but has been one of the few Bepublican stalwarts for Eisenhower's foreign policies...

...There is nothing wrong with American education that a few teachers like Socrates could not correct...

...McCarthy obviously thinks that Thye can be defeated...

...If European schools set standards of rigor and achievement which the American public school has too often lacked, that is because these schools have not had the vaulting ambitions of the American school system...

...Woodring's statement: "The preparation of teachers, in my opinion, is much more important than the curriculum...

...He cited evidence tending to show that one-quarter of public-school students are incapable of completing the requirements of a good academic high school and going to college...

...Butts argued persuasively for recognition of teaching as a professional discipline...

...Both he and Dr...

...In his paper on "Education and the American Scene," Dr...

...Arthur Bestor argued, vigorously that the schools had spread themselves too thin and had tried to do too much...

...Indeed, he defeated isolationist Henrik Shipstead when he first ran for the Senate...

...The Democrats like to regard Thye as a weak candidate...

...The aroma of victory in 1958 was so persuasive that two of the state's leading Democratic figures, Congressman Eugene McCarthy and Eugenie Anderson, former Ambassador to Denmark, waged vigorous campaigns for convention endorsement in the fall primaries...

...R. B. Lindsay, Dean of Brown University's Graduate School, declared that graduate degrees in science at the best American universities are relatively equal in quality, and the quality is very high...

...common school grew belong largely to history...

...Niebuhr had pointed to three features in contemporary American history that pose unique and novel problems for the education of our youth: the emergence of America to leadership, the cold-war struggle and the nuclear stalemate...

...But it would be unfair to apply this comment to the 20 educators recently brought together by the Tamiment Institute for a two-day conference on the theme "The Challenge to American Education...

...There was a general consensus that at the high-school level and below, a multiple-track approach to curriculum content was required...

...In his paper, Sidney Hook had maintained that no prior agreement about the nature of "ultimate" reality was required in order to reach significant agreement on specific educational objectives...

...Basic skills would have to be taught at all levels, but the degree of rigor would vary with student abilities...

...Bestor won general assent for his suggestion that throughout the school system achievement credit be given only for demonstrated knowledge...

...they could not intellectually justify the loyalties and allegiances to which they gave lip-service...

...Shuster said that we are distorting the liberal-arts college by turning it into a problem-solving institution...

...The public school served as the chemical agency which fused the different immigrant elements that make up the U.S...

...Whether his religion will become an acute campaign issue will be a crucial test of the state's tolerance, but many of the state's Protestants were brought up in an anti-Catholic tradition they may find difficult to discard...

...It is a caricature of college education," said Dr...

...Morgen-thau's account of how his young son of high-school age could write brilliantly on freedom and necessity in history in an argument studded with grammatical errors seemed to indicate agreement on the importance of the mastery of basic skills...

...The four panel sessions took as their point of departure formal papers (to be published later this year) by George N. Shuster, Sidney Hook, Douglas Bush, Ernest Nagel, John Childs, Arthur Bestor, Reinhold Nie-buhr and Hans J. Morgenthau...

...it will assume electoral significance only if the price of hogs falls below 16 cents a pound by mid-October...

...The fight promises to be so bitter that it is doubtful whether Mrs...

...Hook warned against any approach that would overlook the range of student capacities and abilities...

...The panels were devoted to specific subjects: "The Aims and Content of Education," "Education in the Sciences and the Humanities," "Education and the American Scene," "Education and the World Scene...

...But the Democrats apparently are in serious difficulty in one of their own districts —that held by Coya Knutson of Oklee...

...It all depends on what schools and at what level you are talking about," was the virtually unanimous response...

...Nevertheless, the conference expressed general dissatisfaction with the standards of performance and achievement prevalent in the public-school system as a whole and at other than the top-flight universities...

...Professor Morgenthau argued that this was largely due, so far as education could be held responsible, to the lack of a theoretical approach to the teaching of the political sciences...

...Since the Russians launched their first sputnik last October, American education has been the subject of great debate...

...Mrs...

...In a sense, it will present a fair test of these two philosophies...

...if history is poorly taught, as many feel, the responsibility cannot lie with the teachers' colleges...

...McCarthy's campaign will center around a comparison of the legislative records of a New Deal Democrat and an Eisenhower Republican...

...to teach reading, writing and arithmetic...

...The farm issue will play a minor key in this campaign because both candidates have been anti-Benson...

...Nonetheless, when the conferees faced practical educational issues, differences of philosophic orientation seemed largely irrelevant...

...Morgenthau categorically stated that the relative quality of American higher education, at its highest level, is superior to that anywhere in the world...

...But Dr...

...he taught social science in high school, economics and political science in college...

...Educators Weigh Challenge to Schools By Norman Jacobs Tamiment, Pa...

...I not only can smell victory—I can taste it," said a prominent Minnesota politician here at the recent Democratic-Farmer-Labor party convention...

...He urged a fusion of the informational and utilitarian aspects of the curriculum with that which is inspiring and has a sense of mystery...

...In a hard-fought battle for delegates (but never a dirty one), McCarthy, a five-term Congressman, won a two-thirds majority on the second ballot...

...Childs, it "served American democracy by providing the young of all the component groups of our society an opportunity to live, study and play together and thereby develop those appreciations, understandings and allegiances which are the ultimate basis of our lives...

...It is linked to the widespread rural suspicion of the "big city" and is underlined by the fact that both Humphrey and Freeman also come from Minneapolis...

...that the core of aspiring teachers' curriculum should be a liberal-arts program...

...The general election in November, however, may not go for the Democrats as easily as McCarthy's partisans seem to expect...

...How do we educate for democratic citizenship...

...As one observer put it, many self-styled experts have gone into orbit and begun beeping...