Massive Transfusion

Like any other official in a similar position, Chicago's Assistant School Superintendent Thaddeus Lubera was dismayed.

He urgently needed 300 more high-school teachers, but when he announced that a special examination would take place, only 100 applicants showed up to take it. What could Chicago do about its ever-increasing shortage of teachers?

Last week Chicago schoolmen were working out a plan by which 13 Illinois colleges and universities will offer teacher-training courses at the undergraduate level and thus assure a whole new batch of teachers. But more important than the plan itself was the fact that Chicago had become the latest recruit to what is virtually a nationwide campaign.

The campaign starts from two motives: some programs are designed merely to attract more teachers, and some are a part of a growing revolt against standard U.S. teacher training. But whatever the motivations, the programs have one major target: to tap for the teaching profession the vast reservoir of ordinary liberal arts graduates.* Last week, along with Chicago, Northwestern University was joining up. Next fall it will start a master of arts in teaching program which will combine advanced graduate work with the courses necessary to meet Illinois teacher requirements. Among other programs now flourishing across the U.S.:

P:Sparked by the Ford Foundation, Arkansas started a "bold new experiment" in teacher training two years ago, now has 15 colleges in the state participating. The idea is to persuade students to go into teaching by giving them four years of the liberal arts plus a fifth year of professional internship at either the State Teachers' College at Conway or the University of Arkansas. In 1953-54, the plan got 30 recruits. Total applicants for next fall: 88.

P:Connecticut began its program in 1949, now offers emergency certificates to liberal arts graduates who complete a special eight-week summer course at any one of four state teachers' colleges. Students are supposed to observe qualified teachers, learn the essentials of tests and measurements, child psychology and teaching methods. After that, they begin teaching, but for the first year are closely guided by their principals and supervisors. Total number of teachers placed so far: 1,410.

P: Through a special arrangement with Harvard, 29 Eastern colleges now actively try to persuade their students to go into teaching: they hold conferences, mail out pamphlets, put up posters. Students who join up go for a fifth year to the Harvard Graduate School of Education, not only take professional courses but do some actual teaching at nearby schools. At the end of the year, they get either a master of education degree or a master of arts in teaching. Two years ago, 40 students went to Harvard from the participating colleges. This year's registration: 100.

P: Wesleyan University (Conn.) also has a master of arts in teaching program. Each year twelve liberal arts graduates are chosen for $1,600 university fellowships, for the next two years combine, advanced work in their chosen fields with the study and practice of teaching.

P:Yale's one-year program has so far turned out 28 teachers, was designed specifically as "a massive transfusion of the liberal arts" into teacher training. Says its director, Theodore Andersson: "Thanks to their steeping in the humanities, our teachers are expected to exert an impact on American education out of all proportion to their numbers."

* Last year's batch of bachelors, according to the U.S. Office of Education: 236,132 from non-professional campuses.

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