Back Talk

The progressive educationists have taken some harsh criticism in recent months, but not all of them are listening in the storm cellar. A few are talking back--indignantly and in the same old rich, deep-purpled educationese.

Languages for What? Should children be taught foreign languages in elementary school? Only if two or more languages are spoken in the community, according to a report issued last week by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development of the National Education Association. In such cases, Authors Elizabeth Engle Thompson and Arthur E. Hamalainen say, the foreign language "should become part of the social living experiences in every classroom." But in communities with only one language "instruction to develop skills and vocabulary for all elementary school children in a particular language is without purpose."

The authors, who apparently assume that children are going to stay put in the towns where they are first taught, make another assumption much favored by the educationists--that "learning for learning's sake" is of scant value, and that only "life purposes," i.e., "needs of hunger, physical comfort, the desire for expression and social integration," can properly lead a child to learn. Is the purpose of study to beguile children or to educate future adults? "Why dramatize 'The Three Bears' in Spanish or French? ... In general, such language learning has little immediate social value. Children would derive similar enjoyment and have experience in creative self-expression were they to do this same dramatization in English."

What Is Truth? In the Educational Record, Byron S. Hollinshead, onetime president of Coe College of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, writes what is virtually an educationist manifesto: "One can be lost in admiration for hard work and high standards . . . without believing that rote learning and a heavy emphasis on past civilizations constitute the best preparation for solving modern problems." French children, says he, are interested in Latin because it is similar to their own language, because it is used in Roman Catholic churches, and because Roman ruins arouse their curiosity, but "one cannot expect an American boy to have the same interest in Latin and European history."

Science and math? "Why should everybody pursue algebra, physics and chemistry? Must everyone play the piano, or play football? Granted that a knowledge of arithmetic and general science is essential, how far beyond that are low-ability students supposed to go?" Summing-up Hollinshead credo: "We do not believe that human truth is always and everywhere the same. We believe it varies and changes with time and place . . . We also believe that education has something to do with preparing the student to be able to adjust (horrible word of the critics)."

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