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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1961-07-13, Page 6Wuste0; Time Mn tbollege Courses by Raymond' Maley in NEW$WEEK A year ago, president Geayson Kirk t,f Columbia University eirrote this indictment of the four - ear college course: "Fourr years en some adolescent playpens that Dere called centers of learning *nay be a pleasant interlude for young people, but it is a luxury which they, their parents, the col- leges, and the country can no longer afford." This sharpens and confirms my own impression after three dec- ades — first as a full-time and later as a part-time university professor. It comes with added emphasis now when the nation's taxpayers are about to be nicked again for Federal aid to students end colleges. The four-year tradition began in medieval times when Oxford and Cambridge were created. English gentlemen welcomed a quiet sanctuary for their sons un- til they were old enough to as- sume the responsibilities of life. The time spent in the universities also helped prepare men for the Easy -Knit SUCCeSS ' New! A jerkin that's smart for year 'round wear—a tailored buckle cinches the waist. Easy -knit jerkin — casually teght and cozy with skirts or ks. Cables add texture in - rest. Pattern 741: directions zes 32-34; 36-38 included. Send THIRTY - FIVE CENTS (stamps cannot be accepted, use Postal note for safety) for this 4attern to Laura Wheeler, Box , 123 Eighteenth. St., New Tor- onto, Ont, Print plainly PAT- TERN NUMBER, your NAME And ADDRESS. JUST OFF THE PRESS! Send now for our exciting, new 1961 Needlecraft Catalogue. Over 125 designs to crochet, knit, sew, embroider, quilt, weave — fa- ons, hornefurnishings, tuys, lets, baeaar hits. Plus FREE — trstructions for six smart veil tbeps, Hurry, send `?5e now! ISSUE 27 — 1961 ministry, the pj'oferielons, Scholar. l p, the Military! also just or "$raeloua" living In an aria- tteeera4y. Itas'vard, following the En liele pattern in 1030, set the style whish stili prevails: gener- ally In the United States. Imprisoned in this tradition, colleges have devised' plausible means of stretching out their of- ferings from September of, the first year to June of the fourth. Long vacations help a lot — three months in the summer, and weeks for Christmas and Easter holidays. Those happy days off are usually consumed in loafing or in going to and getting over innumerable parties. For an in- dustrious few, the summer can be used to earn some money. But considering the ultimate loss to the colleges, it would be cheaper to provide loans and scholar- ships, The :marc high-school gradu- ate now is faced not only by the necessity for preparing foe a vo- cation after college, but by years of military service. If the boy chooses to enter a profession, he will not be ready to earn a living until his middle or late 20s The surgeon earns little or nothing until he is 30 or more. This is an injustice to the student and an intolerable burden on most par- ents. But even with the months of actual study limited by bounte- ous vacations, the academic of- fering has been heavily diluted with plenty of soft or irrelevant courses. The observations that follow may not apply so specifically to the learning of foreign languages'. or science, But they certainly ap- ply to the disciplines with which I ens most familiar, the social sciences. In that part of the curriculum, faculty members with four years to thin out their offering can move with the utmost leisure. Courses are given which need not be taught, only read in books. Usually a faculty member has an introductory course for `funda- mentals." Then a' moderately ad- vanced course which merely' el- aborates the introductory course. And for the third course, a re- capitulation of the first two. Too often the wisdom and knowledge of a professor could with effi- ciency be imparted in one full year's course. But the colleges justify this part-time use of talent because they want "research" and the. writing of books. Jacques Bar- zun, dean of the Graduate Facul- ties at Columbia, takes sharp is- sue with this insistence upon what is called productive re- search and scholarship. Too often it is merely an "excuse for a flight from teaching." And the - pressure on young teachers to "produce" means gross neglect of students and classrooms, Indeed, the gifted and inspiring teacher is under a heavy penalty. The dull fellow who can neither teach nor write well is the benefici- ary, The college plant is also ineffi ciently used. President Kirk es- timates that the plant is .n oper- ation only about 46 per cent of the time. With a rise of more than 100 par cent in enrollment of 7 million in prospect by 1970, such inefficiency is deplorable. The remedy is three college years of eleven months each. Faculty members might choose time off for writing or travel, or more pay. There would be a faster turnover of students and less expense for parents, colleges,. taxpayers, and donors. And stu- dents would be able to add a year to their productive life. GUN SWIGGER — Actress Stella Stevens Isn't trying to commit suicide, she is merely using a water pistol to "shoot" herself o drink. In order not to spoil her make-up between takes of her Paramount picture "Deadlock," she uses this strange method la quench her thirst. MAMIE AND IKE DROP IN FOR LUNCH — President Kennedy put aside his crutches long enough to play host at 'a White House luncheon in honor of Japanese Prime Minister Haya'to Ikeda. From left: Mrs. Kennedy, Prime Minister and Mrs. Ikeda, General and Mrs. Eisenhower and the President. Before 'the luncheon, President Kennedy and Mr. Eisenhower held a pri- vate conference. HRONICLIES GrAIINGERFAIDI The strangeb ri d I mentioned a few weeks ago is not a hermit thrush as I imagined. It is a Brown Thrasher, And apparent- ly it had a mateas a nest was built in a big thorny bush next door,' Three brown speckled eggs were laid and carefully tended by the mother bird. Our neigh- bour kept close watch to make sure the nest was not disturbed by marauding cats, But her watchfulness was not sufficient protection against crows and starlings. -And so, one by one, the eggs disappeared, leaving only scraps of broken shell, But the thrashers are still around. We often - see them on . or near our feeding station and quite frequently hear them singing from' the top of a nearby tree, They are beautiful birds to seed and to hear. It grieves me to think their eggs were destroyed. If only there were some way to protect our song birds from ma- licious and less attractive birds. Of course the birds fight for themselves as much as they can. We quite often see a thieving crow being. chased 'away by a number • of smaller birds. Cow- birds are particularly aggres- gressive. And yet too often it is the crow who wins out, presum- ably by cunning and stealth. Because of tragedies in the wing- ed world such as happened to the brown thrasher bird watch- irig is not always a pleasure — it can be a heartache, But then what applies in bird - land also applies to humans. Things do not always turn out the way we plan them. Birds build their nests in what they think is a sheltered spot. 'In just the same way man may buy or build a house in a beautiful, quiet country setting. The place is reasonably close to good roads, churches, schools and shopping centre so everyone is happy and enjoys the freedom of country life. And then, it quite often happens, the family is hardly settled before a speculator buys up most of the adjacent land and first thing they know bulldozers move in, houses spring up like mushrooms overnight—and then, it's goodbye privacy and coun- try living, Another case might be that of. a family crowded into a city apartment who get Iistening to housing propaganda on the radio — "Own your own home in our newest and most spacious sub- division ... enjoy independence at its best ... low down pay- ment and move right in." It sounds good compared to a city apartment. So ,they buy a house with all the trimmings. They Soon find the locality lacks trees, privacy and space but it has an abundance of dogs, cats, chil- dren and cars. And you know it is funny what can happen in a modern home. I went to a new house' one day and after ringing the bell I heard a voice say — "Bill, answer the door will you . I'm in the bathroom!" The lady of the house had obviously forgotten the bathroom window opened out on to the front porch! Just lately I have been listen- ing to a lot of nearby subdivi- sion advertising so last Sunday when Bob was here I suggested that we take a run over to see 'What it was all about. We did and how glad I was to get home, Street after street with houses so much alike it would be hard to recognize one's own home in the dark, And the next house no more than ten feet away, I looked at the treeless sundrenehed streets and literal- ly got hot all over. But still suburban life, I have to admit, seems to suit some young couples A LITTLE MIS(S)CHIEF — Asked to smile, this little Swedish Miss made a funny face for the photographer. Shea was wear- ing "her traditional costume for flag' day celebration in Stock- holm. Very well, The children have other children to play with; the mothers have their coffee breaks- and Dad has plenty of time left over after mowing the wee 'lawn (with a power mower, of course!) and hoeing the flower border. So I guess it's not for me to. grumble just so long as I'm not required to live in a sub- division.. Right now we are experienc- ing joys and sorrows on our own acre lot. Our garden isn't doing. too well. Some of it i5 water- logged so that hoeing is impos- sible. Rabbits are still busy. They have even chewed off some of the .small shrubs we planted this spring. And aphids and other insects are every- where, stunting the growth of trees and shrubs. Green cater- pillars drop from the trees on to our heads artd down our necks. Ugh! But we are learning a lot. We know now which plants are disease resistant — morain lo- cust, mock orange, trumpet vine, weeping birch and Manitoba maple. Badly infected are the flowering birch, spirea, honey- suckle vine, and of course, the roses. We hand -spray them but sometimes the damage is done before we notice. Our petunias don't look too healthy but our iris and geraniums are grand. Flowers are like people—some like it hot, some like it cool. But I haven't found anyone who en- joyed last week's humid wea- ther. But there has been plenty to think about besides the .weather — the Coyne -Fleming dontro- versy,.had everyone talking. 46.nd the biggest guessing gent lo "date is what will come out ,i'nM, the Budget. By the time. fens :gets into print"we shall ku oto some will be happy and others not. That's the way it always is, and always will be. When Learning Was A Privilege Think of wearing your primer on a cord around your neck! That was what Dorothy was .so proud to do. Trunk of calling that primer a book, when it was not a book at all, but just a single page! The hornbook- was the only kind of ,primer the school chil- dren had in those days. When the strange primer was hung around Dorothy's neck, in order that she might carry it safely to school, it really looked more like a toy than anything else. There was only one printed page. A thin piece of wood was put behind the sheet of paper to keep it smooth, and 'over the printing was spread' a sheet of horn so thinthat the letters could be seen through it. Printing cost so much in -those days that the little sheet must be kept safe from wet or dirty fingers. But glass was costly, too, and so the thin covering at horn was used. A frame of brass was put around the whole, and the wooden back had a handle at the bottom. The hornbook looked ' like a little hand mirror. A very odd primer! Dorothy wore her hornbook to school the second day. A riew cord bad been put through the hole in the end of the little wooden handle, and the horn- book hung like a very large locket around Dorothy's fat little neck. If Dorothy had gone to school when her own daughter's daugh- ter went, she would have had a ' real book with pictures. Perhaps. there would have been a picture of an acorn and a picture of a boy and the rhyme: "A is an Acorn that grew on on oak, B is a Boy who delights in - his book." _This surely would have given some help in learning A and B. It would have been easier still if Dorothy had learned to read in these days, for,nabody would have troubled her with the let- ters at all. She would have be- gun at 'once with little stories, just as she expected to do. It seemedvery stupid to keep saying the alphabet. Round 0 and curly D, to be sure, were easy, but how could any one ever tell which was little b and which was little d? There were days when Doro- thy wished she lived where lit- tle girls had no hornbooks. At last she knew that the hump was on the right side of b and on the left side of d; and she' knew also the sounds of the easy syllables in the next line, a -le, ab, o -b, ob, and all the others. There were more lines on the hornbook page, and they toot a long time to learn, because deb was a' line that held all the figs ures, and the lower part of the page contained the Lord's Pray- er. The day she was five years old Dorothy read to her grand- father everything on the horn- book from the cross in the upper left hand corner to the Amen at the end of the prayer. - Prom "Everyday Life in the Colonies," by Gertrude L. Stone and M, Grace Pickett. Modern Etiquette By Anne Ashley Q. Is it proper to have one's telephone number engraved on one's personal stationery? A. Never, Q. Has a divorced woman the privilege of continuing to wear her rings? A, If she wishes — although it would seem logical that she would wish -to discard her wed- ding ring, ' • Q. How does one properly in- troduce one's stepfather? A. Introduce him as "my step- father," and, of course, be sure to mention' his name (which is different from yours), as, "Mr. Jackson," The man who says he's never made a mistake usually has a wife who did. For Half -Sizes PRINTED PATTERN 4883 1471-24'11 £y14rt,r, 44,4 Enjoy the sun in a styled -to - slim playsuit — wrap on the skirt when a "dress look" is re- quired! Smoothly zips up back, boy shorts give you a trim thigh - line. Printed Pattern. 4883: Hale Sizes 141/2, 167/2, 181, 20%, 221/2, 241/2. Size 161/2 playsuit takes 21/2 yards 35 -inch; skirt 2% yards. Send FORTY CENTS (stamps cannot be accepted, use postall note for safety) for this pattern. Please print plainly SIZE+ NAME, ADDRESS, STYLE NUMBER. Send order to ANNE ADAMS, Box 1, 123 Eighteenth St., New Toronto, Ont. ANNOUNCING the biggest fashion show of Spring -Summer, 1961 — pages, pages, pages os patterns in our new Color Cata- log — just out! Hurry, send 35# now! THE CRUCIFIXION — "The most beautiful and moving sequence to reach the screen" that's a Hollywood word.mangler's description of the crucifixion scene in the new film, "Barabbas, Filming it against a tato! eclipse of the sun was the idea of producer Dino De Lavi': ntils, who. gambled $16,000 that such a phenomenon could be photographed.