Here are some notes from a reporter who has interviewed Herbert Gilkeyson, newly appointed superintendent of the Fremont city school system. This is his first day on the job. Ga. He graduated from the University of Florida and earned a master's degree and doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University, New York. There are 20,000 children and more than 500 administrators and teachers in the system, and all of us must work together. I see my first job here as the education of our teaching staff and the re-establishment of public trust in the teacher, who is the carrier of the major values of the civilization.
Teachers seem to have forgotten their task over the past two decades.
It isn't to give custodial care, to supervise the activities of their students, but to direct them toward learning. We will be stressing the fundamentals here. I like what Gilbert Highet says in one of his books. Our teachers will have to try to instill in students the value of thinking, and the pleasure that can be derived from it. Nowadays, our teachers have surrendered to the simpler pleasures of a leisure society.