Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-09-12
Capital Sidelights

Just now when the youth of the
land is turning footsteps toward
schools and colleges and universities.
Representative Brooks Fletcher OF
Ohio, who says that editing ana
publishing newspapers has been my
business, my life vocation, ana pom
tics my avocation. yet education ana
working with young people mas DeeH
my life hobby apropos or me
tragedy of misunderstood youth
contributes some timely thoughts
regarding educational reform.
Even to the layman, the need Tor
a revolution in the field of education
is startlingly apparent" MIR. Fletcher
says.
ITO illustrates: the present ira
ditional method of examinations as
a means for ascertaining a student
qualifications for advancement is
shameful waste of the teachers time,
an unreliable test of student
ability and reliability. and to many
boys and girls so emotionally dis
turbing and terrifying as to be dan
gerous to their personalities. and'
therefore. must be moderniZed py
scientific technique.
This thing of putting boys and
girls at the mercy of teachers VINO
have never done anything In all their
lives but go to school themselves,
whose education has been obtained
exclusively from books and the arti-
fetal atmosphere Of the schoolroom
and who, because of not having real
practical contact with life, know next
to nothing of reality, is an educational
crime. and is one reason why SO
many dazed thousands of youngsters
come out of school to meet the
challenge of everyday experience
book educated beyond their intel1-
gence, or with an unmarketable edu-
cation of no use to them In the
business of living.
1.-THE disposition of the workers in
the laboratory of the educator
scientist to be intimately identified
with and willing to learn from the
laboratory of reality and practical
everyday life Is one hope of those
who wish to eliminate the possibili-
ties of tragedy for misunderstood
youth.
1.-THE legislators of all the nations
of the world must somehow be made
to understand that not the battle
ship, but the schoolhouse, is eventu-
ally to become our greatest means
of national defense.
their students to develop interna-
tional mindedness are doing more
toward stopping the hell on earth we
call war than all the battleship build
ers on the globe.
"If H. G.. Wells knows what he is
talking about when he says that
civilization Is a race between educa-
ton and catastrophe, then the edu-
Gators responsibility is equaled only
by his opportunity.
Our first obligation in training
the youth of today, who are to be
the citizens of tomorrow, is to get
into youths skin, and through his
young eyes look out upon the con-
fused and jumbled world, that we
may see life as youth sees life.
80, after all is said and done, to
succeed IN this business of lending a
helping hand to modern youth, we
must ourselves become as little chill
dren, in order to enter the realm OF
childhood's understanding, and thus
fulfill the obligation this generation
owes to the coming generation"
+ r X
The defeat in the primaries OF
Representative William D. Upshaw
of Georgia means the retirement OF
acters and fluent speakers in the
House. To quote one limpid para
graph that drips insinuatingly from
the tongue of this poetic apostle
of prohibition and evangelist, when
asking Congress to appropriate a
million dollars to build near Atlanta
national home for disabled, aged
and infirm soldiers and sailors OF
all wars:
Like the blended voice of silver
bells and golden harps falling on
our ears from the battlements of the
skies, is the argument that Henry
w. Grady lived and died in Atlanta
and left the priceless heritage of his
sacred influence for reunited
country vibrant in Atlanta's atmos-
phere, and falling in our hearts from
the FURNISHED ceiling of the sky
like down from some high angels
wing"
The Reserve officers Training Corps
is really a New England institution
Representative Ernest w. Gibson Of
Vermont, who has taken such ar
active part in all legislation for the
improvement of the National Capital
points out. He gives credit to his
own alma mater, Norwich University
from which he received the degrees
of 3. S. and A. M, and. last June
Ii. D., saying that the Reserve Off
GERS Training Corps first made its
stand there more than a century ago
Mr.. Gibson has a distinguished
military record. He served during the
Mexican border troubles and two
years during the World War. He
won his way to promotion as colone
of the 1920 Infantry He points out
that, In the face Of a nationwide
pacif1st drive to abolish them, Reserve
Officers Training Corps units in Ameri'
can institutions and colleges this year
produced about 5000 men in gradu-
ating classes who received commits
sions as Reserve officers in the Army
This is a new record, exceeding by
1000 the total for any previous year
There are now about 220 educa-
tional institutions with Reserve Offi-
GERS Training Corps units, and II
they can continue to produce around
5000 Reserve officers a year. War De-
partment officials are confident thai
the most important peace-time mill
tary problem, that of training off,
GERS for a national army in case OF
another emergency, will have been
successfully solved. The World Wal
proved that the United States. with
a little Regular Army in peace time
must depend upon civilians for q
large proportion of officers in q
national army hastily assembled tc
defend the Nation in another war.
The Reserve officers Training Corps
units now appear to meet adequately
this possible future need. and the
testimony Of Regular officers Is thai
these Reserve officers thus being pro
duced annually are more efficient
than the graduates of the wartime
officers training schools. Some con-
slider the Reserve Officers Training
Corps the greatest step for prepared
ness and peace the United States has
ever taken and also permanent
memorial to the late John w. Weeks
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