Evening star., 1941-02-03
Report Sees Need
To Prepare Students
For War Emergencies
Standard 12-Yeur School
Term in All Maryland
Counties Advised
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
ANNAPOLIS, Md, Feb. 3-An
enriched" educational program TO
impress on school children the
blessings of American democracy
and perpare them for wartime and
postwar emergencies was viewed
today as the chief need of Mary
lands educational system.
That was the view taken by Gov.
O'Conor's School Survey Commits
sion after a years study Of the
States educational system.
The commissions report to the
Governor, made public yesterday,
recommended that 12-year school
term be made standard in all coun-
ties and that the State Department
of Education undertake long
range study program involving
radical changes. ...-
while the combined and intelli-
gent thinking of the country, spurred
on by the extremity of the present
emergency, may pull us through the
first aspect of our defense program" !"
the report said, only the most care
fully planned and courageously
executed educational program will
ever save our youth and the country
from the possibilities of the most
destructive depression after the war
is over we have ever known.
Big Change Seen Needed.
The plain, unvarnished truth is
that the present system of educa-
ton. as good as it has been in the
past, cannot meet these new obliga-
tions without considerable change" 3"
The l2-year term, the report said,
which is general practice" in this
country. is needed for proper en-
richment of educational offerings"
and will make educational oppor-
tunities more nearly equal"
A technical staff of teaching ex-
perts, headed by Dr. Herbert Bruner
of Columbia University. made the
survey of public elementary and
high schools and teachers colleges.
Henry M. Warfield was chairman
of the commission.
The commission recommended
several supervisory and adminis-
trative changes to conform to the
proposed enrichment" program,
suggested that the present policy of
consolidation be continued, urged
serious consideration of the ques-
tiay, of noIoraJ 200 nbare, eo oIor;oc o,l
that the average number of pupils
per teacher in elementary schools
''be reduced toward 35 as rapidly as
is feasible"
Leadership in One Field.
In special section covering
teachers colleges, DR.. William c..
Bagley, Columbia Teachers College
professor, said that Maryland holds
"undisputed leadership among the
States in the education of elemen-
tary school teachers
He recommended, however, that
the State try to reduce the cost
of attending the colleges, that fac
ulty salaries be increased, that funds
that immediate expenditures be
made to bring the libraries at Frost
burg, Bowie and Salisbury much
closer to reasonable standards"
The report also suggested fire
proof vaults for student records
sabbatical leave for faculty men,
bers and the financing of whatever
developments are needed to make
the work of the junior college divi-
sions at Frostburg and Salisbury
maXimally effective"
AS to Maryland's State aid for
educational institutions, which the
commission described as 'one of the
most advanced" policies in the Ma
ton. the report urged that "it not
be disturbed in principle but that
re-examination of the whole
State-aid question be made" Incl
dent to effecting the 12-year plan.