Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1944-03-21
NEWS
BEHIND
The News
BY Paul
MalIon

W If any one tries 10 tell you
the American schools have not
broken down in both scholar
ships and discipline, cite to
them these following facts;
The navy found incoming
freshmen at the leading uni
versitieS so far below its edu-
cational standards that il had
to institute the V program. In
a test TO 4,200 freshmen at q
leading universities, 6S per cent
were unable to pass the arith-
mctic test and 60 per cent
failed the whole test. Among
the same candidates for naval
reserve officers training, only
10 per cent had taken elemen-
try uiEUruIFuy III nigh
schools, only % per cent had
more than a year and a half of
math.
PUT, in order TO enroll the
~ number of men needed by
the navy, Adm, Nimitz wrote to
Prof. Bredvold of the Uni
Versity of Michigan on New. q q,
194l, that it was found neces-
sary, at one of the training sta
tons, 10 lower the standards in
30 per cent of the admissions"
Net half the graduates of
the elementary schools in Ten
nessee today can read and
write well. The condition is ex-
posed in an article in the Ten
nessee Teacher by School Supt.
II. 1. Callahan, who says:
"The testimony of high school
principals and teachers bears
witness TO the fact that more
than half the children finishing
the eighth grade i'm Tennessee
schools are unable to read
with ease, comprehension, and
pleasure; that they are very
poor in the elementary me-
chanics of written English in
Nolving the simpler phases of
capitalization, punctuation and
paragraphing :"
IT Is impossible to teach the
L products of lax elementary
schools a foreign language in
college, as DR.. 7. BraXton
Woody of the University of
Virginia school of romance
languages, says:
AS the sorry products of
progressive education filter into
our ClassrOOms, the problem of
what to do with them becomes
more and more acute. II is
really unreasonable 10 expect
them to learn foreign language
since our modern educators
have failed lamcntably in their
efforts to sugar-coat the pill
(of learnlng) =. ="
If the parent will SIT down
with his high school child one
night he Will find the average
CanRet- figure ARCADIA
floor if the sides are given in
feet and inches; cannot name
three countries in every CONT
nent; would not know the
capitals of six states. or five
rivers IN the United States or
any country. "a Philadelphia
teacher, Aame withhold
TEACHERS are required 10
L pass pupils even if they do
not. do the work and this has
created a generation of lazy,
spinelesS boys. "a teacherO'
II know fine city super
intendent who was ousted be-
cause he stood for the old
fashioned type of schooling and
another more open minded
was selected to make schooling
easier" Council Bluffs, Ia,
school superintendent
The situation is due 10 "the
educational trust, or racket. for
this is what the public school
administrators. together with
teachers college. add up TO. ."
testifies DR.. L. II. Rittenhouse,
Haverford College.
"The leading educators are
Interested I'm enrOllments, sur
veys, teachers credits, new
tangled subjects and textbooks,
publishers, palaces Of education
TO the neglect of sound
disciplinary and moral train
ing"
"Restrictions are necessary.
There is no easy road 10 edu-
cation" President kins,
Georgia Military College.
DROGRESSlVE schools do
L not produce young men
valuable TO the army, since
-tAeiF- lack of discipline at an
cHT1I0T tIne produced a frame
Of mind that called them 10
look with resentment upon mill
itary discipline (Junior College
of ConncCticuO.
But The best summing up is
by department head Of one
Of the largest junior colleges in
California, who discovered: