Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-02-18
Unfit School Books

UnfIt School BOOKS
Washington newspapers recently car
ried articles which stated that the
Montgomery County School Board had
voted to set up collection of all text
books used in the county schools. In
one article it was stated that Montgom-
cry County officials would copy Airing
ton County's textbook library. 1t was
indicated that Arlington school officials
had advised Maryland officials that all
textbooks used in Arlington schools are
on display at the school headquarters
library and that they had been there
for several years. This is not true.
Maryland officials are advised that they
can copy the Arlington pattern or they
can display all textbooks, but they can't
do both. Arlington children receive
assignments from many books that are
not to be found in the administrative
office library.
In the so-called GORE" classes of the
Arlington junior high schools, there is
no book of which each child has copy.
Each classroom has few copies of
many different books. The pupil reads
first from this book, then from that.
He follows no order in his reading. He
reads any book. or any part of book,
or no book at all. at any time he pleases.
Thus, all the books used by the core"
classes are really reference books.
Among the books used by the "core"
classes are several which have been
under severe criticism because of their
left-Wing content or authorship. Ar
lington's "core" classes have also been
severely criticized because they have no
orderly presentation of the subject mat
ter, as would be the case if textbook
were followed. Arlington school officials
were thus faced with the double prob
lem Of trying to convince the parents
that textbooks were used, while at the
same time hiding the unfit books from
the parents. So. they very cleverly hit
upon a device. They designated some
of the books Chose which are not OBJ
jectionable) as textbooks" and put
them on display in the administrative
Office library. Other books Gncluding
Of course, those the parents would OBJ
iect to- they classify as books for the
individual" and keep them out of the
parents sight.
For Arlington parents and Montgom-
cry County school officials who may
wish to verify the above, 1 suggest the
following. Go to the school administra-
tive Office and ask to see three docu-
ments called Tentative Resource Units.
General Education" for grades 7, 8 and
9. respectively. These pamphlets list
the books used by pupils in the core"
classes. Then go into the library and
see for yourself if all the hundreds of
titles listed are actually on the shelves,
For those who may wish to see for
themselves why this deception is prac-
ticed, l suggest the following: Please
note that page 20 of the ninth-grade
pamphlet lists Man at Work" by
Harold Rugg and Building Citizen
ship by Cray o. Hughes, and that
page Of the eighth-grade pamphlet
lists Nation Of Nations" by Louis
Adamic. Then ask the Government
Printing Office for copy of the House
Committee Report Goth Congress, Sec
ond session.. Report Of Investigation
of the Textbook, Building Citizenship
The following quotation from that re-
port is worth noting:
THE book. Building Citizenship.
needs revlSionS. ut seems to- place
favorable emphasis on Russia-and
then places our own American institu-
tons in an unfavorable position.
Such teaching is contrary to the con-
cept of good Americanism. Books
written by Louis Adamic, Harold Ruog
and Louise Kruger and others cited
by the Committee on Un-American Ac-
tlVltles have no place in the school
system. 49,. James r.. Miles, ST..