Evening star., 1955-11-27
The Remedy

uatlon IN -cOllege-graQuate
engineering fields will take both
money and effort. mostly the latter.
First, Of course, there must be
permeating public awareness. That
is the problem to which Admirals
Strauss and Rickover were adj
dressing themselves last week.
If the public is awakened, experts
believe the best place to direct the
effort is at the primary and secon-
Diary schools. Basic education needs
improvement. Students aren't get
ting enough mathematics and
science. There are two reasons:
First, competent teachers who
might attract students to math and
science have been driven out of the
field by low salary schedules.
Second. devotees of the easy life
have er-emphaSized the attrac-
tiveneSs of leisure and comforts
while under-em emphasizing the price
we must pay to have and keep them.
Taxpayers ought to accept, better
yet promote. increases in salaries
of good secondary school teachers
most of the experts agree.
More students ought to be at
tracted to the so-called technical
institutes. which usually offer two
year courses above high school level.
Better Courses Needed
Educators also hope that more
ambitious currieulums can be pro-
vided in high schools, technical in
stitutes and vocational schools.
Two kinds of help are needed in
vocational schools. which operate
both above and below the high
school graduate level. First, they
could use more Federal aid, to in
crease the number of schools now
operating. M. B. Mobley, of the
American Vocational Association,
reports that only half of the persons
needing vocational training are now
getting it. He points out that this
country spent $79 million on bring
ing foreign students to this country
in 1858, but only $25 million on Fed
eral aid to all the vocational schools
in the Nation the same year.
More important. the quality Of
vocational training needs improve
ment. One-third of the graduates
do not have sufficient skills to take
Jobs in industry or gain acceptance
into unions unless they get some
on-the-job training first. More and
better teachers. drawn from
broader base of high-school and
: college graduates with mathematics
and science experience. could help.
So could sitter curriculums and
longer courses.
Industries which foreSee vast
needs, not only to meet defense con-
tracts. but also to fill orders from
the swiftly increasing population
and expanding technology. are now
starting to conduct their own on
the-job courses. This can help the
situation, but hardly will solve it
unless undertaken on a much wider
scale.
Five Objeetives
The National Manpower Council.
a Ford Foundation financed group,
lists five long-range objectives in
the skilled manpower field:
/. ITO strengthen the contribu-
tions made by secondary education
to the acquisition of SKILL" i.e.,
sharpen up vocational courses in
high school.
2. ITO develop a more effective
program for vocational guidance"
in the high schools.
3. ITO provide more equal oppor-
tunities for all individuals to ac-
quire Skill" that is, to use Negro
talents to the fullest extent.
4. ITO improve the facilities and
methods used to train skilled and
technical manpower."
5. ITO increase knowledge about
our manpower resources"-develop
better statistics.
DR.. Henry H. Armsby of the
United States Offlce Of Education
put the problem well last week:
Whether we like it or not, we
are in race for chronological SUI
premacy with the Communists. We
have been too complacent in our
assumption that we are far ahead
OF them. We have not given suf-
ficient recognition to their resources
Of raw materials, to their vastly
greater population, to their willing
ness to sacrifice everything else to
advance their ambitions for world
domination. The key persons
in any efforts to increase the supply
of engineers. scientists and tech
nicians are the high school teachers
of science and mathematics. es-
pecially the inspiring teachers who
bring out latent talents in their
students, and who help each stu
dent discover his aptitudes and
abilities and encourage him to make
the most of them through contin-
iIad ariiicotin,a -