Jackson advocate. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1939-current, 1957-02-16
Natl Scholarship
Service Blueprint
For Talent
Searching

New York, n. Y. Feb. II -
Much has been said and written
in recent years about Americas
wealth of undiscovered student tai
ent, its hidden and under trained
manpower. Little has been done
to find and develop it. Now, for
the first time, a working plan has
been outlined in Blueprint for Tai
ent Searching = Americas Hidden
Manpower, written by Richard L.
Plaut, Executive vice. Chairman of
the National Scholarship Service
and Fund for Negro Students, to
be published February II, 1857.
The publication and distribution of
the book to leaders in education,
government, industry and labor
have been made possible by a
grant from the Fund for the Adj
vancement of Education of the
Ford Foundation.
BLUEPRINT offers seven
point program which will enable
local communities themselves to
spot and encourage those talented
children, among the millions of de-
prived youngsters, who constitute
"our most valuable human re-
source"
The program, unlike talent
searching through nationally COM
retitive scholarship awards, is "d4-
signed to be used by the community
as a whole, in discovering talented
youth who do not now aspire to
college - because of low motiva-
ton and deprived home back
grounds rather than to aid
students of proven scholastic abil-
ity," Mr.. Plaut explains. 1t is
based on the findings of the South
ern Project of the National Schol-
arship Service "a two-year expert
mental project (1933-55) also made
possible by the Fund for the Adj
vancement of Education), during
which time more Negro students
from segregated high schools were
placed in non-segregated colleges
than had made this move in any
other ten year period.
Negroes, Mr.. Plaut emphasizes,
are not by any means the only
source for tnlont searching. Puer-
to Ricans, Mexican Americans,
American Indians, and children of
migratory workers, as we'll as de-
prived non-minority groups, are
additionally undereducated. These
groups have been virtually untap-
ped, despite the acute needs for
many more engineers, doctors, So
cial workers, chemists, physicists.
teachers and scientific farmers.
The task of finding and develop
ing this potential talent, Mr.. Plaut
points out, requires Identification
in the early school years, followed
by intensive guidance, enriched
school curricula, and cultural
stimulation, as we'll as the finan-
cial aid needed for the student to
go on to college.
The first community project of
'.he kind described in Blueprint for
Talent Searching is already under
way in New York City's Junior
High School No. 43. Initiated by
| the Sub-Commission on Guidance
md Educational Stimulation of the
New York Board of Education's
Commission on Indignation, the ex-
detrimental project is co-sponsored
y the Board, the Commission,
he College Entrance Examination
Board, and the National Scholar
ship Service and Fund for Negro
Students.
A variety of methods is being
used to identify potentially able
eventh, eighth, and ninth grade
students in a mixed ethnic and
economic student body. They
re getting extra guidance, remed-
al work, and added courses, when
] the need is indicated. Parents are