Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-03-24

curricula, the overlong pro-
longation of elementary school,
ing, and the denial to teachers
of professional status"
While today's student. said
the admiral, is helped to be-
come a pleasant, nicely man
nered young person. able to get
along with whatever group he
joins" he picks up neither in
tellectual training nor factual
knowledge. In these areas he
would find the tools to make
well-reaSoned decisions in pri-
vate life or act like a response
BILE citizen, Admiral Rickover
said.
School Aim Outlined
"I suggest" said Admiral
Rickover, I'VE turn back to the
home what is properly the
function Of the home and per-
NIT the public schools to con-
centrate on what is properly
their function-the education
of young minds
Examining the stiff require
ments of secondary education
in Europe, Admiral Rickover
pointed out that poverty of
land and natural resources has
been offset by better develop
Inlent of human resources"
"Ours." he said, has been
the classical example of a high
standard of living based pri-
marily on favorable ratio of
people to land. but in the last
$50 years we have wasted much
of our natural wealth and
multiplied our population more
than 40 times.
AS we approach Euro
pean conditions, we may find
that we shall have to make a
choice: educate our children
better or downgrade our stand
ard of living"
This can't be done, he said,
with 180-day school years,
driver training courses and
print shop in high school.
Reorganization Urged
To maintain scientific and
chronological leadership, Ad-
miral Rlckover said we must
reorganize our public schools
so that they may give us the
kind of people needed today
where few problems can be
solved by common sense and
hard physical work alone, but
where the need above all is
for well-equipped minds, 'ad-
justed' to this scientific era in
mans history"
DR.. TIVE, director Of the De-
partment of Terrestrial Mag
netism, Carnegie Institution,
went after the teacher problem.
THE standards of teaching"
he said, land the levels of
student achievement in algebra,
geometry. trigonometry, chem
lstry. biology and physics have
been dropping because we
have been losing our best
teachers"
Teachers. he. said, should
be accorded higher salaries and
greater prestige, adding they
now rate the same esteem as
grocery clerks or filling station
attendants.
Requirements Hit
He urged the teaching pro-
fession to be pried open to more
college graduates. He sug-
gested:
I'VE can go after our local
school boards and our own
State legislatures to change
the laws which now restrict
teacher certification to the
products Of the courses in ed
ucation. We can insist on
changes which give a graduate
with a sound college training
in a special field. whether his
tory, or French, or mathe-
mates, or chemistry, or physics,
at least the same certification
to teach as we now give these
students who have taken 80
or 40 semester hours in educa-
tional psychology and teaching
methods plus a minimum num-
Der Of beginners courses in one
or even two special areas"
Continuing, DR.. Tuve said,
I'VE should change the legal
regulations so that the best
qualified college majors are
allowed to teach. and then
send our scouts to some Of the
colleges with invitations for