V. Anderson
1609 N. Broad St.
Phila. 22, Pa.

Mr. Langston Hughes
634 St. Nicholas Avenue
New York 30, New York

## Opinion Please!

Schools in Action continues to tap the experience of nationally known educators for its Educators Forum. In this issue, Harold Alberty, Ohio State University's professor of education, reacts to the following query:

**What are the basic factors to consider in secondary school curriculum planning?**

"Curriculum planning should be a cooperative project involving teachers, administrators, students and the community.

"Curriculum planning should be based upon research in the fields of human growth and development, the nature of learning and the values and ideals of our democratic culture.

"Curriculum planning should be oriented in terms of the needs, problems and interests of the youth of the community.

"Provisions should be made for curriculum planning *within* the school day with adequate facilities.

"Curriculum programs developed by teachers should be carried out (rather than filed).

"The most pressing problem in curriculum planning in 1953 involves the development of a more dynamic program of general education."

## A Word from F. J. M.

*(concluded from page 1)*

and Art?)

The General Science Handbook, Part 3, featuring an unusual number of concrete experiments and demonstrations aimed at a wide variety of pupil interests and abilities, will be ready for you next year.

A fourth year English handbook, new physics and chemistry syllabuses and handbooks and other publications are now in press or on the way.

It is pleasant for all of us in the Education Department to be able to bring you this rich feast of publications. It is doubly pleasant to congratulate the Bureau of Curriculum Development whose staff is working so ably to serve you and through you, the children of New York State.

FREDERICK J. MOFFITT

Acting Associate Commissioner

## In-Service Training

"All staff members are invited to attend the organization meeting of this year's workshop series. Teachers' recommendations for study areas have been tabulated and are attached for your information.

Marie Haggerty
Workshop Leader

This invitation sounded the call to the current in-service workshop series at Rye Neck's Frederick Bellows High School.

Description of the series pinpointed below is based on a scribed interview with Principal William McAloon and presented for teachers and administrators who are seeking tips on organizing in-service training programs.

**Participants:** Teachers, administrators and lay representatives. All three groups are represented on the central steering committee.

**When and Where:** Each group settles on the number of its own meetings. Committees hold forth after school or during evening hours in classrooms or in homes. General meetings are called at 2.15. School's out early!

**Problem Themes:** Participants organize self-styled areas in curriculum development, methods of teaching, evaluation and guidance and using community resources. Several groups work on ceramics, block printing, clay, wood and metal.

**Group Techniques:** Demonstrations, discussion, exchange of better practices and film forums enliven proceedings. Refreshments informalize sessions.

**Consultants:** Called in at group request from the State Education Department, nearby Columbia and New York Universities.

**Finance:** The Board of Education slates a $900 budget item for "professional improvement, workshop, etc."

## Deadline for March issue:

February 10. Send items to *Schools in Action*, Bureau of Secondary Curriculum Development, Room 329, State Education Department, Albany 1, New York.

## A Word on Curriculum

from GEORGE K. STONE
CHIEF, BUREAU OF SECONDARY
CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

Here are some statistics that disturb us: the total number of patients admitted to mental hospitals each year is almost exactly the same as

the number of students admitted to college. Also, the number of hospital beds occupied by mental

patients is significantly greater than the number occupied by patients suffering from all other types of physical ills.

In view of this situation, it would seem that our educational program ought to be concerned with the maintenance of mental health at least as much as it is concerned with the maintenance of physical health. Most schools have a long way to go before they achieve this goal.

## Doctor Gobbledygook Says:

"The implications of serendipity for the implementation of

cognizance are of vital significance in the evaluation of anthropomorphic characteristics."

## SCHOOLS IN ACTION

Issued in September, November, January, March and May by the Bureau of Curriculum Development Division of Secondary Education State Education Department Albany 1, New York

Harris.o H. Van Cott......Director, Division of Secondary Education

George K. Stone............Chief, Bureau of Curriculum Development

Ernest A. Frier..............Chief, Bureau of Instructional Supervision

Vivienne Anderson............Editor

University of the State of New York Press

Only Secondary

"On the level" is the keynote of LeRoy Central School's unusual method of English class grouping according to pupil needs rather than chronology. In this five-year experiment, ninth through twelfth graders intermingle in groups in a common quest for improved English.

The program's inception stemmed
from:

► Criticisms by teachers and community that "even seniors could not read, spell or write adequately."

► Insistence by numerous pupils that they "could not appreciate literature which they could not read."

► Statements from college students who felt well prepared in virtually all fields except English.

Each pupil is individually assigned
to his English course on the basis of
standardized test scores, judgment of
English teachers and guidance coun-
selors, intelligence scores, and achieve-
ment scores.

The redesigned curriculum offers:

► **English Communication:** practical

basic aid for pupils who show deficien-
cies in communications skills

► **English Development:** units em-
bracing literature, reading and writing

► **Enrichment Courses:** units designed to challenge the superior pupil in such fields as dramatics, journalism and public speaking

Constant evaluation involves:

► Periodic screening of all high school
pupils with comparable test forms

► Progressive use of individual diag-
nostic tests in English skills

► Reactions of pupils and objective analysis of results by a "watchdog committee" of teachers and administrators

Every minute counts at Indian
Lake Central School where student Bill
Burgess and classmates took three
years to design and construct an electric
scoreboard and clock unit for timing
and scoring basketball games.

Pride in the ingenious unit is shared
by co-sponsoring classes in mechanical
drawing and shop.

"Besides creating a practical work of art," says Supervising Principal Milton Pope, "pupils provided the school with a 'gimick' for $100 that would have taken $600 to buy!"

"Getting the goods" on science
is an everyday achievement for scien-
tific "private eyes" at White Plains
High School as they investigate the
chemistry of textiles.

Research involves:

► Study of the properties, sources, costs — and effects on daily living — of natural and synthetic fibers

► Visit to a textile factory to observe operation and “talk shop” with the workers

Future housewives and breadwinners
learn to apply to everyday consumer-
ship and health:

► The chemistry of foods, dyes, bleaching agents, drugs, metals, photography and building materials

► The significance of vitamins and hormones as well as a knowledge of major maladies, community health, first aid principles and methods

"The course in applied science,"
says Vice Principal Gerald Ivers,
"highlights chemistry and physiology
from the utility standpoint."

The practical scientists set up and
define their own problems, discuss
possible solutions, gather facts and
come to tentative conclusions. A con-
tinuing state of inquiry evolves as each
problem leads to a dozen others.

For Lay Committees

by ISABEL H. KIDENEY

CHAIRMAN, CITIZENS ADVISORY COUNCIL
ON READJUSTMENT OF HIGH SCHOOL
EDUCATION

The Regents Citizens Advisory Council on the Readjustment of High School Education has as its principal duty defining what the people of New York State expect their high schools to do toward meeting the needs of our youth.

Two steps in its
work thus far have
been the publication
of its credo called
Education — An
American Heritage,
and of a guidebook

titled Citizens Advisory Committees—
Avenues to Better Schools.

The council believes that through
the joint thinking and efforts of lay
citizens and professional educators,
some of the ways in which our high
schools can more fully serve all Ameri-
can youth are:

► Courses of study providing for individual differences in interests and abilities in addition to those common learnings that are indispensable to all citizens

► Improved guidance services

► Expanded work experience programs

► Activities open to all, providing for
group participation and experiences in
democratic living as well as for indi-
vidual self-expression

Datelines

The scientific approach will re-
ceive a boost when the **New York**
**State Science Teachers Association**
reviews problems and progress from
January 22d to 24th in New York
City . . . **The Citizens Advisory**
**Council on Readjustment of High**
**School Education** will continue to
consider ways of vitalizing edu-
cation for all youth at its February
3d meeting in New York City . . .
Citizenship education teachers will
confront **Issues in the Social Studies**
**Today** at the February 13th and 14th
meetings of the New York State
Council for the Social Studies at
Albany's Hotel Ten Eyck . . . the
Nation's school administrators will
attend professional meetings and
"extracurricular" auctions at the
**American Association of School Ad-**
**ministrators'** annual convention at
Atlantic City, February 14th to 19th.

## Try It Yourself!

On-the-job training in community business and industry is a regular part of the "school-and-work" style roster scheduled for 40 per cent of the seniors and 30 per cent of the juniors at Depew High School.

The program operates in three areas:

* Distributive occupations including sales, clerical and service attendant jobs

* Office occupations for seniors who have taken a business course and will seek full-time office jobs after graduation

* Trades and industrial occupations for juniors or seniors over 16 years. 600 hours a year are spent in com-

munity industries training for skilled or semiskilled fields of work

Employer's responsibilities include:

* Training pupils in a complete trade as part of the cooperative school-community effort to prepare youth for economic efficiency

School's obligations involve:

* Coordinating school-work program through liaison specialists in each area of the program

* Gearing the in-school program of studies to actual work experience

* Guiding pupils in realistic trade and occupational choices

"Programming difficulties are eased," says Superintendent William Phelan, "by scheduling classes in the morning and using afternoon sessions for pupil training in the community's business and industrial 'laboratories.'"

## Science Survey Test

The science survey test is still in a developmental stage. Extensive pretesting was conducted in May 1952 and experimental forms have been drawn up. Further tryouts are necessary and final standardization remains to be done.

Until schools are notified that

Muchas gracias to the 100 colleges and universities and a *bien merci* to the 171 Garden City High School graduates who reacted to survey questionnaires sent out by the school's modern language department.

The survey probed into:

* Professors' ratings of graduates and their results on college placement exams

* Number of matriculators who rate their modern language training as adequate and number who continued language study in college

* Suggestions for the most effective grade to start language study

Survey results showed grade 7 or below as a favorite foreign language starting point; relation of greater language skill to the longer four to six-year secondary school course; need for increased oral fluency and writing ability; continuation of language study by almost 79 per cent of the graduates.

Modern Language Chairman Esther Eaton feels that the survey points the way toward:

* Aiming course content toward greater oral and written fluency

* Planning for a modern language laboratory

* Extending language study below grade 7.

Pamphleteers at Lockport and Christopher Columbus High Schools are producing several series of attractive, easy-to-read folders for public relations and guidance purposes.

Lockport's **Fact Folders** reach the community via pupil progress record envelops four times a year. They report operation of the school's reading, art, vocational guidance, science and junior high school programs. Vitality springs from a generous use of close-up, action photos, color and the refreshing absence of "pedagogy" in the printed commentary.

Columbus guidance folders, **After Graduation What? and Goodbye and Good Luck**, focus pupil sights on job possibilities, specify free employment agencies, career counseling services and job training opportunities. Tips on grooming for career interviews advise pupils on personal appearance from chapeaux to fingernails.

these tests are ready for distribution, preliminary Regents examinations will continue in use. These preliminary examinations will now be based on the program presented in the General Science Handbooks, Parts 1 and 2.

Super salesmanship is developed in Instructor D. Van Benschoten's course in sales techniques at Interlaken Central School.

The selling process swings into action when every pupil:

* assumes a specific sales responsibility in a local business firm

* selects a definite product to sell and displays it for the class in an original setting

* creates and tests a "sales talk" and later applies friendly class criticisms of

selling points to the actual turnover of merchandise in the store

Pupils also tour large manufacturing plants annually for a comprehensive view of total operation of production lines, payroll and inventory methods.

You are invited to submit accounts and action photographs describing new and unusual curriculum practices in your school for publication in future issues of "Schools in Action."

## Regional Science Congresses

Plans for 1953 Science Congresses are under way in nine sections of New York State. Dates follow and directors listed below may be contacted for further information:

**Oneonta Science Congress, April 18th.**

Director: Forrest W. Miller, Hartwick College, Oneonta.

**Eastern Science Congress, April 25th.**

Directors: Mary Warren, Philip Schuyler High School, and John J. Coffey, Philip Livingston Junior High School, Albany.

**Long Island Science Congress, April 24th-25th.**
Director: James G. Zobian, Roslyn High School, Roslyn Heights.

**North Central Science Fair, April 25th.**
Director: Marie Elitharp, South Junior High School, Watertown.

**Central Science Congress, May 2d.**
Director: Charles G. Gardner, Grant Junior High School, Syracuse.

Herkimer Science Congress, May 2d.
Director: Elizabeth Lamphere, Herkimer High School, Herkimer.

Northern Science Fair, May 2d.
Director: Alice Williams, State Teachers College, Potsdam.

Southern Science Congress, May 2d.
Director: Ray Fisk, State Teachers College, Cortland.

Western Science Congress, May 2d.
Held in Buffalo. Director: Richard H. Lape, Amherst Central High School, Snyder.

Anderson
26 Niblock Court
Albany, N.Y.

Mr. Langston Hughes
20 East 127th St,
New York City, New York

August 6, 1964

Dear Vivienne Anderson:

How nice to hear from you again!
I remember once you wrote me about your
current position, but I didn't know where
you lived in Albany or, one time I was
there on a weekend, and thought of you
and would have given you a ring. We had
fun in Philly.

Regarding the PICTORIAL HISTORY
photos, as you see on the title page of
the book, Milton Meltzer was the photo
editor. He has a big file of pictures,
and knows the sources of a million others.
I suggest you get in touch with him, as
I don't have any such material:

Mr. Milton Meltzer,
263 West End Avenue,
New York 23, N. Y.

The Sol Hurok office might have (should)
photos of Marian Anderson, since that's
her management. Or RCA-Victor Records.
Or the AP files, which I used for my
FAMOUS NEGROES books---only a small fee to
reproduce news photos and celebrities---
or oneself, if you can't find an old
picture of you once in the news! I got
my 1925 bus boy picture from them---
taken when Vachel Lindsay "discovered"
me in the dining room of the Wardman Park
in Washington.

Sincerely,