PAGE SIX EDITORIAL
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
SUNDAY, MARCH 3, 1940.
The Kansan Comments-- EDITORIALS LETTERS PATTER
They Don't Sleep in Class Now
Hill students who are seared to death of grades, and have trouble in getting their daily assignments, should enroll in a small town high school, North Bend, in the Cascade Mountains, up in Washington state.
Demonstrated there is a solution for the present grading system, which educators admit is in somewhat of a state of turmoil, and which students agree causes them no end of worry and mental anguish.
No need for apple polishing, no gnashing of teeth over the results of straight-line and curve grading methods are in this high school. Instead, students work on their own initiative, do as they please. Results are almost astonishing but strictly in accord with modern progressive educational thought.
In this mountain school, students are left to their own devices two days of the week, Monday and Wednesday, when no class bells ring. For the teachers there are trying to meet the capacities of each boy and girl as an individual.
Thursday is "Class Achievement Day,"when boys and girls bring in the results of work done.
These children can spend two hours or fifteen minutes on their algebra—whichever it takes them to get it. They can talk things over with a teacher and get her advice or help on a weak spot. Under the old Mount Oread system, classes were kept together chapter by chapter in the textbook, but in North Bend, each pupil sets his own pace.
No examinations are given. Instead, pupils write theses on this one big question, "How am I doing?" They tell what they have learned during the semester, giving one or two specific illustrations, explaining how this knowledge fits into their living.
Colleges were hesitant about admitting North Bend graduates a few years ago in the absence of no scholastic records, so Superintendent Lynn C. Wright wrote a note something like this. "Grades are not given at this school. John Jones would have had grades around 95. He has earned an equivalent of 38 credits." North Bend high school is on the accredited list today and it is reported that the graduates do good work in college.
A vermont woman, at 73, is learning to ski. Agents who have been trying to recruit volunteers for Finland at Friends University, Wichita, please note.
Theirs is a system of "reaching" children, not "teaching" them. It seems better to have them turn in quantities of work that they produce on their own initiative and that they have actually taken an interest in preparing, rather than for students to sit half asleep in classes, abhore students to sit half asleep in classes, abhor ex-reading assignment done by a certain date.
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If students had this sort of high school education, and would keep right on with it in college, there would be more genuine learning and a greater appreciation of education. The entire educational system of the country would be geared toward development of individual initiative, and students, with more interest in work that interests them, would place less stress on less important swing and jellying.
Diplomatic circles in Europe are probably watching the comic strips with more than usual interest, now that Superman has started on a trans-Atlantic swim. Will he help Finland?
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UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS OFFICIAL BULLETIN
37 Sunday, March 3, 1940 No.103
ATTENTION: All cases to appear before the Student Court should first be appealed to the Clerk of the Court, Bob McKay, telephone 2903—Gene Buchanan, chief justice.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE ORGANIZATION; The regular weekly meeting, open to students, graduates and faculty members, will be held Tuesday afternoon at 4:30 in Room C Myers Hall. - Jack Dalby, secretary.
EL ATENEO: There will be a meeting Tuesday at 3:30 in the Music room, on the third floor of the Union Building. A special musical program has been planned. —Louise Bush, president.
FIRESIDE FORUM: Fireside Forum will meet at the home of Chancellor Malott at 7:00 o'clock this evening. For those who find it more convenient, transportation will be provided from the church.-Lorraine Polson, publicity chairman.
KAPPA PHI: There will be a pledging service at 4:00 o'clock this afternoon at 1209 Tennessee. All members are asked to be present.—Mary Rohe, publicity chairman.
MUSIC ROOM: The Music Room will be open this afternoon from 2:00 to 5:00—Earnle Klema, chairman.
LUTHERAN STUDENTS: Attend L.S.A. today. Mr. and Mrs. John Urich and their seeing eye dog, Dutche, will be our guests. Hosts—Carl Johnson and Otto Lutness—Mary Janes, president.
PHI CHI DELTA: Phi Chi Delta will have a regular meeting Tuesday evening at 5:30 at Westminster hall. The program will be mission plays directed by Dee Ellen Naylor—Esther Tippin, Emily Jane Yount, program manager
WESTMINSTER STUDENT FOUNDATION: This afternoon from 4:00 to 5:30. Westminster Student Foundation will have a tea and open house at Westminster hall, sponsored by Phi Chi Delta. Parents and friends are invited.-Ruth Yeomans, president of Phi Chi Delta.
WESTMINSTER STUDENT FORUM: The regular meeting will be held at 7:30 this evening at Westminster Hall. Col. Karl F. Baldwin will speak on the subject, "America with and without a Defense Policy". Esther Tippin will lead the worship service; Joyce Viesselman will sing. Everyone is invited to attend—Charles Yeomans, president.
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
YOUNG DEMOCRAT CLUB: The Democrat men and women of the University will meet in the Men's Lounge of the Union Building at 8:30 tomorrow evening. Men and women chairmen will be appointed for the membership committees. Douglas Miller will report on the Washington's Day Celebration at Topeka. All Democrats are urged to attend.—Jerry Riseley, vice-president.
Official Student Paper of THE UNIVERSITY OF KANASAS Lawrence, Kansas
Publisher ___ Walt Meininger
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ROCK CHALK TALK
By HARRY HILL
University students who attend matinee showings of "Gone With the Wind" will have the advantage over ordinary people. They practice standing in line twice a year and most of them are adept at working up.
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the equitation class should be in the best physical condition for the three hour and forty-five minute movie.
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Anticipating that many in the "Gone With the Wind" crowds will bring lunches, the theater management is considering placing a garbage receptacle at each exit in which patrons will be requested to deposit peanut shells, paper sacks, banana peels and bread crusts.
One Mt. Oread man is organizing a club which will wait until 1941.
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Upon leaving India, Chancellor Emeritus Lindley commented;
"After 19 days, I leave India with a sort of mental vertigo insofar as the subcontinent in concerned. It is so vast and varied and its problems so intricate that a pessimist would have some ground for declaring the problems insoluble. But forces are at work which give a basis for optimism."
In short, things are in a mess.
Cecil (as in vessel) King, our favorite sports writer, says "The
Boy Scouts did their good turns at the Missouri basketball game Friday night. Every time Ralphie Miller shot at the basket he landed in the fourth row. But the B.S.A. always caught him on the first bounce and dribbed him back onto the playing court."
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Dear Sir: I would suggest the following new name for the Jayhawker magazine: "The Summerfield Quarterly."—F.Y.
"Expect More Rain" was the headline in last night's paper, yet before most subscribers got their copy snow was falling. And the weatherman's theme song, suggests E.G., should be "Where Else But Here."
Both candidates for mayor of Kansas City are K.U. graduates Both are lawyers. Both are democrats. It is a shame both can't be elected.
(From the Daily Tar Hell, University of North Carolina.)
★
If any "selected short subjects" are shown with "Gone With the Wind," it is hoped emphasis will be placed on the first two words.
'Keep U.S. Out of War Say American Collegians
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Student thought on the college campus, like public opinion elsewhere over the nation, is now turning towards the November elections and the issues that are likely to be involved. The collegians of the country agree with the American voter that the most important problem of the day is how to keep the United States out of war. Unemployment comes next.
To his psychology class, assistant instructor Leo Hellmer commented: "Spring is the time when a young man's fancy lightly turns to what the girl has been thinking about all winter."
Interviewers for the Student Opinion surveys, of which the DAILY TAR HEEL is a member, asked students over the nation "What do you believe is the most important problem facing the United States today?" From every section, New England to the deep South, Middle Atlantic to the Far West, the answer of the greatest number was the same: how to stay out of war. Many other problems were mentioned, as follows:
1. Keeping the U.S. out of war
... 43%
2. Solving unemployment ... 17%
3. Balancing the budget ... 7%
4. Solving labor problems ... 3%
5. Recovery of business ... 3%
6. Threats to Democracy ... 2%
8. Solving youth problems ... 1%
9. The 1940 elections ... 1%
10. Relief ... 1%
11. Other ... 91%
In this instance, as has been the case in many surveys, college people show practically the same sentiment that other studies of the general electorate have pointed out. The question of war and finding employment for the jobless are paramount in the minds of most Americans, young and old. Business recovery, however, seems to be more important to the average voter, who placed that third in the latest sampling of opinion, while the collegians gave third place to the budget.
It is significant that the college student has consistently demonstrated parallel feelings regarding Europe's troubles, for the surveys, using a scientific cross section that represents the total U. S. enrollment, has found:
1. In October most students said we should not send troops to help the allies, even if they were in danger of losing to Germany.
2. At the same time, 58 per cent opposed change of the neutrality law, mainly because they believed to do so might involve us.
3. In December 68 per cent believed we could stay out of the war.