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University Daily Kansan Thursday, March 14, 1957
Johnny Can't Talk, Either
For several years the American educational system has been under attack for failing to teach Johnny to read. Popular magazines are full of articles on "Why Johnny Can't Read," and cases of Junior high school students who are unable to read a paragraph without excessive stumbling are played up.
It is all very well to "view with alarm" the situation, but an even more serious one is behind it: Johnny often cannot speak good English.
The other day, for example, two juniors, both of whom presumably passed the required English courses, were overheard saying:
"John, you shoulda came up Saturday. Joe was here."
"Yea, I know. I seen him drivin' around in his new car."
Just where the blame for such speech lies is difficult to tell. Even if Johnny picks it up in his home environment, there must be something wrong with an educational system that fails to correct it.
Johnny gets liberal doses of grammar in the primary grades. By the time he reaches the secondary level, high schools presume he has had his fill. So Johnny, resplendent with double negatives and disagreement between subject and verb, has to interpret Shakespeare and Sandburg, Byron
and Poe the way teacher does. This in itself is wrong, for no literary work is subject to only one interpretation. In the meanwhile Johnny writes passable English, but makes the same mistakes in speech.
Then Johnny comes to college to face required hours of reading various works and writing interpretive themes.
"Johnny should know his grammar by the time he comes here," the colleges proclaim in defense of their program. But Johnny, in an ever-increasing number of cases, does not.
In his welcoming address at the opening of the school year, Chancellor Murphy emphasized pointedly the need for good English. If a student in any course presents a paper that is technically perfect, but contains English errors, that student should be severely marked down, he said.
But for some reason, Johnny is often able to turn in a grammatically perfect paper, and yet speak as if he had never been to school.
What can be done about the situation? Is it the college's responsibility to begin with fundamentals or does that belong to the high school?
A college degree used to be a mark of high distinction and education. But will it continue to have the same meaning if Johnny says, "I see him," while sporting a diploma in one hand?
Movie Review
—Felecia Anne Fenberg
'The Silent World' Is World's Great Fish Story
The world's greatest fish story, "The Silent World," proves Cole-ridge was definitely wrong when he wrote that "water, water everywhere" that a decided bore.
On the contrary, this French film, currently showing downtown, packs more grandeur, beauty, excitement and adventure into 90 minutes than anything Hollywood has ever cranked out. The greatest drama occurs, for the most part, between 10 and 225 feet underwater. Except for some precocious sharks, porpoises, whales and colorful tropic fish however, there are no actors in this true-adventure classic.
During the 14,000-mile cruise of the Calypso through four seas, Jacques Cousteau and his crew made over 5,000 dives to record what eclipses our other silent world, outer space. The battleground in man's eternal war with the sea has been revealed as a fairyland of sunken ships, splashing colors, turtle rides, and hair-raising close-ups of feeding sharks. Undersea scooters whisk the camera from coral reefs, to a porpoise ballet, to the bloody death throes of a whale. There are innumerable crowd scenes and millions of gaily-colored "extras."
The picture's brilliant editing gripping background music, and Technicolor won for it the coveted Cannes International Film Festival Award for the best non-fiction film of 1956. Cousteau, inventor of the Aqua-Lung, is ably assisted by a seemingly lunatic individual, Frederic Dumas, who thinks nothing of gliding hither and yon searching shipwrecks, taking pictures, feeding and tickling denizens of the deep and playing other assorted soggy fun-games.
This film is not documentary nor is it merely a water-logged novelty. It is at once realistic and fantastic. As a nature study, it is the most impressive milestone since Lord Marcus Goring took a birdwalk with Teddy Roosevelt. Gallon for gallon and bubble for bubble, Walt Disney's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" might just as well have been called "Sahara."
But perhaps the greatest virtue is the title: It is indeed a new world that has been opened to us; and as the sparse, narrative dialogue is balm for tired ears, we-dedicate ourselves to the lost art of the silent movie.
—Tom Sawyer
...Ad Booki ...
The director of "Thieves' Carnival" says the play points out "the emptiness of the cafe society in France." Perhaps a better title would be "The High Cost of Living."
Our good friend Elrod, one of the young bachelor stalwarts at this noble institution has some ideas for the preservation of bachelorhood which we feel are worth passing on.
Elrod suggests:
1. Don't date.
2. If you must date (to fill pledge requirements, etc.) feign stupidity, poverty, and spill coffee all over your date's nice new spring dress.
4. Walk, don't drive. The close confines of an auto tends to concentrate perfume, which in turn may render a weak-willed male incoherent. An unguarded word may lead to matrimony.
3. Join the NROTC. If the subject of marriage should unfortunately arise, you can nip it in the bud by saying, "The government forbids it."
5. Act as if you were a prisoner of war. In the true spirit of the Geneva Convention, give only your name, classification, and student number.
6. When attending the movies
"Two, please. Oh mercy, I don't seem to have any money. Oh, say there, Lucinda, I seem to have forgotten my wallet." This will result in (1) a very embarrassed date forking over the necessary cash, or (2) not attending the movies, but going to the date's house to watch television instead, which in turn leads to all sorts of possibilities.
with a date, be overbearing. A suggested ticket-buying routine may go something like this:
For example, changing channels in the middle of a program when all the date's girl friends are gathered around watching an exciting love story.
Or, if no one else is watching,
turning up the volume so that the
windows (and in some houses even
the walls) reverberate. This is
particularly effective during finals
week.
Ad booki.
Jerry Dawson
In recent years, Yemen has established diplomatic relations with the outside world and joined the Arab League and the United Nations, thus departing from a policy of seclusion.
25 Years Ago
March 14, 1932
Black marble is mined in northeastern Arkansas.
WASHINGTON — (UP) — Anti-prehensionists today lost their motion to bring the Beek-Lithicum resolution before the House, but mustered the unexpected strength of 187 votes in the first clear cut test on prohibition in 12 years.
SHANGHI — (UP) — Chinese and Japanese troops still faced each other ready for new hostilities northwest of Shanghai today with the League of Nations Manchurian Commission here expected to help arrange a truce neutral diplomats failed to arrange.
HOPEWELL, N. J. — (UP) — A person in the small group with access to the Lindbergh ransom note told the United Press today that the documents contained threats against the baby and likewise threats against the family should they communicate with the police or "tell a living soul."
ROCHESTER — (UP) — George Eastman, multimillionaire founder of the Eastman Kodak interests, shot himself today, explaining in a note he felt his work was done. The 77-year-old business man and inventor, who got the inspiration for his life's work when he paid $5 to a friend to learn how to operate a camera, shot himself at his home. A brief note explained "To my friends. My work is done. Why wait? G.E."
Ad: "Choosey" people like the way they taste. Chesterfields.
Daily Transan
University of Kansas student newspaper
1904, daily Jan. 16, 18, 12
trifweekly 1908, daily Jan. 16, 18, 12
Telephone VIiking 3-2700 Extension 251, news room
Extension 376, business office
Member Inland Daily Press Association
Associated Collegiate Press. Represented by
Mason College of Education, Madison Ave., New York, N. Y.
service: United Press. Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $4.50 a year. Published in Lawrence, Kan., every afternoon during the University year except Saturdays and Sundays. University hallance is based on as second-class matter Sept. 17, 1910, at
Lawrence, Kan., post office under act of March 3, 1879.
Kent Thomas ... Managing Editor
John Battin, Fleecia Ann Fenberg, Bob Lyle, Betty Jean Stanford, Assistant Managing Editors; Jim Banman, City Editor; Nancy Harmon, LeRoy Zimmerman; Shannon Shihozaki, Telegraph Editor; Mary Beth Noyes, Delbert Haley, Assistant Telegraph Editors; Dick Brown, Sports Editor; George Anthan, Assistant Sports Editor; Marlyn Mermis, Society Editor; Pat Swanson, Assistant Society Editor; John Eaton, Picture Editor
NEWS DEPARTMENT
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
Jerry Daws ... Editorial Editor
BUSINESS DEPARTMENT
Dale Dickens ... Business Manager
Dave Dickens, Advertising Manager; John Hedley, National Advertising Manager;
Harold Metz, Classified Advertising Manager; Cowboy Brown, Circulation Manager.
for the BALL of the year
you're invited to the
ANNUAL
ENGINEERING BANQUET & DANCE
Farewell Banquet for Dean Carr 6:30 p.m.
Dance Music by
Rick Smith & His Band
9-12 p.m.
Saturday, March 16
in the Student Union Ballroom
Banquet — $2 per person
Dance — $1.50 per couple