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University Daily Kansan
Thursday, Oct. 22, 1964
The Elementary Joke
Of the many groups at KU which must bear up to a great deal of criticism, ribbing and general sarcasm, perhaps the most put upon of them all is elementary education majors.
The connotation of the girl majoring in elementary education is a person who cannot find anything else at the University in which she can excel or even pass. The jokes about Children's Literature (Kitty Lit.) and Playground Activities are too numerous to mention.
THE SO-CALLED "pud" courses that the education major must undergo seem useless and inane. After all, "anybody" with common sense could be a teacher...
The girl who does intend to be a teacher is not at all as inane as most people would like to think. She must meet certain college requirements, such as the Western Civilization Examination, English proficiency examination, foreign language and many others before she begins the core courses in the School of Education.
But why, at KU, do students even bother to joke about the elementary education majors? What is the joke?
Perhaps the thought that college students are learning to teach what they already know is amusing? Perhaps, teaching the youngsters of today is funny?
THE FACT IS that anybody can be a teacher but few can be really effective teachers. It takes a particular type of person to have the patience and understanding to instruct children in the basic things they need to know in this technical age.
When it is noted that school children of today are far more advanced than we were ten years ago it also must be noted that the teachers are expected to keep up with the advances made in
science, mathematics, health, literature and cultural activities. Not just keep up with them but be actively aware of the new methods used to teach them to small children.
More and more, teachers who began their work as few as five years ago are compelled to return to school to learn new methods of teaching. Theirs is a changing science and must be kept up with if students are to be totally prepared for the world they one day will rule.
Again, why the condescending tones when saying a girl or boy is going to be a teacher? Is it unelegant, unfashionable or what? Is it silly to want to educate young minds in the ways of the world today and help them appreciate the worlds of yesterday?
I CANNOT HELP thinking that the most important duty of a future teacher is to keep an open mind in the way he imparts knowledge. But it is also the duty of his fellow students to keep the adverse comments to a minimum and try to understand and appreciate the goals for which he strives.
After all, teaching future citizens is the most important of all pursuits. When one looks at the mixed-up world of today it would seem profitable to equip future citizens with more insight into life and the technical world.
It may seem foolish for these future instructors to face the humiliation of a playground of ring-around-the-rosie but it seems more ridiculous to make fun at those who are trying earnestly to learn a profession in the qualified manner.
Besides, learning French verbs and learning to teach French verbs are two entirely different things. This should be remembered when one starts to tell an elementary education joke.
— Linda Ellis
The Way of Minnesota
The following article is one of a series dealing with states and the nation to be run along with the articles on campaign issues until the election.
The state of Minnesota is sufficiently divided between Republicans and Democrats this election year to assure, in any case, a rather close race full of keen competition. This probably will be a stimulating change from the air which usually prevails in Minnesota during most election activities, and may effect a drastic change in political sympathies there.
Actually, if there is any leaning one way or the other, it probably will be Republican. Of Minnesota's eight voting districts, three are quite positively Republican, one leans heavily that way, and the one doubtful district has given Rep. Odin Langen three terms to entrench Republicanism to a fair degree.
DEMOCRATIC SEN. Eugene McCarthy is once again the biggest name in the races and is not expected to have any opposition for renomination.Most favor him to win his second term in November, although the 48-yearold senator has only recently begun his formal campaign. McCarthy is and has been consistently against conservative coalition, while he is a big supporter of a prominent role for the federal government in the nation's affairs.
The only announced Republican candidate is the 37-year-old
mayor of Wayzata (a Minneapolis suburb), Wheelock Whitney. Also chairman of the board for a Minneapolis investment firm, this moderate Republican hit the campaign trail early with bold attacks on McCarthy. Whitney has toured every county in the state, accusing McCarthy of being "totally uninformed and ineffective as a representative of the people of the state of Minnesota.
A political unknown when he began his campaign, Whitney is now recognized by many in his state as having the requisites of a successful political career. He is a veteran of World War II, a graduate of Yale, youthful, has an attractive wife, four wellbehaved children, and wealth to boot. Whitney constantly maintains he is "all for federal aid up to the college level."
REP. CLARK MACGREGOR, Ancher Nelson and Odin Langen, all Republican, have been mentioned as possible candidates for the Senate, but have all expressed a desire to return to the House, instead.
The eight districts of the state represented by eight Minnesota House members, are fairly well decided by now. The first, second and third districts are safe Republican, while the fourth and
Former Rep. Walter J. Judd (R) and former Gov. Elmer Anderson (R) also have declined the nomination.
eighth districts are definitely Democratic.
The fifth district, which includes Minneapolis, however, has a rather peculiar situation, with Rep. Donald M. Fraser (D) strongly favored to win re-election in spite of his 1962 victory by only 51.7 per cent. His opponent in the 1962 election was veteran Rep. Walter H. Judd (R), who had accumulated a large following among the usually Democratic district since his first term in 1943. But Fraser's 1964 Republican opponent is not so well known as Judd. He is Minneapolis Alderman John W. Johnson.
IN THE SIXTH district, which includes western and central Minnesota and St. Cloud, Rep. Alec G. Olson (D) faces a difficult task in winning re-election, since his 1962 victory was only by 348 votes.
Minnesota Democrats believe the northwestern district their best chance for a pickup, but they are concerned about the Republicanism rooted there by Rep. Odin Langen since 1943. His Democratic opponent probably will be college professor Harding C. Noblitt, 42, the 1962 Democratic nominee. And, two other Democrats probably will announce, Bill Kjel dahl and Keith C. Davison, a Wheaton attorney.
- Corinne Newberry
"Better Talk To Your Comrades Down There Before The Whole Project Is Wrecked"
BOOK REVIEWS
THE LEARNING TREE, by Gordon Parks (Crest, 60 cents).
A Kansan is the author of this moving and understanding recent novel. Parks also is a photographer and composer, and he reveals throughout his feeling for imagery.
The book is the story of a Negro boy named Newt Winger as he is emerging from childhood. The reader is introduced into the inner life of a Negro family, people forced to face circumstances unknown to most white men.
"The Learning Tree" deserves comparison with James Baldwin's "Go Tell It on the Mountain," though it does not have the anger of that book of a decade ago. Critics have praised this book for its power, sensitivity, timeliness, and dramatic power.
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POWERS OF ATTORNEY, by Louis Auchincloss (Crest, 50 cents).
IN MAKES OF ATTORNEY, by Louis Auchincloss (Crest, 50 cents). Though not quite a novel, "Powers of Attorney" is fiction. And though Auchincloss is scarcely "the best living American novelist" (an extravagant claim by the New York Times), his book is a readable series of episodes taking place in a big city law office.
Auchinloss is an alumnus of the Virginia Law school, and he attended Groton and Yale. This is distinguished background, and he also is now a Wall Street lawyer. The law firm in the book, Tower, Tilney & Webb, is a Wall Street organization, and it is there that the drama takes place, largely the drama of a young man trying to make his way to the top.
The book belongs to the growing tradition of books that give the organization its lumps, for the underlying attitude in "Powers of Attorney" is that personal success is quite fine unless it harms "The Firm."
"While Still We Live" appeared in 1944, and it deals with an English girl who makes a holiday visit to Poland and is mistaken for a Nazi spy. "The Venetian Affair" is a more recent book, 1963 being its year, and it concerns an American newspaperman mixed up in cold war espionage.
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Though these books take us back to the increasingly dated era of World War II, they are high drama in a slightly tinny way. Helen MacInnes has written believable stories, and she is about as good in the damsel-in-distress genre as anyone writing today.
The Communists, that is, have replaced the Nazis as Miss Mac-Inness's double-dyed villains.
THE VENETIAN AFFAIR; WHILE STILL WE LIVE, both by Helen MacInness (Crest books, 75 cents each).
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