Summer Session Kansan
Tuesday, July 2, 1963
51st Year, No.7
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
GREETING 250 NEW CAMPERS as they arrived Sunday, C. Herbert Duncan, supervisor of the Midwestern Music and Art Camp, directs a group of sixth, seventh and eighth grade students to Lewis and Templin Halls. The junior
high campers, here for two weeks instruction in band, orchestra and chorus, are being housed with senior high campers who have been here since June 16. The total enrollment of the camp is now 1,100.
Revamped Polish School System Needs More Teachers, Dean Says
Rv Kathy Vaughan
As a recent traveler in Poland, Dean Kenneth Anderson discussed reconstruction changes in the Polish school curriculum as well as school buildings and compared the changes to those in the United States.
In an interview, Dean Anderson, of the school of education, told how he and five other U.S. educators toured Poland during April. The group was sponsored by the American Association of Colleges for Teachers Education.
ARRIVING in Warsaw, the group visited the Ministry of Higher Education which supervises about 70 schools of higher education.
Through the Ministry of Higher Education Dean Anderson learned of the elementary systems and the secondary systems. At present plans are to expand the seven-year elementary education and five-year secondary education program compared with the present system of seven years of elementary education and four years of secondary education.
Concerning Polish curriculum the ratio of vocational-technical to general enrollments are about four to one. The country "needs the technical workers badly," Dean Anderson said.
STUDENTS IN THE secondary schools go one of two routes: 1. technical or vocational or 2. general studies. About twenty per cent of the first group go on to polytechnical or engineering schools. A much greater percentage of the second group go on to polytechnical or engineering schools. Thus engineering schools are not closed to those in
technical or vocational schools if they have the ability.
In regard to instruction, Dean Anderson reported that teachers are needed especially in the secondary schools because thirty or forty thousand teachers and many more
Dean Anderson
prospective teachers died during the war. The University of Crakow has taken the first step in making up for this loss by requiring all students except those in law or medicine to meet the minimum requirements for teaching in secondary schools. Also students in the fourth or fifth year must take four weeks of student teaching.
DEAN ANDERSON says that the students do not resent the requirement nor are they particularly interested in teaching, but after student teaching many do become interested.
Dean Anderson pointed out the curriculum of the Teachers College at Opole which trains secondary teachers with various majors. Physics is predominant at this college as it is at the other teachers colleges. The physics department is housed in a whole wing of a new building and has good equipment, relates Dean Anderson.
Visiting a secondary school in Warsaw, Dean Anderson observed a physics class where students take four years of physics three times a week; the biology department; and a second year English class where the students were studying such topics as "Robin Hood and His Merry Men," Robert Louis Stevenson, and Alfred Noyes, author of "The Moon Is Up." From this secondary school 70 per cent of the students will go to institutions of higher learning.
THE OLDEST and highest paid instructor, an English teacher in this secondary school, received about $160 per month which is comparable to what a university professor is usually paid. All teachers are taxed monthly on a graduated scale.
Great emphasis is placed on technical education, for workers are needed badly to rebuild Poland; whereas the United States does not stress technical education so much, Dean Anderson related. Schools such as the Ursus Technical School that he visited have two programs: a six-year program with little theory and
(Continued on page 12)
KU's Latin Tie Adds New Link
The University of Kansas has joined with seven other institutions to form the Organization for Tropical Studies, a cooperative undertaking formed to develop and assist programs of education and research relating to the tropics.
The other members are the University of Costa Rica, University of Florida, Harvard University, University of Miami, University of Michigan, University of Southern California, and the University of Washington.
THE KU REPRESENTATIVES to the Organization are William J. Argersinger, associate dean of the faculties for research, and Charles D. Michener, Watkins distinguished professor of entomology.
Initial activities will emphasize tropical biology and related fields and will be carried out mostly in Costa Rica. A first step will be to seek grants from outside sources to construct and operate a research facility in Costa Rica, Dean Argersinger said.
"However, the long range goal of the OTS is the stimulation and development of education and research in the tropics in the broadest sense," he continued.
"The member institutions view their role as representing the higher education community as a whole. Programs and facilities will be open as fully as possible to other institutions and qualified individuals."
KU's affiliation with the Organization for Tropical Studies is valuable for several reasons, Dean Argersinger noted:
- The KU faculty includes many scientists with strong interests in the tropics.
- "The Organization will provide a focus for the interest and efforts of many first line scientists," Dean Argersinger said.
- The University already has a strong connection with Latin America through its association with the University of Costa Rica and the operation of a Peace Corps program there, and has a rapidly growing program of Latin American studies.
- The richness and diversity of the animals and plants of tropical and sub-tropical lands make up a vast reservoir of uninvestigated biological materials, Dean Argensinger explained.
- KU will be associated with several great universities in the undertaking.
Compelling economic and social reasons motivate the work, Dean Argersinger added. The population expansion in tropical regions has created many problems that challenge the scientists and call for rapid solutions.
Norman Hartweg of the University of Michigan is president of the Organization for Tropical Studies. Headquarters will be maintained at the University of Miami.
Absurdist Plays Confuse Audience
In viewing an Absurdist play, one is often confounded by the seeming nonsense of the action and dialogue. The University Theatre last night opened the second summer production of three Absurdist one-acts. The plays continue this evening, Wednesday and Friday.
Because of summer deadlines, a Kansan representative was unable to see and comment on the opening performance. In way of review, the three directors of the shows were asked to comment on their works. This is what they said:
Burton E. Meisel, Lawrence graduate student, directing "The Bald Soprano" by Eugene Ionesco, commented:
"IN 'THE BALD SOPRANO,' an anti-play, Ionesco parodies unmercifully the conversational exchanges in which we indulge under the presumption that we are communicating with each other. In this 'comedy of a comedy,' he reveals how man is unable to establish communication by words."
"In the opening of the play, Ionesco shows that even though Mr. and Mrs. Smith have lived together for years they cannot communicate. In truth with Mr. and Mrs. Martin he goes even further—they do not know each other. So lost is the art of communication that Ionesco logically ends his play with the characters merely uttering basic sunds."
"THE ZOO STORY" by Edward Albee is another, more serious study of the inability of people to commute. Llewellyn B- Rabby, director, said, "The Zoo Story," written in 1958, was the first major dramatic effort of Edward Albee. It had its premiere in Berlin, Germany, on Sept. 28, 1959. The play received its first American performance at the Provincetown Playhouse on Jan. 14, 1960."
"The plot development of the play," Rabby continued, "is simply
that of two men talking in Central Park one sun-drenched summer Sunday afternoon. In this placid setting, and with great humor and skill, Albee is able to excoriate humanity for its indifference to fellow creatures and sum up the whole heart-breaking failure of human beings to communicate.
While grouped in an increasingly broad category known as 'Absurdist drama,' The Zoo Story' attains universal meaning by being a fully-fleshed study of real people."
"THE ROOM" is a change of theme and mood, according to James Hawes, also a Lawrence graduate student. "Harold Pinter has figured prominently in the widely discussed renaissance of the British theatre, along with such young playwrights as John Osborne and Shelagh Delaney. Pinter came to the forefront of British drama when his play 'The Birthday Party' appeared on a London stage in 1958, followed by 'The Room' in 1960."
"In the words of the London Sunday Times, he is 'the most original, disturbing, and arresting talent in theatrical London'. The Room' takes place in a rundown boarding house, and is the scene of a visitation of fate in the person of a blind Negro, who comes to deliver a mysterious message."
"The play is invested with the elements which make Pinter's work notable; subtle characterizations, a disquieting universality of dialogue, and a dramatic intensity that is alternately terrifying, humorous and deeply moving."
The three one-act plays compose an evening of entertainment, "arena-style," in Murphy Hall. Curtain is at 8 p.m. for all performances. Tickets are available through the theatre box office for coupon book exchange or $1.50 per single admission. KU summer students may get seats with their identification cards. Phone KU, VI 3-2700, extension 591, for reservations.