On Education

Julius
Sumner Miller teacher physics at El Camino College, is writing a book
and on alternate Sundays (tomorrow) conducts a provocative program,
"Why Is It So?" On KNXT, Channel 2.

Between times he is a stormy
advocate for a complete overhauling of our educational system. when he
gets on the subject his eyes flash, his voice thunders and he pounds
the table.

Unless we do something about it, he feels, we may be lost.

Miller
says, "We have reared a generation of intellectually lazy, illiterate,
picture-reading, mathematically incompetent, culturally lacking boys
and girls."

Worse, he adds, is their lack of values.

As recently as the '20s, he recalls, students received rigorous academic discipline in fundamental knowledge.

"Learning," he said, "was an exciting adventure."

Then
came the educators, concerned with the "better-adjusted, well-rounded,
whole child." He calls their doctrine "regressive education." It has,
he says, eliminated the formal disciplines which alone can communicate
a body of knowledge and the capacity to think critically.

WHEN RUSSIA SENT ALOFT
the first Sputnik in October 1957, the nation was shocked almost into
panic. It was inconceivable that another nation had surpassed us in
science. There were stern warnings that we must take up the slack in
education, particularly in science, on an emergency basis, to meet the
Soviet threat. It is Miller's belief that nothing will come of the
warnings, that we have already settled back complacently.

If we
are to throw off our present intellectual confusion, Miller thinks we
must write off the present high school generation and start fresh with
first-graders. he estimates the task will take a generation.

A
first step would be to train teachers to a new responsibility. He
considers many of them incompetent and either unaware of or untrained
in the true meaning of teaching.

"NO ONE can be taught
anything," he says. "His interest can be stirred, his curiosity
aroused, his enthusiasm awakened, his imagination fired, and he may go
on to learn it. But not enough teachers are endowed or equipped to do
these things.

"If I had my choice I would have enthusiasm first. The teacher must himself be excited if he is to sell his goods."

Miller
is frequently accused by his colleagues of undue emphasis on his
favorite subject. He denies this. He makes the point that before a
person can understand physics he must be able to read and write.

"By
this," he explains, "I mean the ability to grasp the full and proper
meaning of the printed page and to express ideas in intelligible prose."

Does he consider that his formula for correcting the present sorry state of education is too drastic?

"It's a free country," Prof. Miller replies. "This is my point of view.

DEDICATED
newsmen have been facing the abhorrent prospect that one of the week's
big stories would remain uncovered, in fact, unmentioned, except in
hilarious conversation. Let's see what can be done.

First, to
set the scene: Crystal Room, Beverly Hills Hotel. The Hollywood Women's
Press Club annual Men's Day luncheon. A couple hundred vivacious folk
have just drunk and eaten well. It's time for the entertainment.

Cowpoke
Rex Allen rides his horse Coco onto the stage. It creates a sensation.
It isn't every day a live horse stomps into the elegant Crystal Room.
Sitting astride, Rex starts singing a song. Coco either disapproves or
decides to steal the scene and —

I guess the newsmen were right. They said it couldn't be done and it couldn't.

FOOTNOTES —
Another bit of press high jinks occurred during Atty. Gen. Mosk's press
conference on conditions at Camarillo Hospital. At one point a man who
reporters assumed was a deputy A.G. took over and answered their
questions. Turned out to be fun-loving Pat McGuinness of KNX … The
Embassy Theater advertised "Two Adult Shockers — Adults 60¢, Children
25¢." Presumably the children were shockproof.