Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 1963)
g i g SUNDAY. FEBRUARY 17. 1963 ' , MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUHE, MEPFOHP. OREGON , - iducator Believes Schools Fail To Teach Children To Think By LAWRENCE R. WERNER United Press International Pittsburgh -ttJPU- "I'm not worried about why Johnny can't read or spell ai well as Ivan, but why Johnny can't think." - That, in a nutshell, Is what a Duquesne university profes sor believes is the failing of American education John ny never learned to think. Dr. Helena A. Miller be lieves the answer is a com plete overhaul of the U. S. educational system from pre school through the college lev el. She's on the brink of tak ing a nine-month sabbatical to finalize her proposals for Worth of Address Of Area Residents Depends on Position How much is the name and address of a Jackson county resident worth? On a mailing list Dlenty, . Just how much depends on his nosition. economically and otherwise. If he Is wealthy and i thereby a good pros pect for a cabin cruiser or for membership in an exclusive club, his name Is worth quite a bit. i However, if his name is a readily-obtainable one, as is the case with school teachers, doctors, lawyers and the like, To Speak Rabbi Rosenthal alSOC Next Wednesday ' Ashland Rabbi Richard Rosenthal of Temple Beth El in Tacoma, Wash., will repre sent the Jewish Chautauqua society as lecturer at South ern Oregon college, Ashland, Wednesday, Feb. 20. He will speak at the 10 a.m. assembly In Churchill hall on "Monologues and Dialogues." Rabbi Rosenthal lectures on college campuses under the auspices of the Jewish Chat auqua society, an organization which creates better under standing of Jews and Judaism through education.? 1 ; Keynote Speaker Rabbi Rosenthal also will be keynote speaker for Religious Emphasis Week at Southern Oregon college, Feb. 20 22, Jack Hcnncn and Doug Olsen, Eugene, co-chairmen, have an nounced. At 4 p.m. Wednesday there will be a coffee hour at which time he will talk on the Jew ish faith. Among guests who plan (o attend will be Mr. nd Mrs. Bud Hinkson.. Hinkson Is a former University of Oregon student body president and is now northwest representative of the Campus Crusade, a na tional religious organization which includes members of many faiths and creeds who work' together to promote an interest in religious activities in colleges and universities. Mrs. Hinkson, who has served as a national repre sentative for Campus Crusade, will speak at a Girl's Tea at 4 p.m. Thursday. The Hink sons also will talk to dormi tory students. or if his buying power is low, t brings less. There are about 250 firms that compile such lists and lease them or sell them to companies that wish to ap proach prospects by mail or by direct solicitation, either in person or by telephone. The price may range any where from 1 cent per name to as much as $1 for each time it is used. , The majority of Jackson county residents are on a num ber of such lists, as is evident from the amount of letters they receive from all sorts of organizations. A total of 2,327 of them, for instance, are on lists that con tain the names and addresses of local families with incomes over $10,000 a year. Among those who purchase and use such lists are resort operators and automobile dealers who handle expensive types of cars. List May Be Limited On the other hand, a book publisher with a special edi tion of Shakespeare's works may want to limit his ap proach to college graduates. A listing of this group would yield 3,319 names in Jackson county. There are 1,791 men In the county who are within 1 to 5 years of retirement age of 65. Travel agents, realtors and others are Interested in just such people. They are willing to pay for a list of them. Companies dealing in baby products, laundry services and beauty-care preparations may feel that married women in the 25 to 34 age category are their most likely pros pects. They would want the names of those in the local area. Many other specialized lists are prepared for firms that want to aim at specific tar gets with their products and services. Among them are lists of recent brides, now home owners and two-car families. Memorial Asks Speed In Timber Salvage 5alem-(UPD-A memorial urg ing Congress to order specific steps to speed the salvage of windfall timber cleared the Oregon legislature Friday. Portland-IUPIl - Three Kla math Indians have appealed a U. S. District Court ruling which upheld the placing in trust of their shares of Kla math Termination Act funds. PLAN AHEAD! - Take Advantage of This Pre-Season NG SALE 20 off Canvas and Aluminum Awnings Choice of slylet for porchos, pilioi, car ports, windows, r doors. Save Now on all weather prolaction. . THIS OFFER GOOD UNTIL MARCH 15 DOOR CANOPY SPECIAL from $2450 Instilled en your home See Display At murk's FOR All YOUR AWNING NEEDS 314 EAST MAIN PHONE 772-4472 m such an educational reforma tion and, hopefully, to put it to practice in a pilot school. "When I have to drill six weeks of fundamentals into college students before we can proceed with two weeks of reasoning, it proves that they did not obtain the knowledge they should have acquired in the lower levels of schooling," according to Dr. Miller, an educator for 27 years. Presented at Levels Under her plan, as yet un named, two-thirds of the ma terial now taught college stu dents would be presented at elementary and secondary lev els. The time saved would be devoted to work now being done by graduate students. The foundation of her sys tem, at all levels, is to let students "discover" as much as they possibly can on their own. i This, in essence, Is Dr. Mil ler's plan: , The education of the child begins at pre-school age, per haps as early as three years, when lie is taught to discern "minute sensual differences." The child's natural curiosity is encouraged so he becomes intimately acquainted with every object in range of his five senses. For instance, instead of teaching him to read and write in the conventional man ner, the child is allowed to feel letters, geometric designs etc. until they become so fa miliar the youngster begins tracing them in sand, on a blackboard or tablet or in some other manner, discover ing eventually that he is mak- DR. HELENA A. MILLER Proposes Education Change ing letters. Carried further, the discovery leads to words and sentences. Dr. Miller . contends this type of "learning by discov ery" is unlimited because of the natural curiosity and de sire of pre-adolescent children and permits them to enjoy the learning process. In the elementary stage, which she sets ai from ages 5-13, Dr. Miller plans to have students continue their own discovery, but more under the guidance of a teacher. At this level, she also would employ a system similar in some re spects to team teaching, a method now used in the Pitts burgh public schools, to give a wider scope to her plan by allowing college-level instruc tors to work with and advise elementary educators. Foreign Languages Not only would the pupils learn their own language and Latin by rote memory in the elementary phase, but two modern foreign languages along with a concept of num bers and other basic subjects. "Learning the languages and history of other nations during this period," said Dr. Miller, "will result in less de linquency and help 'abolish prejudice. Children have to learn to hate. Being exposed to other cultures when they are young will help pupils identify with them, nipping future distrust and hatred be fore it gets started." In the secondary phase, children would spend more time on things that have to do with relationships, giving them time to organize the data and knowledge assem bled in earlier periods. The tertiary, or college stage, would deal with the ab stration and testing of the knowledge absorbed in the other stages. An Ungraded System "I would employ an un graded system which would allow the student to advance as far as desired in any given subject," she explained. "But I would not allow him to pass a given point in any subject without progressing at a rea sonable rate in related sub jects." By the time the student was able to project abstractions into the future, to develop theories, he would be ready for college. Dr. Miller be lieves. Dr. Miller, a Phi Beta Kap pa who received her Ph. D. in biology at Radcliffe college and Harvard university in 1943, has been teaching at Duquesne since 1948. Her dos sier reads like a who's who in education, but she is a mod est and unassuming educator with, an unswarvtng faith in the potential of education to perpetuate into adulthood the "tremendous conception of beauty, love and happiness" possessed by children. Visits Washington Dr. Miller visited Washing ton recently to discuss her ideas with officials of the U. S. office of education. She is hopeful of receiving a fed eral grant to put a pilot school into operation. Without such funds, her problem will be to find dedi cated teachers "willing to live on faith instead of food" in an effort to prove out the theory. - . "One difficulty in setting up the pilot school is that it would take about 20 years before the cycle was complet ed with the college level," she said. "But I believe once I get the pilot school set up. the advances will be so fast and marked that others will pick it up within two or three years." . Possess Seventh Sense ' Inherent in her drive for establishing a new educational system is a belief that young sters possess a heretofore un developed "seventh" sense uhirh mav be drawn out by her teaching method. "It's evi dent in some gifted cnuaren, she said. "I'm not sure what it is, but I'm convinced it ex ists, and perhaps we will un cover it in this system." "I have talked to college presidents and educators throughout the country," she said. .'They all have. encour aged me in my theory. nr Miller helievcs her cur riculum will meet the needs of all students, including fu ture scientists, statesmen, au thors and industrialists. "It will be a welcome con trast to a system where a stu dent never learns to use more than a small fraction of his r-anacitv fnr learnine say about 10 per cent," said Dr. Miller. " 'Perhaps better plans can be made for the improvement of education to meet the pres ent crises," she concluded, "but this is one with concrete suggestions pointing in the direction I am convinced we must go." TAX WORK MADE EASY Rent or Leu Adding Machine Typewriter Calculator VOIGHT'S 8th & Grape Easy Parkins 772-4100 Green Stamps Geo. Grabow 1365 Kings Hwy., Medford Phone 772-8560 . Ultrasonic Cleaning Electronic Timing . WE BUY OLD GOLD! flrrTll f Va 13 I JIIHJMUIIUIIll.llNI! iff'!'! mutJuL.. 1 JwZMK This month we're observing our 59th Birthday, here at Snider's. It's the anniver sary of Oregon's oldest licensed dairy, operated by the same family since 1904. We've taken a bit of license in the picture above, depicting one of Snider's milk wagons soon after the turn of the century. Actually, Little Daisy wasn't in existence in those days. She was born but a few years ago and, strange as it may seem, hasn't changed a bit in appearance. Medford was quite a town when Snider's Dairy was established. The Medford Daily Tribune carried advertisements of Iowa Box and Lumber Company selling cement for $5.00 a barrel, the young blades of those days gathered at Russell's Confectionery, and the Condor Water & Power Company of Tolo informed southfern Oregonians that their firm operated substations in Medford, Jackson ville, Gold Ray, Central Point, Woodville and Grants Pass. Just after Snider's Milk became popular with the few Medford residents of more than a half-century ago, J. F. Reddy launched his promotion of the Blue Ledge Copper Mine, the 4-Paw & Sells Bros, "enormous shows united" brought their circus to the Rogue River Valley and Uncle Josh and his Hayseed Band delighted enthusiastic crowds at the Davis Opera House. The Nash Hotel was the center of "city" life, and folks who came to town parked their horses and buggies at the Nash Livery Stable. And so, it went, down through the years, with Snider's expanding its services and facilities as the Rogue River Valley and Medford progressed. All of us, here at Snider's, are proud of Medford today and proud to have shared in the growth of this fine community. And to you, our neighbors and friends of many years and recent months, we pledge our continued efforts to please you with the quality of our products and excellence of our service during the next 59 years! iiidcrs
