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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (March 14, 1963)
MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON THURSDAY, MARCH 14. 1963 Apbropiricse Books By FREDERICK H. TREESH . United Press International . Steve spent Sunday eve ning with Diane and Biff at their house. They played ping-pong and knock hockey. Steve left at nine because he wanted to be in bed early. He wanted to get plenty of rest so that he'd be in good con dition for the game on Thurs day. J i . On. the way home he passed Wilma's house. All the lights in her apartment were on. He saw couples dancing. He could hear a record player blaring. Suddenly in the dis tance Steve heard the wail of a siren. In a few minutes three squad cars pulled up in front of Wilma's house. "It's a raid!" Steve thought. He watched the policemen go into the house. After a while, they came back with several teen-agers. Steve recognized some of the boys from the gang. Willie was with (hem. Wilma was brought out last. She was struggling and kick ing. It took two policemen to get her into the car. "Wow!" Steve thought to himself. "I wonder what happened." Missel. School v Willie was absent from school on Monday. Before school began on Tuesday, Steve saw him in the school yard. He told Willie that he'd seen the raid. He asked 'him what had happened. .: "Somebody tipped the cops off," Willie said, "and told them that we were smoking reefers. I was in Court all day yesterday but the judge let me go free because it was my first offense. Wilma and a couple of the fellows from the gang got sent away. ; "You were smoking reef ers!" Steve explaimed. "I only took one puff," Willie replied i "You took one puff too many," Steve told him. , Does the story above sound as if it were from a book of pulp fiction? It's not. It's a chapter from a junior high school textbook. It was written by a New York City school teacher who is angry and frustrated at the lack of available texts which: Lists Books Need 1. Are comprehensible by teen-agers who i?ad only at the grade school level. 2. Depict city life realis tically and deal with subjects which can be related to by students who have never seen a farm or a suburban split level, children whose father isn't Anglo Saxon, doesn't carry a briefcase and doesn't catch the 8:09 train to the office. The teacher is Richard H. Turner, who teaches in a slum area "blackboard jungle" where there are serious academic and disciplinary troubles. The academic cli mate isn't very nice, but what really rankles Turner is that the available educational ma terial is wholly unsuitable to his "culturally deprived" charges. The problem is this: The students don't read well enough to use standard texts for their age group. And by reducing the reading level of texts, you come down to grade . school "Come, Spot, come" or "See Dick run" books which worldly wise teen-agers reject as kids stuff. Different Mores Aggravating the situation is the racial or ethnic back ground of the, slum district school population which fails to relate to, or even rejects hastily, books depicting hap py, Anglo-Saxon, middle class, suburban, -home-owning fami lies. As Turner puts it: "Our crying need has been for texts which combined a low reading level with a high interest level, and at the same time fulfilled our curriculum Dennis the Menace 'XtAlOOVmW K GRAPES.' I WANT SOMETHlK' fASTg! requirements.- And since the teenagers we teach have diffi culty relating to the kind of life which is glowingly and unrealistically depicted in standard texts, still another of our needs has been texts which do depict the kind of life to which they can relate." The problems which Turner and thousands of other big city teachers are confronted with daily are beginning to gain attention as potential na tional disasters if remedial steps are not taken soon. A report of the Educational Policies commission, issued last April warned America's cities that unless they find a way to better educate "cul turally deprived", persons half their residents in' 1970 will be "ignorant, incompetent, mal adjusted charges of the com munity." The so-called "culturally deprived" children in the United States now number several million. Large num-j bers of them are Negroes re cently moved from the South but there are Puerto Ricans hew to the mainland and "hill billies," rural whites mainly Sought by Educator from the South, moving !" large numbers to Chicago, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Detroit and other cities of the mid west. In the southwest and west there are the Mexicans. In short, the problem of ed ucating these disadvantaged youngsters is real and imme diate in at least 10 or 12 ma jor cities. "Those of us on the firing line (in slum district class rooms) are fighting the cul ture of the country," said Turner. "The Negroes, the Puerto Ricans . , . these kids are left out. They're left out of books, they're left out of television, they're left out of movies, except in a distorted way. They're angry, and I guess I'm angry with them." Writs Ntw Books Turner, launching a one man counter-attack against the problem generally, wrote a series of six paper-back text books for use at the Junior High-Senior High level. They are designed to meet the students' pre-employment needs in the areas of reading, personal finance, social prob lems encountered on the job and in other personal relation ships. . The series, known as the Turner-Livingston Reading se ries (New York University Press), is written at fifth grade level in a dialogue style. They treat city life realistically and avoid a preaching approach to social attitudes. , Because they are aimed at students from a diversity of racial and ethnic backgrounds, the books avoid pictures of people, a retreat from the "blue-eyed blonde" approach of standard texts. But if the style and ap proach of Turner's books are unusual, some of his subject matter is outright, controver sial. He knew it would be, but he wrote it that way for a reason. He writes about such things as steady dating, ciga rette smoking and narcotics addiction along with topics of a more conventional nature. Students Drink "These kids are 13 1 to 17 years old. They drink, smoke and play cards," Turner said. "Some educators objected to my reference to steady dat ing, but to these kids steady Exchange of Letters I ndicate Problem Facing Dr. Rafferty Happy' Camp An indica tion of the rocky road that lies ahead of Dr. Max Rai ferty, elected superintendent of public instruction in Cali fornia last November, has be come apparent here following an exchange of letters be tween Dr. Rafferty and John H. Sugden Jr., superintendent of the Happy Camp Union Elementary School district. Late in February, Dr. Raf ferty sent a form letter to the presidents of school boards in California offering sugges tions in three general areas: better reading instruction, de voting more time for subject matter in schools, and the question of whether history, geography, and civics should be labeled separately or grouped together under the label of "social studies." The letter drew a lengthy reply from Superintendent Sugden, who voiced the opin ion that California schools are already doing well in the first two areas, and then dis puted Dr. Rafferty's reason ing on the matter of social studies. Contract Expires Sugden concluded his reply with this remark: "My con tract: expires on June 30, 163, and if you are interested in the position, I suggest you apply through proper channels. "In the meantime, I am the district superintendent of schools in this district and I plan to, as I have in the past, exercise these responsibilities to the fullest ..." Dr. Rafferty's first sugges tion to the state's school board presidents was that they see if their teachers are using an essentially phonics approach to' reading instruc tion. Sugden replied that he felt DOOR PRIZES Gases DOOR PRIZES Nl hT11a1ek.Kl9ae4.t'JLaa) 1 3490 So. Pac. Hwy. ' GRAND OPENING M & l( TRAILERS, INC. MARCH 16-17 FREE COFFEE & DONUTS... 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Southern Oregon eree before, loading Representative-! in the Insurance, Finance and Mobil Homo Field Will Bo Present to Answer Any Questions You May Have. if Dr. Rafferty were to open the doors of most primary classrooms in California and walk in he would find the phonic approach already in widespread use "as well as other proven and successful methods." , More Advice Given , Dr. Rafferty's second piece of advice for school board presidents urged them to "see how much time is being spent in the classroom collect' 'g money for worthy causes, taking the lunchroom count, listening to administrative announcements over the pub lic address system and excus ing the pupils to go to assem blies or athletic contests." Sugden replied, "I am aware of the time misspent in classrooms and have been for sometime. I am constantly on guard against misused time as are other California schools." "Calling a Spade a Spade" was the title of Dr. Rafferty's third suggestion. He said, "I am going to be doing my level best during the next four years to urge schools to teach history as straight history and call it history." He decried the idea of "mixing" history. geography and civics together dating is the very height of morality. The six books are titled and deal with these life ex perience areas: "The Person You Are," "The Family You Belong To," "The Friends You Make," "The Town You Live In," "The Job You Get," "The Money You Spend." Turner says his books are far from a solution to the task of teaching secondary students who can barely read. But they're a step-one of the few -in the right direction, he be lieves. Combines Talents Turner combines in his text book wrltlnc Dersnnal pvnpri. ence in the classroom and as a professional writer. He au thored several television scripts, including "Snnw .Inh " starring Joan Blondcll on Playwrights '86 and "Once A norsepiayer, produced by the.Rheingold Theater. He also has acteri in. Hirpt. cd and produced plays in resi dent theaters and summer stock in several east coast cities. Turner, 42, who has taught in Slum Aireo in "difficult" schools in Man-1 since World War II, hopes I writing textbooks specifically hattan, Brooklyn and Queens soon to devote full time to for city school use. if" A ' 1 n: ;S " ' ' ' ; J ' , NOT LIKE HOME Terry O'Neill, 17, her parka was quite out of place in the 80 Alaska's entry in . the 1963 Miss America s degree weather and switched to more com- Junior Miss Pageant, is a bit puzzled by the fortable bermuda shorts. Her home is in balmy weather in Mobile, Ala. She found Fort Richardson, Alaska. (UPI) "I Atiyeh Attacks Musa's Views on Tax Proposals Salem (UPll A blistering at tack on Senate President Ben Musa's tax views was issued today by Rep. Victor Atiyeh (R-Portland), sponsor of Gov. Mark Hatfield's tax bills. Musa said that Oregon's in come tax should be a fixed percentage of the federal in come tax for the sake of sim plicity. . Atiyeh termed Musa's state ment an "eleventh hour des peration pronouncement" that "contributes nothing but dis cord to the working relations of the two lax committees." Musa, when advised of Atiyeh's attack, said "it's un fortunate he didn't talk to me about it." Musa said that when he made the suggestion he said it might be the way to collect taxes, but he did not call for such action at this time. Self-Promotion Charged ' The Portland Republican charged Musa was attempting to "promote himself ... at the expense of both parties who have worked long hours on the serious problem of taxation." Atiyeh said Musa's state ment had contributed to a de lay in the session and "confu sion on compromises which are being affected through the cooperative attitude of House Speaker Clarence Barton and Tax Committee Chairman Richard Eymann." Atiyeh charged "the senate president has violated every ethic in the book," and said it was "deceit" for Musa to call for one tax program in his legislation and another in his public utterances. under the title of social stu dies. "I've found that when you try to teach these things all mixed up together, the children end up the same way," he remarked. Sugden's reply stated that when he was in school, his tory, geography and civics were rote taught with no em phasis placed on their mean ing or interrelationship. "Someone felt that for bet ter understanding and be cause of their interdepend ence, they should be grouped and studied together for more meaning," Sugden said. "This grouping was then called 'social studies' which, by your terms, is like calling a spade a heart. . "Now I am sure that neither you nor I want Cali fornia schools to go back to rote learning for history or geography or civics. So what you really want is for us to stop calling a spade a heart and start calling it a diamond or a club. Frankl, I don't care what you call it. I'm only In terested in teaching all these subjects to children in a meaningful way. Addressed to Board Referring to the fact that Dr. Rafferty addressed the letter to school board presi dents rather than superin tendents, Sugden remarked, "Long ago many of us recog nized, as should you, that improvement of Instruction comes from improvement of teaching, not by school boards and other lay people spying or tearing down the existing system, even if it does need change and Improvement. Change and improvement are continual processes like edu cation itself." Ironically, Sugden once lived in La Canada, in south ern California, where Dr. Raf ferty last served before being elected state superintendent. Sugden was graduated from La Canada Elementary school in 1941. Dr. Rafferty served as superintendent of the new ly unified La Canada school district in 1962. 07 Is Discovered On Mobile Home Park Hollywood -OIPD-Fess Park er has taken part of his mo tion picture and television earnings to buy into a swank mobile home park In Santa Barbara, Calif. Now he says he's got a real problem. Oil was discovered on the property and he can't decide how much of the land should L ,H , Ij i' ! MARCH 17TH Weekend Issue WASHINGTON POLITICS: "IfK't Irish 'Cabintl' " INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY: "Royally on the Hocks" SPORTS WORLD: "Now Anyon Con Cared Fish" CRIME REPORT: "Shoplifting Newejf Crime WW Plus Other Stories and Features in Family Weekly with your copy of the MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE SILVER DOLLARS for mmaa . MM opening chilis KJ Friday & Saturday March 15 and 16 Only (One to a Customer) During Their GRAND Continuing FRIDAY & SATURDAY race I Nail Files-tor the asking1. 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