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About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (May 18, 1958)
SUNDAY,: MAY 18.' 1958 HERALD AND NEWS. KLAMATH FALLS. OREGON ' PAGE 15 D Herald and News Book Reviews French Revolution Is Echoed Demands For Shift By W. G. ROGERS THE WAY OF THE TUMBRILS. By John Elliot. Reynal. $3.95. "A restless interest in the French Revolution," says this English author, sent him back time and again to find its traces in present-day Paris one ex cuse is as good as another if only it gets you there. This book, the first on this particular matter in three-quarters of a century, tells of his success. . Probably the most conspicuous and best known revolutionary rel ic is the great Place de la Con corde, in the 1790s named the Place de la Revolution. You can stand now in the windows of the Ministry of Marine and the Hotel Crillon, on the north, and look over the vast square where Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Charlotte Corday and thousands of others perished on the guillotine to the mad cheers of a vengeful popu lace. You could have stood in the same windows -and watched the actual executions. The tumbrils rattled into t h e square down the last fcv hundred feet of the Rue Royale. The old farmers' carts had started from the ancient Conciergerie, crossed the northern branch of the Seine to the rue Saint Honore and fol lowed it past the Palais Royal garden to the last rendezvous with Madame Guillotine. For Left Bank habitues, the Place de l'Odeon, on the edge of the student quaiter, is rich in ter rible memories. The statue of Dan ton stands about where he lived along the Blvd. St. Germain. A section of the old covered passage way, Cour du Commerce, still ex ists; Marat was assassinated near here; Desmoulins was a neighbor; farther up, on the rue de Vaugir- Artillery Age Is Highlighted By BOB PRICE THE GUNS AT GETTYSBURG. By Fairfax Downey. McKay. Nearly 400 cannon took part in the tremendous barrage that pre ceded Pickett s charge at Gettys burg July 3, 1863. Such a can nonade would be peanuts today, but at the time it was the greatest concentration - of fire-power ever known. Within the space of its thunderous two hours, artillery came of age. "The Guns at Gettysburg' unique, even in the vast field of Livil War literature. It is virtu ally the first full length book to be devoted to artillery and its achievements, and it opens a field of study that should bring new understanding of the Civil War as a vital era in the evolution of armed conflict. Fairfax Downey, a retired lieu tenant colonel of the U.S. Army Reserve and a former newspaper man, has established himself in previous works as a competent spokesman for the men who manned the guns. He revitalizes interest in Gettysburg with h i s findings on artillery's contributions to the battle. Downey gives great credit to Mai. Gen. Henry J. Hunt, the Un ion chief of artillery, not only for Ins dispositions of the guns and his direction of the 129 batteries of the Union Army but for his canny handling of the train of re serve guns -and anlmunition, and for his foresight in providing it He is less complimentary to the Confederate chiefs, contending there was a lack of coordination and support at critical times and serious oversight in failing to place guns to enfilade the Union line be fore Pickett marched out. This is not a dry treatise. Down ey takes the reader into the pow der smoke where he can hear and smell the battle. His prose is stir ring, his research has produced tales of many valorous deeds that embellish an exciting, significant cook. ard, is the old Carmelite convent where more than 100 priests were slaughtered after farcical trials be fore the unspeakable Mailiard. There are small details in abun dance, too the table on which Robespierre with his shattered jaw passed his last wretched night on earth; the last letter written by the condemned Queen, and Dan- Special School Study Groups Give Report On Education By ARTHUR EDSON WHAT'S HAPPENED TO OUR HIGH SCHOOLS? By John F. Lat imer. Public Affairs Press. $3.25. The special committee named to study what was wrong with America's high schools was firm in its conclusions. "The pupil," it said, "may now go through a secondary school course of a very feeble and scrap py nature studying a little of many subjects and not much of any one, getting, perhaps, a little information in a variety of fields, but nothing which can be called a thorough training." This sounds as if it were writ ten yesterday by an observer shocked by Russian technical ad vances. Yet, a Committee of Ten appointed by the National Educa tion Assn. reached this gloomy conclusion in 1894. - The Committee of Ten's diag nosis, and the cures recommended seem as valid now as they did 04 years ago. At least that's the viewpoint of Dr Latimer, profes sor of classics and assistant dean of faculties at George Washington University. After four years of studying sec ondary schools, Latimer's conclu sion is even more blunt: 'We. the American people, have failed in our educational responsi- billies. We have failed ourselves, but worse than that, we have failed our children. Latimer thinks we have wound up with a conglomeration which he Witty English Novel Views Competition By W. G. ROGERS THE CONTENDERS. By John Wain. St. Martin's. $3.95. An import from England, this novel could matter here more than a lot of its fellow visitors be cause the subject is peculiarly American as well as English: Competition, and the spirit and mood underlying it. and the na ture of the rivals or "contenders." It's also true that it may matter less, for Wain's theme, developed with a prickly irony, is that com petition is a Kind of decaying force and we might well wish we were not tainted with it. Ned the businessman and Robert the painter are the protagonists and antagonists, with a narrator, Joe Shaw, presiding like a novel istic emcee over their bewildered and tortured doings. Joe is not competitive. He wants something, whether a job, career or girl, noi in order to get it away from someone else and not to prove he's the better man but just lor its own sweet sake alone. - So he's a good one to watch over this combat of two men, each of whom decides at the most critical oeriods to long for something be muse the other longs lor it, to strive ruthlessly for success be cause it means defeat and failure for the other. I hope 1 don't moke this book sound like a tract when in fact it's funny, and written with a sly, in timate wit. Your interest in Ned and Robert never slackens: they are friends and enemies; if one picks a prize, the other reaches for it; it one suffers a setback, the other is quick to succor him and ton's last, too; David's unforget table drawing of Marie Antoinette in the tumbril. I have two words of caution: When Elliot says first floor, he means our second, and his book is not very professional. But in compensation, he has all the eager ness and enthusiasm of the amateur. labels split-level education. Along with the traditional sub jects like English, Latin, mathe matics, modern foreign languages, physics and biology, high school students can take at least in some schools such things as welding, photography, home mechanics, ceramics, aviation, driver educa tion and cosmetology. Split-level education, Latimer says, "often results, not from lack of ability, but from undcr-estuna tion of a student's capacity, by himself, his parents, or his adviser, or from the very human tendency, to which even students are prone, to follow the path of least resis tance. He notes this suggestion of the Committee of Ten: "All students, to the extent of their ability, no matter what their ultimate goals might be, should be introduced to the five great realms of human thought and experience: "English language and litera ture;, foreign languages and lit erature, particularly Latin; alge bra and geometry; science . , .; history, including civil govern ment." Possibly because he was born to be an educator, Latimer is opiums tic. He thinks an awakened pub lie, rudely jolted by the Russian scientific alarm clock, will help more youngsters live up to their potentialities. Yet he warns that in the en thusiasm for science, other basic courses must not be forgotten. gloat. You never lose sight of Wain's main concern: When you cop the golden apple, someone else doesn't. Evidently the -guarantee of reputation, and a public, in Eng land today is to be called one of the Angry Young Men. Wain himself has sourly questioned the Angry loung Men business, as he calls it in an essay. "Along the Tightrope, published -with pieces by seven fellow writers "Declaration" iDutton; $3.75). He is one, though, whether he likes the journalistic tone or not, and certain passages in the novel re mind you vaguely of John Os borne's "Look Back in Anger he not only belongs with'them, but for me he's the best novelist among them. But he also says in the essay that the artists s function is . to assert the importance of hu manity in the teeth of whatever is currently trying to annihilate that importance." That is in the larger sense what his novel does. So he is a very amusing Angry Young Man, who sees the sober side but tells it funny-face in this zestful mockery of the dehumanizing am bitions. TIMI1ERLAND A recent survey by American Forest Products Industries, Inc., indicates that more than 90 per cent of the commercial timberland owned by forest industries in the U.S. is open to bunting and fish ing enthusiasts. In Teaching Method PerplexesTeachers By JERRY BENNETT NEA Staff Correspondent WASHINGTON (NEA) School experts are perplexed by recent demands that educators drop "pro gressive education and return to the methods and programs of 30-50 years ago. Charges that u s the arch vil lain of the nation's schools give teachers headaches as they won der how the modern educational technique could be so controversial and often so completely misunder stood. Education officials insist that progressive education is not a sys tem which allows children to talk back to teachers, take easy courses nd generally dictate the operation of the school. Instead, they explain it s an effort to improve teaching by applying techniques based on the latest advances in psychology, sociology and child development research. One perplexed school expert de clares: We expect business, med icine and all fields to be progres sive, especially where our pocket books and lives are involved. Are we so unconcerned about our minds that we insist on requir ing schooling today to be like the schooling we had 30 or 40 years ago?" Dr. Sam Lambert, head of the National Education Association's Research Division, explains that progressive education tries to bring teaching methods up to date so they can better prepare children for the perplexities of modern living. In fact, he points out that progressive education em ploys techniques that critical par ents often take for granted and sometimes even praise. For instance, it strongly em phasizes making a subject as in teresting as possible, Dr. Lambert says. One way progressive educa tion gets at this problem is through the principle of learning by doing Education experts believe this technique sparks needed motiva tion that makes children eager to learn. They believe it's far more effective than the old system which preached that the best way to make a child study was to keep him scared. "Psychologists have proved that people don't learn through a fear technique," Dr. Lambert explains. Another concept of progressive education is to teach each . child according to his individual capa bilities. Educators point to psy chological studies which prove that all children don't absorb the same amount of knowledge the same amount of time. That's why advocates of progressive edu cation believe teachers should pay attention to the needs of each pu pil instead of applying one rigid standard to the whole class Dr. Lambert declares that pro gressive education never advo cated the idea that children be al (Soimmei BUSINESS FORMS Designed Especially to Fit Your Needs Lcrterheodi Envelope! Cards Invoices Statements Checks All types of Snop Out Forms GUIDE PRINTING CO. 1205 Klamath Are. lowed to run wild in school. He soys, however, that a few educa tors who misunderstood the prin ciples of the modern teaching sys tem, did allow too much freedom in the classroom. Dr. Lambert believes that the bad reputation which progressive education has among the general public stems partly from these isolated cases. Actually, progressive education began in the U.S. in 1919 when a group of teachers banded together in an organization called the Pro gressive Education Association. Their goal was to try to elimi nate old 19th Century teaching methods and replace them with ideas based on recent discoveries psychology. The organization lasted until 1955. The late philoso pher John Ucwcy of Columbia University was a leading advocate of progressive education. Although PEA is no longer oper ating, the impact of its ideas arc being felt in schools throughout the country. A recent survey among 2,500 teachers counters the charge that "the American teacher has been taken in by the progressive educator." The teachers were asked if they considered themselves progressive, traditional or a combination of both. More than 46 per cent answered that they used both teaching meth ods but leaned toward progressive. About 43 per cent, who also com bined both techniques, said they leaned toward traditional. About seven per cent believed their teaching was completely pro gressive. Only slightly more than three per cent said they were strictly traditional. 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