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
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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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