ee

ECENT irresponsible _ state-

ments about the school text-
book Effective Living have high-
lighted a controversy which
Tages in and about British Col-
Umbia’s educational system.

The Soered government does
hot officially back such  state-
ments. But it does favor a policy
of financial retrenchment (the
Rolston Plan) which, if fully ap-
Plied to the schools, will rob our
children of their birthright to a

Complete and progressive educa-
tion. ;

As explained in a_ recent
acific Tribune article, school
Costs are bound to increase year
Y year if only because. the
School Population is growing
fast, and constantly needs more
buildings and more. teachers.
€trenchment is therefore im-

Possible without harming the

System, : :

The article however, did not
eal with urgent questions of
‘mproving the educational sys-
€m itself. Some of these im-

Pfovéments would cost still more
Money,

What are the problems facing
ducators who are not content to
J0§ along with the educational
System as it is, but who want
‘mprovements? These — educat-~
o's realize that, as children now
school graduate, they will find
€mselves immersed in a world
. Pressures and propaganda
Which were never so intense.

It is therefore important not
®nly to train the child to make
* living, It is doubly important
© give him an education which
Will enable him to think and
ason clearly against a back-
STound of a good working knowl-

8e of Canada’s history and
World relations.

:
The little attention given, in
Progressive circles, to the system
i education and, the many
Provements it needs before it
ae Measure up to this standard,
Sflects a complacency: which is
’ngerous. There are unhealthy
* reactionary trends in the
a em. A fight must be made
© halt them.

piOhe example: In the last 25
fr Aa the proportion of students
Workers’ homes who enter
sity has dropped from 31
‘ Percent. The proportion
ne these students from rural
re has dropped from 21 to 7
als Are workers’ and
of vets’ children to be “hewers
Wood and drawers of water”?
gon nother example: The Socred
the wment’s policy of “holding
wh line” on education costs
hay expansion and improve-
Nts are widely needed.

hee third example: The increas-

pe use of U.S. text books, es-
€cially

Istory c
It j
Class \

Unive
t

in social studies and.
ourses.

S important to fight against

hug iscrimination, against
€t cuts, and against Am-

oH i But it is also im-

n : :

fight to raise our sights and

Walig

or improvements — more
€d and better-paid teach-

Crisis in
our schools

ers, adequate buildings and a

-eurriculum which will not turn

ankeefied automatons, but
ae people fully able to use
the powers of thought and rea-
soning with which they are en-
dowed by nature.
@ :
What are some of the ey
provements which are needed?
First, let us deal with the
school building itself. Is the

“modern school too big?

No controversy within the Aa
cational system is more Ss at
or \less publicized, than that

dealing with the size of the
school. f
Governmental “economy”
measures encourage the mas-
ses of over 1,000. Several
schools are now past the 2,000
mark. Just how big should we
allow our “schools ‘to grow?
The current philosophy of edu-
eation directs teachers to teach
each child as an individual. “?’m
teaching Johnny,’ not “I’m
teaching English,’ pretty well
sums up the approach. But there
are increasing. numbers of ob-
stacles placed in the way of

Violence fails to h

ALT of the Earth, the movie
Y made with participation of
Mine-Mill Local: 890 at iis oat
New Mexico, has been complete
despite all obstacles. ° :

Three fires within a week
climaxed the violence used ee
anti-labor elements in a vain ef-
fort to halt production work on
the film.

In‘the early hours of punta
March 8, ‘the Bayard ee s
union hall» was set afire. a u-
nately, union members pn their

way to work saw the blaze and

‘put it out before firemen arriv-

ed. Evidence was found of a
deliberately, short-circuited elec-
tric cireuit.

During the week of March 8,
three attempts were made to
burn the house of Floyd Bostick,
warden-conductor of Local 890,
A fourth attempt, on March 17,
burned the house to the ground.

Early in the morning of Sun-
day, March 15, the other Mine-
Mill local union in New Mexico

achieving this goal. Teachers are
bedevilled with a procession of
‘ classes, plagued with groups of
over 40, and frustrated with all
sorts of administrative duties

necessary to running an efficient.

machine.

The larger the school, the
more involved the machinery be-
comes, It gets ever harder for
the teacher to do his real job. It
thecomes easier for the individ-
ual pupil to hide his difficulties
and misdemeanors in the mass.
The larger the school, the great-
er the tension under which the
teacher works; the more frequent
the distractions for him and his
charges.. Overburdened _ teach-
ers cannot deal adequately with
maladjustments, and at the same
time stimulate students to reach
standards in keeping with their
abilities.

It is possible to reduce the
teacher loads. It is possible to
reorganize the school into smal-
ler individual groupings. But —
immediately we are confronted
with the spectre of increased
costs.

Af the philosophy of individual
treatment is correct — and most'
teachers believe that it is—thert
we need more capable teachers
and smaller schools. The alter-
native is to sacrifice the sound
philosophy on the altar of econ-
omy. f
e

The size of schools is not the

, only pressing problem. Allied

to it is the vital question of ob-

taining enough men and women,

properly qualified, and with the

right type of personality, to staff
the schools fully.

How are we going to encour-
age the students of today —
potential teachers of tomorrow—
to go in for teaching where their
inclination and talents indicate
it as a logical choice of a pro-
fession? :

Before we try to solve this
long-range problem, a more im-
mediate problem is: How are we
going to encourage anyone to go
in for teaching? .

In Canada today there is a
shortage of some 10,000 teach-
ers. British Columbia, although
by no means the worst province
_in the country, has a grave
shortage; and the outlook be-
comes more and more serious as
one looks ahead to the ever-in-
creasing number of classrooms
in need of teachers.

What has been the method

hitherto uSed for meeting this
teacher shortage? Consistently
it has been to lower the stand-
ards — to allow unqualified or
poorly qualified persons to teach.
Already, in Nova Scotia, gradu-
ates of Grade 10 with two weeks
of teachers’ “training” are allow-
ed to hold teachers jobs. In B.C.,
nearly 1000 teachers (about 12
percent of the total) are not fully
qualified for their jobs.

Surely the way to meéet the
short-range problem is to attack
it in such a way that the bigger
and more long-range problem is
attacked positively at the same
time. Let us not start a vicious
downward spiral by first lower-

‘bigger and

ing standards, with the. inevit-
able result of lower salaries,
which in turn leads to an even
greater teacher shortage; and
then to. still lower standards.

The way out is not to lower
standards, but to raise them!

With better standards must go
better salaries. In 1949 all teach-
ers in B.C. averaged $220 a
month as against $230 for all. oc-
cupations. Elementary teachers
averaged only $193. Since then
there have been increases, but
they have not kept up with the
cost of living and the big bulk
of teachers today get less pay
than many loggers, miners, ma-
chinists and other skilled work-
ers.

_Even secondary teachers (who

must have five ‘years of- uni-
versity training) averaged only
$262 a month in 1949 as com-
pared with $632 for all profes-
sions in B.C. : :

In short, decent ‘standards of
training demand decent rates of
pay. -And both cost money. If
better guidance
schemes are.to be introduced in
the high schools to direct suit-
able young people into teaching;
if longer and better teacher-
training courses are to be estab-
lished in. Normal Schools and
University; if candidates them-
selves are to spend more time

.and energy on their own; if bet-

ter salaries and working condi-
tions are to be forthcoming; if
all these’ things which logically
go together are to be done —
then more money will have to be
spent.

Can the people of B.C. afford
it? The question might better
be put: Can we afford not to?

Thousands. of millions of dol-
lars are being spent on indust-
rial expansion, the greater part
of it. on war preparations. A
minor part of this enormous ex-
penditure, diverted to the pur-
pose of educating our citizens
of, tomorrow, would pay for ali
the improvements. Relief from
even part of the taxation burden
imposed by armaments would
lighten the burden of school
costs. But, apart from this basic
and obvious fact, many people
have become unwilling to spend
more on schools because the
cost burden is not being fairly
distributed.

Once this key problem has:
been solved, and the main bur-
den of education costs p¥aced
where it rightly belongs, there

is no legitimate reason why we

cannot maintain a system which
will give our children the very
best in education.

It was the failure to distribute
the school costs fairly which de-
feated the Socred government
last week. It remains therefore
as a central problem confronting
whatever government takes of-
fice next June. It is also a fact
that, given proper distribution of
school costs, B.C. can ‘well af-
ford a first class system.

@ Future articles in this series
on British Columbia’s edu-
cational system .will deal
with the curriculum and fin-
ancing of school costs.

alt Mine - Mill film

had its huge union hall razed by
fire, loss being estimated at $86,-
000.

Local 890 is employing an ar-
son expert from Denver to in-
vestigate the three fires.

In a letter to all Mine-Mill
Jocal unions, Local 890 officers
pointed out that the hoodlums
had not succeeded in stopping
the picture. “The crew did not

‘ leave Silver City before its work
was done,” the letter stated. “It
was finished as completely as

could be done without Miss Rev-

uelftas#2 7?

After the Mexican actress, Ros-
aura Revueltas, had been held in
illegal custody by the U.S. Im-
migration at El Paso, Texas, for
10 days, with no immediate pros-
pect of her release; it became

. impossible to complete all scenes

as originally planned. Miss
Revueltas therefore returned vol-
untarily to Mexico, and arrange-
ments were made to complete
her scenes there.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 3, 1953 — PAGE )

at :

“— rea aro sleehl ee 9 hese]