Views on current films

David ‘and Lisa (at the Studio
Theatre) is a likeable and quite
good little film—by American
Standards, exceptionally good »dy-
deed. It concerns two young peo-
ple who fall in love—but wait!—
you haven’theard this one before.
David and Lisa are patients in an
institution for mentally disturbed
teen-agers and their growing af-
fection for one another serves as
the therapeutic key to. their ill-
nesses.

Interaction of medical
dramatic factors adds up to an
absorbing hour and a half with
these very convincing youngsters.
The _ institutional —_ psychiatrist
(played by Howard Da Silva in
a welcome return to films after
years of Hollywood blacklisting)
is refreshingly free of the usual
Pseudo-psychiatric jargon and

posturing. His patience and hum-
ility to understand those in his
care impresses itself on the entire

OPEN FORUM

EDUCATION AIDS

Miss E.B., Vancouver,
writes: The biggest impetus
in human development has
been the explosion of science
which followed Einstein’s fa-
mous formula. Most of the ac-
cepted facts of the past were
at that time blown to pieces,
making possible our present
avalanche of new techniques.

The first nation to see that
this trend must be organized
and guided was of course the
U.S.S.R. Now, thirty-five
years later the idea has
caught on in several advanced
Capitalist nations, and (let us
be hopeful) Canada is falling
in line on both the provincial
and federal levels.

No plan works without
trained personnel so we are
taking care of this by building
technical and vocational
Schools at great cost and of
Impressive size. The staff will
be drawn from specially
trained men of the trades who
have a practical knowledge of
working class thought.

To ensure the success of
these schools they should be
linked up with the giants of
Industry to keep abreast of
the newest ideas; otherwise,
they would soon be perpetu-
ating the obsolete.

RY suggestion is that the
: € unions should act as
liaison agents doing the job
for these schools that the PTA
Was designed to do for aca-
demic schools. The unions
ave dominion-wide contacts
and means of spreading infor-
Mation easily. They could
Work to bring about the re-
Peal of the B.N.A. Act so that
the financial burden could be
Placed where it belongs, right
with Ottawa.

An ‘allied problem has
never to my knowledge been

~~ WORTH
_ READING

A Quarter-Gentury

of Un-

Americana; 1938-1963. Price $2.50.,

eal Pictorial review of
a vee, period of McCarthyism
Ee United States.

et colored book contains some
that i most famous cartoons

“\ lampooned the un-American
Activities Committec’s attempts
to Subvert the American Consti-
tution, and straightjacket the
Minds of free thinking Americans.

3

and

mood of the film.

The basic theme of illusions
and misunderstandings isolating
people from one another, which
can be counteracted only by
friendly and unselfish human as-
sociation, is, of course, a mes-
sage to us all in this dollar-
embattled North American “civil-
ization’.

David and Lisa is director
Frank Perry’s first film—and a
promising one, with a minimum
of the manerisms that most new
directors seem to have to work
out of their systems. Neverthe-
less, he did yield to the tempta-
tion of several unnecessarily in-
tricate camera movements and
“artsy” angles which, because
artifical, only distract.

* * *

A word of warning. Although I
was aware of the fact that Colonel
T. &. Lawrence (1888-1935) was
a vicious spy and saboteur for

so much as recognized, and
that is illiteracy in Canada.
According to the U.N. figures,
it is 30 per cent of the popu-
lation. Surely a_ distressing
and disgraceful condition.
Someone has to start a drive
there.

We have seen our schools
become a bureaucracy im-
mune to public complaints.
The teachers manage to ride
out the storms by retreating
behind a wall of silence. It
would be well to keep our
new educators from letting
their white collars get too
tight. Get these men out in
the public gaze and let them
be part of the active stream
of living people.

(Editor’s note: In an earlier
letter E.B. nade the point
that “In Canada our greatest
educational weakness comes
from lack of. federal control,
and that of course comes from
the B.N.A. Act’. The key pro-
blem in today’s educational
crisis is not so much lack of
federal control as it is lack of
sufficient federal aid to the
provinces for the advance-
ment of educational facilities
and opportunities, both aca-
demic and vocational.)
NONSENSE

L. Stilwell, Langley, writes:
The argument that there is no
such thing as a good Liberal
is all nonsense.

Before Mr. Pearson and his
gang came into being, it was
even possible, if one cared to
use his imagination a little, to
conceive of such a thing as a
good Liberal still alive.
MORE ON EDUCATION

R. L. Vancouver, writes:
Re: Charles Caron’s article on
the crisis in education, May 24
issue: This was a very timely
and relevant article. Since the
sputnik there has been great
ferment among colleges, re-
searchers, teachers, including
UBC and in our own school
system. Progressive ideas are
in the ascendancy on the ques-
tion of methods of teaching,
for example.

Orientation has switched
from subject to child, — from
displaying, or drilling, select-
ed facts, to developing the
mind and character and crea-
tive ability of the child. The
world of education, especially
university students, has pro-
vided a basis for movements
to liberalize such diverse mat-
ters as financing higher edu-
cation; teaching science below

: ents,

Ul

wc greater glory of British oil
interests and fully aware of the
worthlessness of U.S.-financed
“blockbusters” in general, I al-
lowed myself to be bemused by-
friends’ assurance thtat Lawrence
Of Arabia was different, that this

was “pure entertainment’. I

erred.

Lawrence had its visual mom-
admittedly, but for the
most part I was plain bored. This
left me free to yearn for the $1.75
(matinee) admission I had irre-
trievably lost.

The film was like the Americ-
ans in Korea;everything to fight
with and nothing to fight for (ex-
cept a worn-out romantic myth
that no thinking person ever ac-
cepted anyway). Here was yet
another proof that “pure enter-
tainment”’ in the arts never ex-
isted.

My recommendation: don’t go!

N. E. STORY

college level, with equipment;
public taste in music, through

the influence of folksongs;
equal education for the Am-
erican Negro; humanizing the
hitherto psychologically re-
pressive subjects like arith-
metic and grammar.

In this complex of move-
ments the Chant Commission,
while supporting child orien-
tation in some respects, was
on the side of reaction, not
only with its unnecessary
class channelling of Grade 7
pupils into academic and vo-
cational; but also in relegat-
ing the arts and the crafts ——
from music to home econom-
ics — to the fringe. Poverty-
stricken fringe treatment is
what these subjects are get-
ting in most - schools
though it is known that pro-
gress in creative expression is
the best assurance of progress
in all subjects.

To recognize what the re-
cent massive Back Mac cam-
paign accomplished, by an
article such as Caron’s re-
viewing education in general,
is to make an important con-
tribution. I would criticize
one aspect of the article: one
cannot dump so broad and
diverse a thinker as Dewey
into either right or left wing,
after looking at just one of his
basic views. For example, in
the struggle for child orienta-
tion mentioned above be-
tween the progressives (‘‘ex-
perimentalists” or “permissiv-
ists’) and the routinists, Dew-
ey is the pioneer spokesman
for the former in the U.S. The
fruits of this struggle are seen
in nearly everything most
teachers are doing in our local
classrooms.

Corespondents are urged to keep
their letters to a inaximum of 250
words. We are anxious to pub-
lish as many letters as possible,
but because of the limited space
in our paper, we find it necessary
to limit their length.

When necessary the editors of
the PT also reserve the right to
abridge a letter in accordance
with space requirements. All
letters must be signed, but if a
pen name is desired, please indi-

cate.

North Vietnam has irrigated 2,-
680,000 acres for rice growing
since 1955.

The Captain From Koepenick, represented by a local actor,
returns to his old town, now under a socialist town council and
part of the German Democratic Republic.

HEN he stepped cautiously,

from a public lavatory in’
Kcepenick, Berlin, one day in
1906, Wilhelm Voigt did not know
he was about to commit a hoax
that would go down in history.
The old shoemaker did not want
to hoax anyone. He was desper-
ate. Just out of jail for petty
theft, Prussian bureaucracy said
that unless he had a job he could
have no identity card. And—no
card, no job.

But Koepenick was in the heart
of militarist Prussia where any
uniform was an Open Sesame.
And a natty captain’s uniform
in a second hand shop sparked
an idea.

Having changed in the station
toilet, ‘‘Captain’” Voigt came out
and was saluted by the station-
master. He returned it with the
Prussian arrogance he had long

studied in jail. :

A platoon of soldiers was pass-
ing. He comandeered it, marched
to the Koepenick Town Hall, oc-
cupied it, arrested the mayor and
impounded the files. But the pap-
ers were not there and the right
rubber stamp was missing. Fin-
ally, he left “his” men there and
went off with the town’s finances,
reluctantly. He only wanted a
card.

His hoax made Prussian mili-
tarism a laughing stock in the
world and Koepenick famous.

The Captain’s hoax

From that day in 1906, Koepen-
ick Went on developing. Its glor-
ious forests, lakes and rivers.
were the playground for Berlin’s
aristocrats and wealthy. A big
industrial section grew by the
river.

For both these reasons, it was
one of the first places chosen by
the nazis to conduct a terror cam-
paign when they took power. In
June, 1933, the first “Blood
Week” took place there, when
many democrats and trade un-
ionists were murdered.

In 1945 it was one of the first
places in Berlin freed by the
Soviet Army.

Each year now, the captain’s
hoax is replayed as a high spot
in Koepenick’s Summer Festival.
“Voigt” visits his old haunts and
especially the town hall, which
is still standing.

But now, when he meets Herb-
ert Fechner, the present mayor,
he finds no starched Prussian
but a former telephone lineman
... Prussian ‘‘city fathers’”’ have
given place to a Socialist town
council’. . . all of the town’s
industries have been nationalized

. . the town authority contains
no former Nazis. . .

And no doubt Captain Voigt is
pleased to see that his old jail
is now a storeroom.

April.

A Poem of Thanks

While Mr. and Mrs. Sydney Godwin, of Courtenay, were on the
ast stage of their long journey to Moscow this spring, Godwin, who is
76 years old, had a very grave heart attack. Shortly after his arrival
by train in Moscow on March 15 he was taken in an ambulance to

Botkin Hospital, where he remained under treatment until the end of

His wife, who is the sister of Dr. A. Inglis of Vancouver, was sv
impressed by the skill and kindness of the medical staff of the hospital
that before she and her husband set off on their return journey, she
wrote the following poem, which was reprinted in the Moscien
News,” issue of Saturday, May 18:

The long, long night is over,
Tears of relief come fast.
Thanks to the Soviet doctors
We're going home at last.

Fears like the mists of morning
Are melting before my eyes.
Soon we'll be winging westwards
To far Canadian skies.

¥
Black are the fears of midnight,
Deepened by ignorance.
Fairer, then, seems the dawning,
Like wakening from a trance.

, *&
Friends in the Soviet Union;
Great is our debt to you.
Soon we shall see our children,
“Dosvidanya,”’ not ‘‘Adieu!”’

June 21, 1963—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5