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