• •
r a mini
job cr atia
BENTO HARBOR - Hope
wa the ba 'c message of a town
meeting in Benton Harbor'
Columbus School recently, spon­
sored by the Tri-County
U1J eri Council on Employ­
ment and Economic Develop­
ment.
The alliance of mini ters
presented spokesmen from six
area enc involved with job
training and human rvices
within Berrien, Ca and Van
Buren Counties. Pa tor Auldwin
Humphrey, chairman of the
minister' council, oke about
the unique opportunity facing
the minister. He cited their
ability to net or between
employer and employee and
"communicate with city dwel­
lers" in need of jobs.
Richard Dombo told the
udience of over 50 people
bout the Private Indu try Coun­
cil leadership role in forming
p rtnership to offer job
trainin and job placement to
re . ents of the three counties.
The PIC Executive Director
al de ribed his ency a a
unifying force behind effort
to find job for area re . ents,
AI Lan of the ichipn
Employment Security Comrni -
'on re d the importance of
hope and the dangers of givin
up hen searchin for 0 .-
Ed ood, director of the Ben­
ton Harbor adult educ tion
program, claimed that the dult .
ers tudy
s rategy
illiteracy program was making
a difference for those referred
there and that it was "second
to none in the ate".
The Benton Harbor Learning
Opportunities Center (LOC)
combat illiteracy as well,
according to' Victor Walton,
program coordinator for the
center. A comprehen ive com­
petency program that stre
individualized, self-paced learn­
ing i a feature of the Center
he said.
Walter Burt of the Grand
Rapid Job Corps Center intro­
duced Pat ric Campbell, 20
years old and Sheila Wiggins,
22 years old, as two succe
stories from the Benton Har­
bor area who h d benefitted
from the Joint Action in Com­
munity Service (J ACS) training.
J arne Tomson from the
Region IV Area Agency on
Aging talked about the advan­
tage of hiring mature orker
and the, efforts made by the
ency to place older workers.
He repeated the saying that
ha described the philosophy
of his group: "Ability is age-
ess; experience is priceless".
The Tri-county Ministerial
Council plans to hold more
town meeting in the future
to "bridge the communications
gap" that sometimes ist be­
tween people seeking job and
employers with jobs to offer.
NEWS BRIEFS
Continued from Plge 1
upst te ew York last eek
paid S 14.5 million for an
F radio tat ion bro dcast-
in the Washington, D.C.
metropolitan area. The Black
group is a limited partner­
ship headed Rochester, . Y.
lawyer Vincent Henry.
Henry i the son of Phila­
delphia-ba d Regan Henry -
perhaps the nation's most
cce ul Bla k radio station
o nero The 14.5 million
paid for WXTR-F is be­
lieved to be one of the
largest amounts ever paid by
a Blac group in order to
purchase a r dio station.
Currently, fe er than 200
of America' 9,000 radio
ations are owned by Blacks.
CAmOLIC HYM AL
AIMED AT LACKS
Chic 0, m. - A new
Roman Catholic hymnal de-
lgned to m e worship r­
vice more meaningful to
Bl parishioners will be
published early nex t year.
Church official made the
announcement la week in
Chic The hymnal pro-
ject a initiated by Auxi-
liary Bishop Jame Ly e of
Cleveland who asked Blac
clergy, educator and laity
to gge music - for the
book. In recent years, the
Catholic church has en a
rapid growth in the number
of Black member. The
hymnal is expected to be
used by predominantly Black
parisher .
_ FREED FTER TE
YE RS IN J IL
Elizabeth, .1. - Two
wee sago athaniel Walker
was serving his tenth year of
a life-plus-50-year ntence
for kidnapping, domy and
rape. However, last week
the 43-year-old Black man
walked out of a Union
County courthouse a free
man after a review of old
evidence determined that he
could not po ibly have be n
the man who committed the
crime. prison chaplain -
James cClo ey - took up
the Walker ca and forced
the re-examination of 12-
year-old meso The review
determined that the man who
committed the crime had
type B blood. Walker ha
type A blood,
. ORKING FOR JOBS - MO • er from the BentoD Harbor area 0 e joined to help create . b
include; front.ro , left to riPt: P or Auldwin Humphrey, Rev. Lawrence Crockett, Dr. Richard
Dombos Walter Burlc and Ed Wood ro ,left to right: Jam Tom 0, Victor Walton, AI ,
Rev. Walter Bro and P or Elbert Clar .
All children are potentially gifted
By Terry White
ozart began composing
symphonies at the age of 6 and
was, before the age of 10,
regarded as the wonder-boy
of the age. By the time Brahms
was 9, he was known as a
child prodigy of the piano and
before the age of 20, had com­
posed piano pieces that are
ill played today. William
Blake, who wa If-educated,
began writing poetry at the
age of 12. Shelly had already
published two novel before he
entered Oxford University at
the age of 19.
Our greatest minds, of course,
have not alway been demon-
trateively child geniuses. Very
little is known of Shakespeare's
early life, but the indication is
that he was busy with sport ,
hunting and woodcraft in his
childhood. Ein rein didn't even
speak until he was 4 years old.
Wernher Von Braun, the father
of rocketry, flunked high school
algebra.
But what is certain is that
some children do seem to have
remarkable aptitudes for learn­
mg subjects and ills that
many adults have trouble with.
In 1971, the U.S. Department
of Education categorized 2 mil­
lion children a 'Gifted and
Talented." Today, educators
are saying there may be as
many as 5 million, an increa
largely due to an extension
of the classification to include
not only children with very
high intelligence and academic
ability, but al tho with
exceptional leadership, artistic
or athletic skill .
There has been a widespread
belief that gifted children
should be treated differently,
that their parents somehow bear
a special respon ibility. And
there has al been a general
conception that a genious was
mehow treading clo to in­
nity and that anyone with
exceptional intelligence would
have far more difficulty deal­
ing with social and everyday
life.
ot only have the myths
been found fallacious, but new
research and innovations in the
educational field no demon-
trate that the great majority
of children could have "gifted"
qualities if they were properly
encouraged at an early age.
A 1975 udy began to shed
new light on the phenomenon
when it found that 58 .percent
of the mothers of gifted chil­
dren. had college degrees a
compared to 8.9 percent of the
general population (1970 fiJ­
ures). It wasn't natural born
intelligence, passed on through
heredity, but educational train­
ing that emed to contribute
most to the developmen of
gifted children.
A similar conclusion had been
reached by Dr. Glenn Doman
after he developed methods to
teach most children to read
and do math by the age of 3
or 4.
Originally developed 40 year
ago for brain-damaged children
and only in recent years adapt­
ed for normal children, Do­
man's method uses flash cards
to teach children words and
arithmetic even before they can
talk. The result is that most
Doman technique children have
IQs rangin from 178 to a
r to heric 220. onnally
a score of 140 i considered
very perior. By government
standard almo t any Doman
educated child ould be cIa d
a gifted.
'Everyone has been examin­
ing the brain of Albert Ein-
tein," y Doman. "The
thing d riving everyone crazy
is that it's ju like the brain
of anybody el ,. He argues
that anyone ha virtually the
sam potential and that kids
just need the right help to
more fully realize it.
But Doman's critics point
out that hi methods have not
been used on normal children
Ion enough to prove that
children will continue to stay
ahead of their peers. And as
yet, hi theories have not been
u d long enough on normal
children to aIlo for a 20 year
old ienti with major dis­
coveries to his credit or an 18
year old corporate president.
In referring to Doman's
methods which are used by
mothers, Dr. ancy Rader of the
Infant and Child Studies Labor­
atory at UCLA adds, "I'm
not re that being a mother
necessarily makes you a good
teacher." Other studies have
found that children -whose
parents use Doman's technique
create a heavy dependency upon
the parent in the learning pro­
ce , so much that these
children then have difficulties
learning in another environment
away from parents.
onetheless, what Doman
has clearly demonstrated is that
even a small 'child' s IQ can be
increa d through educational
programs. (And it would con­
versely and to reason that
they can al be lowered by the
wrong education.)
"A child must learn all the
ingredients that contribute to
success in adult life," says
Marg Harris, a teacher at the
Delphi Academy in 10 Angeles.
"We try to give students the
ability to reason and parate
fal data from hat's demon­
stratively true, the ability to
effectively study, and a kno -
ledge of where to find what
one needs to know. But at the
arne time w teach student
that honesty and inte rify to
them Ives and to tho about
them are equally important.
In many wa , we are wor ing
to educate the leaders of
tomorrow people who can
accomplish, who have sound
ethical judgment and who have
a high degree of social respon­
sibility."
If there is no other Ie n
one gleans from the educat­
ional succe ses of different
"alternative" methods of edu­
cation - it is that a child'
potential is often far reater
than is regularly addre sed. Our
children may not all be budding
geniu s but their abilities and
intelligence range far above th
norm in today' ciety. Th
les' n for parents m to be
that all we have to do i or to
bring the forth.