1I
Sev enty-Sixth Year
EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS Of THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
UNDER AUTHORITY OF BOARD IN CONTROL OF STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
Learning as Process in the Pre -School
'a A" free- 420 MAYNARD ST., ANN ARBOR, MICi-.
Prevail
Ni~ws PHONE: 764-4552
Editorials printed in The Michigan Daily express the individual opinions of staff writers
or the editors. This must be noted in all reprints.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8,1965 NIGHT EDITOR: JOHN MEREDITH
The Diag Housing Rally:
A Commendable Start
STEWART GORDON and Russel Linden
said some surprisingly relevant things
at the Voice-sponsored housing rally on
the Diag yesterday noon. With ideas and
approaches such as they espoused, the
growing. student concern with housing
at the University could accomplish much.
But still, the complexity of the issues
they face is appalling indeed.
In the dorms, the problem centers
around a baby boom that arrived on
schedule. and a University that did not.
Administrative and legislative apathy
have pit the University far in the rear of
the nation's race to equip its colleges for
increasing enrollments.
Not the smallest of the dorm's problems
are the tradition-bound financing prac-
tices currently used in University resi-
dence halls. The policy of financially
isolating the residence halls, which pre-
vents the University's.investments profits
from aiding dorm financing, is an ana-
chronism which should be eliminated.
Apartments begin with the same prob-
lem;, the baby boom, but wind up in a dif-
ferent financial mess. That mess is, of
course, the totally disproportionate rents
charged almost all students in Ann Arbor.
Voice has estimated owners' profits at
something like 25 to 45 per cent of their
original investment, while the national
average runs around only eight to 12 per
cent. Their estimates appear to be quite
accurate; no apartment owners have de-
nied them. and several have admitted
them, Surely it is a gross understate-
Ment to;say that something is very wrong.
PROBLEMS SUCH AS THESE will de-
mand a great of thoughtful intensive
work to unravel. Evidently, Voice is be-
ginning such work, but whether or not
it can 'gather the popular support neces-
sarys to put its solutions into effect will
have to be seen.
There were,. nonetheless, two unfortu-
nate, though minor, tendencies in what
Voiee's spokesmen said yesterday.
The .first is a somewhat paranoid ten-
dency to blane several administrators
personally for the University's housing
mess. That is blatantly unfair in any but
the most doctrinaire sense.
It cannot be denied that the adminis-
tration was probably much less alarmed
about the baby boom than it should have
been. It also is probably true that the'ad-
ministration has acted far from ade-
quately to correct housing problems once
they have become evident. For these, ad-
ministrators can be reasonably criticized.
But to accuse them of some shadowy
"deal" with The Establishment is to verge
on a schematic analysis of the problem
which is false itself and which cannot
help but lead to further errors in pro-
test policy.
THE SECOND unfortunate tendency is
an as-yet-unspoken possibility which
should be guarded against as strongly as
the first. There was talk on the Diag yes-
terday about student action to construct
housing independent of University con-
trol.
In itself this is a pretty good idea,
whether or not it is too practical. The
danger lies in the possibility of such
thinking leading to de facto ignoring of
housing problems within University-own-I
ed buildings.
Any housing movement cannot afford
to ignore as much potential support for
its cause as can be found within the resi-
dence halls. Residents there are disad-
vantaged as residents anywhere; their
needs must not be ignored.
AT THE MOMENT, though, these are
mere statements of precaution, not
indictments of errors. Voice, and the
general united front for good student
housing, appear strong and growing. Most
important, they seem to be gathering the
beginnings of the large following they
will need to be effective.
With a realistic, large-scale approach
to housing problems, they may soon be
well able to strike out at the causes of
their discontent.
-LEONARD PRATT
AMONG THAT LARGE majority
of college students who feel
neither politically alienated from
their society nor especially ap-
prehensive about finding some
sort of satisfaction in their lives,
at least one increasingly evident
characteristic is a strange mixture
of outward and spoken obeisance
to The Way Things Are (plus
How I Have To Be To Fit In
and a deeper, unexpressible and
uncomprehended sense of frustra-
tion and fear.
This mixture is reflected in the
tremendous energy investment in
many of the common leisure ac-
tivities as students search for ful-
fillment in assertion; in vague
doubts about personal and social
futures; in shallow defenses of
Establishment politics and among
a few the cautious but noticeable
adoption of certain dress patterns
commonly thought of as "beat."
TO DETERMINE the source, of
this condition, one must inevitably
trace the whole history of an in-
dividual's opportunities for de-
veloping self awareness and of his
experiences with others. Taking
this probe back to the person's
early pre-school years, one finds
a peculiar pattern more or less
evident for whole populations.
The two aspects of that pattern
_both found in educational ex-
periences-are a relative lack of
opportunity for spontaneous, un-
restricted and purely interest-
based expression and exploration
and the relatively forced, artifi-
cial nature of group involvements.
In most of our kindergartens and
public schools, curriculum, grad-
ing and promoting requirements,
teaching methods and even teach-
er personality are generally rou-
tinized, standardized, inflexible
and unrelaxed, as well as un-
stimulating and unresponsive with
respect to the child's changing and
unique interests, moods and needs.
(For instance, the teacher and
the school have their quotas-
complete the workbooks, promote
so many out of the class, cover so
much material, indoctrinate the
children with such and suchideas
-and inevitably the children must
fit the quota and the curriculum
instead of the quotas and curricu-
lum following the interests and
needs of the children. Even if it
can be assumed that there must
be preset stages and standards
applied equally to every child, and
that every child ought to be or
is interested in or needs what the
curriculum presents when and how
it is presented, even if all this
can be granted there is still
precious little of that spontaneity
and personal discovery and doing
for oneself which are the only
bases of real intellectual ability
and real self knowledge."
AT THE SAME TIME, much of
the child's day is taken up with
reading, discussing, listening and
going on field trips with his peers.
During much of that time, how-
ever, he nmight well want to be
alone, may want to be engaged in
some different activity, may not
like some of his classmates or may
feel positively intimidated by hav-
ing to compete for attention and
having always to measure himself
against the others. Instead he
would naturally develop personal
goals against which to judge him-
self if he could structure his
time more freely and if the elders
present wholly accepted him and
acted mainly as resources. Now.
however, they are usually frown-
ing directors and graders.
Supposedly "groupness" in-
creases the child's ability to deal
with and tolerate others. But the
4unnaturalness of the group ex-
periences and their perceived un-
relatedness to the child's usual
patterns of associations make co-
operative functioning uncomfort-
able and dissatisfying and estab-
lish the nexus of most future
group relationships at a low level
of personal meaningfulness.
In actuality, the ways in which
the child learns to interact with
others are useful to him only in
the relatively useless and vaguely
dissatisfying world which has been
prepared for him-not the world
he might discover and like if left
to explore and associate as and
when he wants.
IF THIS PATTERN is repeated
throughout grade school and high
school, the adolescent who emerges
is highly unlikely to feel any
natural social consciousness, and
he is unlikely to know or be able
to express (or plan on expressing>
his own personal needs, talents
and perceptions. It is improbable
that the kind of life he enters in
today's universities or the world
of (at best) menial white collar
occupations is any more inher-
ently satisfying than what he has
known, yet he will not know how
to remove himself from his rut.
Nor can he really find much
meaning in the kinds of interper-
sonal relations of which he is
capable: others are only partially
interesting, even though the ado-
lescent may not really regard him-
self as interesting either.
At the same time, however,
mainly from not knowing himself
or how the rest of the social
system and its constituents would
I-- +_ h_ - 1 fr% '1Ghanl
stamina or self-confidence
exist wholly on his own.
to
TO MAKE the argument in a
slightly different way, the lack of
unrestricted stimulation and re-
sponsiveness in most American
classrooms today inevitably kills
for the child the need and ability
to question, to examine, to get to
the root of personal and social
phenomena. This ability and this
need are fundamentally procedur-
al in nature-their consequence is
the act of learning and in no way
whatsoever do they limit or define
the content of the conclusions
reached.
It is this capacity and love for
the process of exploration and ex-
perimentation which are perhaps
the most salient characteristics of
the whole person, the (radical) in-
tellectual. He cannot be stifled by
frustration or failure because what
matters most is how he operates
and not whether he succeeds; he
is capable of creation and of the
far more honest and far deeper
happiness which comes from self-
understanding.
OF COURSE it should not be
ignored that in many places in
these United States, at all levels
of education, there are 'some cour-
ageous attempts to make the ex-
perience of going to school fit the
needs of human beings, instead of
vice versa. The whole purpose of
this column, as a matter of fact,
is to tell about (and plug) one
such experiment which is going
to happen right here in Ann Ar-
bor.
Its one class will be only for
very small tots, but then it is
crucial to let a child live wholly
from the very beginning, for there
are certain things four- and five-
year-olds need or else a bit of
them dies.
At the start, The Children's
School will be a mere 18 chil-
dren and one teacher in the base-
Why Not?
By JEFFREY GOODMAN.
ment of St. Andrew's Episcopal
Church, but the 10 people open-
ing the school (mainly faculty
and student wives) have hopes of
expanding by at least one grade
a year. The school will enroll
children from poor families as
well as from the founders'- own
more or less middle class homes-
and the 10 hope also to form a
learning and interchanging com-
munity among parents and sym-
pathizers to make the whole con-
cept more complete and effective.
The purpose of this new en-
deavor-born in discussions over
the summer-is hardly to change
the world; quite simply, it is to
provide 18 little children a
good place to begin growing up.
THEIR BASIC conception rec-
ognizes the significance of the
atmosphere of the school in how
meaningful the curriculum will be.
A section of the school's "philos-
ophy" prospectus paints this
"tone" in terms of respect and
trust:
To respect a child a teacher
has to accept and encourage
spontaneous behavior, sugges-
tions, etc. She has to be un-
usually sensitive to his particu-
lar background so that she can
help him understand what is
good in himself and his people
and so she can help him to take,
on his terms, what the school
has to offer.
To trust a child a teacher
must allow him to make mis-
takes so he can come to dis-
covery. She must allow him to
argue, because she knows this
is a good way to learn to solve
problems. She must avoid using
shame, because she knows that
simple explanation and continu-
ed experience will be good
teachers of behavior.
She must allow for a good
deal of self-regulation in each
child's learning of the basic
skills, because she understands
that as with talking, walking
and drinking from a cup, the
clild' will develop these skills
when he is both ready for and
needful of them.
THERE IS ALSO, the strong
notion of "fraternal conscience
and tolerance:"
There will be a lot of con-
versation in our school, both
between students and teachers
and among students. There will
be plenty of movement, be-
cause life is full of movement
and movement is imperative for
interaction. There will be dis-
cussions in the classroom where
hostilities and resentments can
be worked out.
The teacher must have the
ability to direct anger into
creative channels, e.g., a paint-
ing or story ... She will under-
stand that a child who shouts,
"I don't like you" at another
child may be making the first
step on the path away from
the need to show anger physi-
cally.
THE SCHOOL'S curriculum it-
self will be maximally flexible:
At all times . . . children will
have a freedom of choice among
activities. The teacher and as-
sistants will be available to di-
rect and assist individual chil-
dren in following out their in-
terests. 'there will be several
periods each morning when one
of the activities that children
will have to choose from will
be lessons given by the teacher.
The teacher will understand
that some children must be di-
rected to be self-directed. She
will give these children extra
support and specific directions
as long as they need them.
. . .If what the teacher has
to teach is interesting enough,
most children will, in their own
time, come to want to learn with
her.
Private self -decriptions and
telling stories about one's family
and friends will hopefully en-
courage self-acceptance. Avoiding
competitive rewards, cultivating
the idea that learning should be
shared and stimulating coopera-
tive projects will hopefully con-
tribute to tolerance. There will be
a wealth of artistic materials.
Talking about new and different
peoples, learning about phenom-
ena in the outside world and go-
ing on field trips should bolster
children's curiosity. And after the
children are older there will be
someone to help them learn to
read-what they want, when they
want, at whatever speed they are
able.
Pius direct involvement of all
parents in suggesting and modify-
ing curriculum, in assisting in the
classroom, in learning about the
educational principles informing
the school, in discussing and com-
ing to understand their reactions
to their own children's behavior.
PRE-SCHOOLS across the na-
tion already harbor the most ex-
perimentation, the most flexible
and respecting atmosphere for
children. This one is particularly
exciting, however, because it is so
close; because it is new, because it
is guided by some very intelligent
and interested, people, because it
offers a very delightful and brittle
and important bit of hope.
The Children's School will cost
almost $6000 at the start. Its
treasurer is Mrs. Nancy Frappier.
How- Can SGC Best Be Improved?
Tuition Hike-Good Timing
IF HIGHER UNIVERSITY rent must be
paid,If tuition is indeed destined to
rise further, there is a consolation-maxi-
mum advantage was made this summer
of the timing of the increase.
The reasons for a tuition increase may
be manifold, stemming either from an ac-
celerated and 'more adequate education-
al effort or from rising costs, or both.
These reasons may be calculated and
,defined, but the appropriateness of the
increase depends upon individual inter-
pretation. However, there can be little
fault found with the strategy recently
performed-except perhaps the dubious
ethic of absolute openness with the state
-which yielded the University the maxi-
mum funds available for its budget.
WHAT HAPPENED: Governor Romney
approved a 1965-66 legislative appro-
priation that included an increase of
more than $6 million for the University
after intense conflict between the Michi-
gan House of Representatives and Senate.
The following day University officials
announced the tuition and rent increases
-amounting to a rental hike of $50 and a
tuition increase ranging from $15 to $100
per student.
Why this action was best: Had the
rent-tuition hike been announced prior
Editorial Staff
ROBERT JOHNSTON, Editor'
LAURENCE KIRSHBAUM JEFFREY GOODMAN
Managing Editor Editorial Director
JUDITH FIELDS......... Acting Personnel Director
LAUREN BAHR......... Associate Managing Editor
JUDITH WARREN .. Acting Assistant Managing Editor
ROBERT HIPPLER ....... Associate Editorial Director
GAIT BLUMBERG................ Magazine Editor
LLOYD GRAFF............... Acting Sports Editor
NIGHT EDITORS: Susan Collins, John Meredith,
Leonard Pratt, Peter Sarasohn, Bruce wasserstein.
ASSISTANT NIGHT EDITORS: Michael Badamo,
Clarence Fpnto, Mark Kilingsworth, Robert Moore,
Dick Wingfield.
Business Staff
CY WELLMAN, Business Manager
ALAN QLUECKMAN ............ Advertising Manager
JOYCE FEINBERG................Finance Manager
to the time the budget increase was sign-
ed, the assumption--however true or false
-would have prevailed that the Univer-
sity needed less than the proposed in-
crease because the tuition-rent hike
could be expected to partially offset the
need.
IN APPORTIONING state funds there is
rarely an absolute necessity to be re-
garded-rather, legislators must respect
the relative needs of Michigan's other
schools, That is, this University would
not have been so ruined as to be forced
into the "desperate" action of dismissing
its corps of dormitory housemothers or
leasing out Angell Hall if the budget in-
crease had not been granted.
Rather, the quality and extent of re-
search may have been impaired some-
what, library book purchases may have
been curtailed or perhaps teaching fel-
lows may have had to take a cut in salary.
The latter matters are (hopefully) rela-
tively important to University officials,
students and others interested in the
quality of education here.
Being charged with the responsibility
of bringing more financial resources into
University research, making available
more library materials and maintaining
(at least) a status quo in teachers' salar-
ies, University officials acted wisely-
playing trump cards after the legislators'
hands had been shown.
IN REGARD TO ETHICS: There is an
aura of naivity surrounding Sen. Jan
B. Vanderploeg (D-North Muskegon) who
said University policymakers were acting
in "ill faith" by boosting tuition rates,
"They paraded before us, in all their
typical splendor," he said, "a list of fig-
ures, a raft of charts, an outline of basic
needs.
"But never once in the presentation ...
was there an allusion to a possible tui-
tion increase."
1ION'CTR ATTTT ATTONS GENTL.MEN.
To the Editor:
LEONARD PRATT'S editorial of
September 3 "'"'Pockets of In-
terest': A Way To Improve SGC")
suggests not a way to improve
SGC, but to transform it into a
mockery of the democratic proc-
ess - a powerful organization
which could easily be dominated
by a willful but small minority.
Mr. Pratt speaks of ad hoc
groups, such as the groups pro-
testing the war in Viet Nam, 'fill-
ing a "void" of action because of
SGC's weakness. These groups
are not filling a void, but func-
tioning in a proper way, and in
a way which would not be proper
for SGC.
If SGC were dominated by a
group with this specific interest,
and if it acted on this interest,
either through stands taken or fi-
nanced programs, it would be out
of place on two accounts. One, it
would not be representing the ma-
jority student opinion on this
campus; and two, even if it did
represent majority opinion, it
would be unfairly using its voice
and funds.
SGC's voice speaks for all of
us and its funds come from all of
us. Why should a student be forc-
ed to pay money to support a
particular Viet Nam interest, just
so he can attend this university?
Specific political programs should
be financed and carried out by
student voluntary groups, as they
are presently. If they seem more
active and effective than SGC, it
is because their membership is
more interested.
SGC's "membership," at least
financially, is the entire student
body, and its program must be
based on this fact-even if the
apathetic constituency weakens
the government.
I AM AGREED with Mr. Pratt
that SGC needs, improvement.
Better it attempt to strengthen its
base by trying to interest more
people in working on its commit-
tees, through greater and more
creative advertising, perhaps tak-
ing a lesson from MUSKET, Soph
Show, Homecoming, and other
campus groups. 1
-Paul Kirby, '67
Irresponsibility?
To the Editor:
YOUR "EDITOR'S NOTE" after
the letter from E. J. Smith is
of course a mere weasel. It high-
lights the irresponsibility of your
paper's editorial policy.
No responsible paper-amateur
or professional-tries to evade re-
sponsibility for the opinions ex-
pressed in its editorials. Most of
them have periodic meetings of
the senior editors to determine the
paper's official attitude on issues
and specific editorials are then
assigned to the individual best
qualified to express that atttitude.
The public is accustomed to
think of the lefthand columns on
fh nra+Aral 1am O~+,m d -n..!i
Underdevelopmient
%61
The result is that from the
editorials offered you are able to
select those representing your par-
ticular bias, yet hide gutlessly
behind the claim that "it's an in-
dividual opinion, not the Daily's."
It's as obvious as a sledgeham-
mer that you do have a policy on
every subject in the world. Why
don't you have the courage (the
first requirement of editors) to
stand up and be counted as a pa-
per?
WHILE ON the subject, why
don't you give a far larger portion
of your editorial page to dissenters
from your opinions? You certainly
don't kid yourself (whatever you
tell others) that you represent the
majority-or even a large minor
ity of student opinion on this
campus!.
As Smith said, "I ask that you
print this as a public service," but
I doubt you will.
-T. V. Bede, '66
Two Questions
To the Editor:
JHAVE TWO unrelated ques-
tions to raise, one concerning
the Cinema Guild, the other, the
tennis courts on campus. Possi-
bly someone in an authoritative
position can answer them.
Regarding the Cinema Guild-
it would be of benefit if its lo-
IN MY MIND the legality con-
cerning the case is not really im-
portant. What is important is
that whether or not Eadie and
Hornberger "pulled a fast one" on
the students, there are many who
think that they did. Thus a cer-
tain aura of shadiness will -always
surround any future Hornberger
administration and will make it
clearly impossible to win the full
student support which the IQC so
desperately needs. An election
would clear the air and would'at
least give the IQC a chance to
have a president whose very'xist-
ence is not challenged and won-
dered.
If Mr. Hornberger is the best
candidate for the office, he should
have no fear of such an election.
I would urge him to forget his
petty "delusions of grandeur" and
to place his name in nomination
in a freely-contested election.
--Mark Rosenberg, '69
EQC Representative
Greene House
Newman Protest
To the Editor:
ANYONE READING the New-
man Association's diag sign one
September 7 would have concluded
that Newman was sponsoring that
day's activities protesting Ann Ar-
bor's "seedy housing and villain-
ous landlords."
However, after considerable in-
vestigation, one would have dis-
covered that the noon diag rally
and evening meeting at the Un-
ion were actually sponsored by
Voice's Housing Committee and
that the Newman Association had
not been approached in posting
Voice's publicity banner.
The Newman Association also
opposes any unfair housing, but
objects to this irresponsibility by
Voice.
-Lawrence Cogut, '66
Undergraduate Director,
Newman Student Association
Why Have Classes?
To the Editor:
YNN A. METZGER raised some
intriguing questions in her edi-
torial in Wednesday's Daily, espe-
cially when she asked, "True, we
must fulfill the University's re-
quirements . .to earn the right to
have a degree from here, but why
must these requirements consume
my valuable time which I feel
could be put to better use?"
After reading Miss Metzger's edi-
torial, I have begun to wonder
about some similar academic prob-
lems. I would like to know why
we can't do the frugue on top of
our desks during lectures. Why the
University doesn't provide free
scotch and soda during examina-
tions? Why we have to wear
clothes at recitations? When the
instructor tells us to write at the
board, why we can't write dirty
words?'
College,. in fact, would be all
-._ VL - 4-- ----- tt1..
Li.
year round sport here, it's never-
theless important enough to merit
better treatment than it has re-
ceived on Palmer Field or on the
grounds near tht I-M Building.
-Steve Shavell, '68
IQC Controversy
To the Editor:
AS A FRESHMAN and especial-
ly as both a freshman and a
member of the East; Quad Coun-
cil, I find that the dispute over
the Inter - Quadrangle Council
presidency presents an interest-
ing if somewhat disconcerting
view of my new home at this Uni-
versity. Somehow I expected the
dormitory government of such a
large and famous institution as
Michigan to be efficient, ably-led
and dominant in the realm of stu-
dent affairs.
I have not been on campus long
enough to fairly judge the work
of the IQC, but I must admit
that I am a bit suspicious of an
organization which has trouble
even keeping a president.
The first thing that occurs to
me when I think of the situation
is that Mr. Hornberger seems to
be going to a lot of trouble to
avoid an election by the house
presidents. His supporters assert
that he is the only man for the
job, but if this is true then what
could he possibly have to fear in
a free election? Of-course, I realize'
that my status as a lowly fresh-
.-- - - -.- . . -
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h