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July 07, 1959 - Image 1

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Publication:
Michigan Daily, 1959-07-07

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4p-
a C

LIEt 4fElF
Sixty-Eight Years of Editorial Freedom

D7aii4

FAIR, WARMER

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN, TUESDAY, JULY 7, 1959

FIVE CENTS

FOUR PA

STUDI
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Following is
the fourth in a. series of five ar-
ticles ,byUniversity'PresidentHar-
lan Hatcher on his recent trip to
the Soviet Union as head of a dele-
gation which studiedhigher educa-
tion. This series of articles origin-
ally appeared in The Detroit News.
The original articles by President
Hatcher are reprinted here in full.)
By HARLAN HATCHER
What is the Soviet student like?
Is he better prepared for college
than the American student? Does
he really work harder than stu-
dents in this country? What are
s t u d e n t living quarters like?
What does the Soviet college stu-
dent know about life in the United
States?
These are some of the questions
I have been asked most frequent-
ly since returning from the So-
viet Union. Interestingly enough,
they are quite similar to questions
about student life in the United

TS

ORK H

RD1

RUSSI

States put to members of our
delegation everywhere we went in
the USSR.I
Our visits to Soviet universities
almost always included several
hours spent in witnessing actual
classroom work as well as meet-
ings with groups of students. On a
number of occasions we actually
had the happy privilege of parti-
cipating in discussions in our
areas of special interest.
Visit Rooms
At the University of Miscow, for
example, we not only had the
usual interviews with top admin-
istrative officials and members of
the faculty, but we were shown
through the dormitories where we
visited student rooms and talked
to the young people who were liv-
ing there. While far from elabor-
ate, these rooms were clean, com-
fortable, and above all, well-kept.
We also discovered that Mos-

cow University has a married stu-
dent problem just as do most of
our American colleges and univer-
sities. The only difference is that
they do not recognize it as such
and are making no special pro-
visions for the housing of married
couples. F
Marriage Forbidden
By university regulation, one of
the administrative officials told
us, students are not permitted to
marry. However, he added; "there,
are some things which you can't
legislate against." Therefore, he
explained, if you see forty or fifty
small fry running around the
halls of the dormitories or out on
the campus, you will know that
they have taken up residence here
too.
At the University of Moscow,
and also at the Foreign Languages
Institute, we had lunch in the
student cafeterias. Judging from

our admittedly limited experience
in this regard, we found both the
variety and the quantity of food
surprisingly good. It was also very
inexpensive.
The most rewarding of all our
experiences were discussions with
the students themselves in the
classroom and informally. I had
the pleasure of participating in a
seminar on American literature
conducted by a distinguished pro-
fessor on English at Moscow Uni-
versity. My colleague Cyril James,'
Vice-Chancellor of McGill Uni-
versity In Montreal and an econ-
omist by profession, was invited
to lecture to an advanced group
of what would probably corre-
spond to graduate students at the
Institute for Economic Studies in
Moscow. After a brief discussion
in one of the English language
classes at the Institute for For-
eign Languages, I also was re-

quested to cut a tape 'so they co
study how someone from
Midwest, at least, speaks the E
lish language.
In all these contacts, and o
ers, we found the Soviet stude
alert, eager, and intelligent. ]
haps this was best illustrated
an incident which occurred c
ing Dr. James' lecture to
economics group - a l e c t i
which, incidentally, was giver
English and was followed by m
than an hour of discussion in
same language.
Recalls Detail
Dr. James' lecture was on Ca
dian-American economics and
lationships, and for a moment
one point in the lecture he pai
to recall a statistic on some r
tively minor aspect of the Ca
dian economy.
"Let's see," he said, "I dc
See SOVIETS, Page 3

Turns Against Social Order
In modern England, the director explained, "the Empire is gone,
the world is changed" and the youth "turns his anger against all
social order."
Osborne created as his main character a "complete nihilist,"
Prof. Norton said, whose anger is vented "against all established
things which he thinks are out-of-date, dead and gone" and which
have "robbed him of rchances he would have had if he had been an
Edwardian young man."
This central theme, he commented, is pointed up by Osborne's
choice of a title-"'Look Back' are the more important words."
Because they look to the past when asked what their solution to the
lack they feel in their society, the angry young men say "I don't
know," he said.

DEMOCRATS:
Butler Hit'
By Party's
Criticism
WASHINGTON (P)-A demand
for Paul Butler's resignation as
Democratic National Chairman
sounded yesterday as Senate and
House Democrats furiously replied
to Butler's criticism of the Demo-
cratic leadership in Congress.
While Republicans listened with
unconcealed happiness, various
Democrats denounced Butler as a
party wrecker and heaped praise
on Senate Democratic Leader Lyn-
don B. Johnson of Texas, House
Speaker Sam Rayburn of Texas
and other Democratic legislative
leaders.
Republicans kept quiet. Their
Senate leader, Sen. Everett M.
Dirksen of Illinois, looking not a
bit grieved, remarked that it is
"the better part of wisdom" not
to get mixed up in other people's
family brawls.
Butler Unhappy
Butler started the fraternal fra-
cas. He said in a televised inter-
view Sunday quite a few Demo-
crats were unhappy about the
performance of, the Democratic-
controlled Congress and the party
will be "in a, tough situation" for
the 1960 presidential election un-
less the leadership comes up with
what he regards as a better record.
But Rep. William Jennings
Bryan Dorn (D-S.C.) told the
House he had reliable information
Butler had sometimes supported
Republican candidates, and now,
he said, the chairman was falling
for a Republican trick to divide the
Democrats and win the 1960 elec-
tion.
Adds Truth
He said Butler should resign and
be replaced by someone "Demo-
crat party-born and party-bred."
Butler's blast, Dorn said, "lends
some truth to recent reports that
Mr. Butler is masterminding a
plan to oust Rayburn as permanent
chairman of the (1960 presiden-
tial) convention, to unseat House
Democratic Leader John W. Mc-
Cormack of Massachusetts as
chairman of the convention plat-
form committee and to appoint a
convention credentials committee
which would deny seating to sev-
eral delegates from Southern
states. . .."

Russians Announce

Recovery

of Animals

in

Rocke

Psychiatrist
Visits Long
At Capital
BATON ROUGE, La. W) - A
specialist in nervous and mental
diseases was summoned here last
night to examine Gov. Earl K.
Long.
The Governor arrived at the
executive mansion late in the day.
Gov. Long's move upon his re-
turn to the capital was to call in
prospective members of his re-
election ticket for a conference.
No sooner had they gathered then
the Governor lapsed into a deep
sleep in their presence.
While the conference continued
elsewhere without him, Gov. Long
slept for nearly two hours.
When he awoke, Dr. Charles
Watkins was on hand to examine
Gov. Long. The physician is direc-
tor of neurology and psychiatry
for the Louisiana State University
Medical School in New Orleans.
Gov. Long appeared fatigued
when he arrived here from his
Winnfield farm where he had re-
laxed after Fourth of July speech-
making.
Capt. John Vitale of the state
police quoted Gov. Long as saying
he would hold a news conference
at the mansion at 2 p.m. today
"if he is able."
State Rep. Spencer Myrick of
West Carroll Parish who drove
the Governor here from Winn-
field, said upon arriving that.
Gov. Long is "a little bushed. We
are trying to get him to take a
nap."
The last time the ailing, 63-
year-old Governor was in the
capital as functioning chief of
state was on May 30, the day he
was. forcibly removed for mental
observation.,
He visited the capital last Fri-
day overnight.

JAMESON TALKS ON,
Teachers L
4-
High school English teachers
"very badly underestimate" their
students' abilities, Robert U. Jam-
eson told an audience of such
teachers yesterday.
Calling for tests and examina-
tions which attempt to measure
more deeply the student's under-
standing of a literary work~ Jame-

TESTS:
~ne

restimate Students,

Clarifying his nomenclature, he
said a test "is a short-answer
thing" which is "objective, reli-
able and accurate and therefore
very useful," while an examina-
tion calls for an essay-type an-
swer which can never be graded
with 100 per cent objectivity but
is used to evaluate a student's
comprehension.
Discussing "teacher - designed"
tests for the purpose of evalua-
tion, rather than diagnosis, he
cited four reasons for giving them.
One purpose is "to verify what
we already know about a stu-
dent"; another, to "get a good
solid grade for the month," add-
ing "if you 'think I think there's
something wrong with marks,
you're right."
The others were to give 'the
student preparation for college
and to test whether or not the
student really read the book. Jame-
son sets no sense in eliminating
tests, emphasizing that "colleges
do use them."
Cut Uselessness
But he did express a desire to
see the elimination of "useless
tests and examinations," giving
the audience a glimpse of his per-
sonal views on what constitutes
this uselessness.
A test, he commented, can be-
come useless "if' the reasons for
giving it are trivial." Illustrating
his thesis, he recounted a recent
experience of a high school girl
whom he was coaching in Eng-
lish. The girl received a high score
on an objective test on the princi-
ples of punctuation, yet "the re-
sult was misleading-the girl can't
punctuate a paragraph."
"Rules are nonsense," he said,
if one just learns them. He
stressed instead the concept of
learning to apply them in proper
context and advocated tests built
on this premise.

f

Perpetually Frustrated
Prof. Norton characterized the generation as living in "perpetual
frustration," never able to succeed in destroying the social order they
despise and failing to adjust to it: But they would actually be worse
off if they "got what they want," he continued, for it would mean
"replacing oldness with a vacuum."
The result of this conflict is that the angry ones, depicted in the
play and existing in England, bring a "tremendous amount of torture
and suffering to the people they love and who love them."
"Look Back in Anger" revolves around the day-to-day existence
of Jimmy, his wife, his closest friend and his wife's friend, "giving
an insight into the peculiar morality of these people." The play, he
said, was "an astonishing success" in London, "jolting the British
public and giving a voice to these people."
Succssful Show
Although it was a "real success" in New York and on tour in this
country, Prof. Norton remarked, it is "too much to ask that it have
the same jolting, body blow on an American audience."
The same type of movement of revolt has been present in
America, particularly between 1930-34, Prof. Norton reminisced, when
the "strong, strong experience of
bewilderment" was present,- but T
that anger, and strangely, that TO IMPROVE FA (
today "we are complacent, fat,
even smug."
Prof. Norton expressed the per-
sonal hope that there would never L eag u
be such a movement in the United
States, but warned that "if we get
too complacent, it may return. If}
we sit by and lose our own world
without doing anything about it,'
then our sons are going to be thet
angry young men."
Credits Osborne
Paying tribute to the skill of
playwright Osborne, Prof. Norton
said he has created, in one of his
characters, "one of the most sym-
pathetic revelations of a conserv-
ative reactionary mind by a revo-
lutionary I have ever read."
He contrasted that average revo-
lutionary's portrayal of a "Colonel
Blimp" with Osborne's represen-
tation of Jimmy's wife's father, a'
retired colonel back from service
in India. This man, "drawn with
sympathy," represents everything :

Launching

ROBERT U. JAMESON
... discusses tests

son, chairman of the Haverford
School's English department and
director of reading for the College
Entrance Examination Board Ad-
vanced Placement Program out-
lined his concept of both useful
and useless tests.
Jameson explained his own cri-
teria for determining a good test
or examination as containing
three essentials: it should coverj
something important, it need not
cover more than a single point
and it must be something which
"you and I," as ' teachers, can
answer.

Another on Jamneson's list of
objectionable tests is the "objec-
tive check test on the facts of a
book," a test which he said "is,
valid only as. a test of primary
reading comprehension," not a,
measure of "attitudes or any real
understanding."-
Under Fire
Examinations also came under
his critical fire, especially the type
in which the teacher makes up a
paragraph's topic sentence and
asks the students to list rather
than write an essay on three
points which support the choice
of the topic sentence.
"The so-called unstructured ex-
amination on a book is not likely
to produce a critical paper," he
cvlaimed. Such an examination
might consist of, asking the stu-
dent to write a paper on what he
most enjoyed in Dicken's "Tale of
Two Cities," he explained.
By contrast, his concept of a
good examination is based on a,
question which "should show what
control a student has over the.
important core of material" he's
studying.
World News
Roundup
By The Associated Press
MONROE, Wash. - Four des-
perate convicts held 37 men,
women and children hostage in
the state reformatory last night
and threatened "we know where
'to stick the knife" unless per-
mitted to escape.
One woman was released un-
harmed.
But two deadlines passed with-
out the rebels making a move.
Seven hours after four seized an
estimated 24 visitors, 11 other
prisoners and three guards, a
tense stalemate developed.
"It's a waiting game," reforma-
tory 'Supt. Ernest Timpani said,
"and time is on our side,"
CHICAGO - Queen Elizabeth
swept triumphantly through Chi-
cago yesterday, pulling an esti-
mated two million cheering spec-
tators into the streets, charming
the many who' met her, and
crowning it all with a simple
speech at a glittering civic dinner.
Neither the city nor the Queen
ever saw anthing that surpassed
it.
Bands played, guns thundered,
fireworks flamed in the sky, and
through it all, the crowds roared
wherever Elizabeth and Prince
Philip went.
"This has been an unforgettable
day," the Queen said.
* * '~
JERUSALEM - The tangled
political situation left by David
Ben-Gurion's resignation as prime

Ship C arries,
Dogs, Rabbit
Instrumts
Single Rocket Used
In Latest Launching
MOSCOW ()rP) - The Russiar
announced last night they ha
shot two dogs, a rabbit and ri
cording instruments into space I
a singlerocket and brought the,
back intact.
The animals and instrumeni
weighed more than two tons.
The Soviets did not say ho'
high or how far the rocket tra
eled. They gave no size or weig
of the propelling rocket other tha
to say it was an intermediate rang
missile.
But they declared much val
able data was collected on condi
tions in space.
Third Trip,
For one of the dogs, Otvazhnay
(Daring), it was the third trip nt
space, the official Tass agency re
ported. The name of the other de
is Snezhinka (Snowflake). T
rabbit is nameless.
The animals are quite well afte
their trip, Tass said. The rock
that carried them was sent alo
at 6:40 am. Moscow time July
(10:40 p.m. EST July 1).
The Soviets described it as
"single stage geophysical ballist
intermediate range rocket."
An announcement said: "Re
peated ascents made by the sar
animals have made it possible 1
obtain data about the adaptabilit
of animals to flights in rocket
New Aata on the behavior of an:
mas under conditions of weighi
lessness have been obtained."
Site Undisclosed
The only information the Ru
sians gave on the height or di
tance of the flight was that
went to "great altitude." Tt
launching site was not disclose
The Russians also have se
other, dogs into the stratospher
They' never claimed these fligt
exceeded 130 miles from the eart
One dog named Albino was -r
ported last February to have mad
two such flights aboard a, rocke
Last night's announcement we
in a special broadcast which w
repeated over Moscow televisio
No pictures of the launching wei
shown.
The announcement said t
animals were "quite well" follo'
ing their experience.
"All went well with the launc
ing," it added, and "a safety ,a
rangement insured the landing c
the cone and container with t
scientific equipment and exper:
mental animals which were sep
rated from the rocket."
Blood Needed
For' Surgvery'

CILITIES:
e's $600,000 Remodeling Under Way

..:....

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