Teachers Meet

Except that it was held amidst the distracting beauties of San Francisco, last week's 77th annual meeting of the National Education Association was a typical coldwater convention. Thanks to the delights of Treasure Island, the incidental joys of cable-cars, Chinatown and the city's justly-famed cool weather, few delegates even bothered to attend the meetings--though smart pressagentry managed to fill the Opera House for one series of dull speeches. As usual, the convention delivered itself of some earnest "Whereas-es" and "Be-it-resolveds"; this time they were in favor of democracy.

The convention also:

> Heard an exciting debate between University of Iowa's George D. Stoddard and Stanford's Lewis Terman. Question: Is a child's I. Q. determined more by heredity or by environment? Dr. Stoddard reported that he had raised the I. Q.s of children of dull parents to that of children of college professors by placing them in good homes (TIME, Nov. 7). Said Dr. Terman: "If [these claims] can be substantiated, we have here the most important scientific discovery in the last thousand years. . . " Either the educational programs provided by other investigators are less stimulating than those provided at Iowa or the Iowa effects are in some way spurious."

> Was told by Dr. George Willard Frasier, president of Colorado State College of Education, that old-age pensions were robbing youth of school funds.

> Elected as its new president plump, energetic Miss Amy Henrietta Hinrichs, a New Orleans elementary-school principal. A longtime English teacher, Miss Hinrichs shudders at misplaced punctuation marks and bad grammar. Among the first to congratulate President-elect Hinrichs were Louisiana's new Governor and Mrs. Earl Long. They wired: "All Louisiana is proud of you. Come and see us when you get home."

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