Into a Confused World

The thought of another year as principal of the Hope (Ind.) High School was just about all that husky, greying Maridieth Little could bear. A month ago, he had suffered a heart attack, but it was not just his heart that made him hesitate about going back; it was the way the U.S. school, its pupils and its teachers had developed over the years. Last week, 51-year-old Maridieth Little, a high-school teacher for 17 years, a principal for another 16, gave details:

"Boys and girls talk back in school nowadays without even knowing it. They talk back at home, or they wouldn't be doing it in school. . . . They have too much money. I tested it out one day. I stood up before the assembly and asked who had change for a $10 bill. Too many hands went up. All the children carry folding money.

"American children chew too much gum when they come to school. It isn't the gum--it is what the gum-chewing signifies. Gum-chewing in school is like a kid studying in an easy chair alongside the radio. . . . And cigarets. It is pitiful to go to some schools and see the children whip out packs of cigarets as they leave the building."

Who is responsible? Usually the parents, and often the teachers: "The kids themselves are all right. . . . Some of the teachers are bigger problems than the kids. They fail to carry out the things they teach during the day. The teachers shouldn't punch a time clock and sweep out the children at the end of six hours. The school building isn't a factory. Teachers should make home contacts, but you see little of that any more. They should make better daily presentations. That is what has led to haphazard classes.

"The trouble with many teachers is that they don't know how to teach. A good teacher teaches to the saturation point but not beyond it. But this is a lost art.

"There is more to be taught than the three Rs. There is respect, dignity, discipline, responsibilities, and manners. But," said Mr. Little sternly, rocking back & forth in his parlor chair, "they are not being taught. Give the children more discipline in the home and they would have more in the school. Confused students are being turned out into a confused world."

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