Help Yourself Learning

On a Monday night in the Sunday school room of a Los Angeles church, 19 children looked at pictures of snakes and toads--symbols not of sin but of science. The mostly Negro and Japanese kids, who had already put in a full school day, were starting a six-week course (tuition: $6) in "The Exciting World of Plants and Animals." For 75 minutes, they tackled all kinds of questions: What is a reptile? What does "coldblooded" mean? Flaunting new words from habitat to hibernate, the kids--second, third and fourth graders --will soon take up mammals, vertebrates, soil and plant propagation, subjects that most of them meet only vaguely in their daytime studies. At another church, a Douglas Aircraft engineer taught fifth to seventh graders Newton's laws, to launch a course in space and rocketry. Also available for grade schoolers: physics, biology, Spanish and French.

All this was born from the curiosity of one small boy and the response of his father, William Slaton Jr., 36, a Negro chemist in the Rexall Drug Laboratories. A self-made scientist, Slaton knows the value of education. Too broke for fulltime college, he worked for years at odd jobs from welding to clerking before graduating at last, in 1951, from the University of Southern California.

In 1961 his son Glen, then nine, badgered Slaton to teach him and his fellow Cub Scouts how to get the most out of their new chemistry sets. Slaton was soon teaching chemistry to 20 Cubs in his home, got a bacteriologist to teach the use of microscopes. Response was so eager that Slaton had to branch into electronics.

Professional educators helped with the curriculum; Rexall chipped in its mimeographing services. Soon the classes, dubbed "Community Science Workshops," outgrew Slaton's house, moved into churches and the California Museum of Science and Industry.

Last year more than 200 youngsters flocked to courses in everything from art to astronomy. Happy to help, regular public school teachers volunteer their services for $6 a night. U.C.L.A. is so impressed that it wants 30 of Slaton's top students to attend the university's Lake Arrowhead science center for a weekend of astronomy and nature studies. The power of Slaton's project is its simple premise--not to reform public schools or start private schools, but to help kids help themselves to learning. Slaton says that his objective is "to stimulate or heighten interest." Adds one mother: "It's easier to get them to do this than their awn schoolwork. It's their own choice, and that's the secret."

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