Partners in Progress by George A. Greenawalt* O DOUBT every country in which the One of the primary concerns of educa proper lighting, inadequate heating, unsani United States Technical Cooperation tors in the Technical Cooperation Program tary drinking water, unsanitary toilet facil . Program operates has its particular prob is with the children of the country and ities and usually insufficient playground, lems, its frustrations, and its opportunities, especially with those of the village. These and the result is a school in which, it seems but none can offer a greater historical in youngsters are often undernourished, ill to an American-trained schoolman, little terest than Iran, or Persia of ancient times. clad, and allicted with trachoma, malaria, or no education can be acquired. To be able to visit the ruins of the Persepolis and hookworm, but they are intelligent and To meet the problem in Iran, the Ameri. or to view the carvings of Behistun, or to eager to learn. There is a compulsory can Technical Cooperation Program, gen. stand with bowed head in the building school law which cannot be enforced be. erally known as Point 4, and the Iranian which houses the tomb of Queen Esther is cause many of the villages and most of the Ministry of Education have jointly initiated to live in imagination in the golden age of tribes have no educational facilities. The several educational projects. One of them a great country. present school facilities are overloaded, and was a teacher-training project. it is not unusual to find rooms so crowded The People of Iran that from three to five children sit on a rude Teacher-Training Program bench behind a desk so badly carved that While the thoughtful Iranians are very In the summer of 1952 a series of summer writing on it is almost impossible. Nor is it proud of their history, they are conscious unusual to see several children standing in training courses for teachers was inauguof the need for change in the educational rated as the first phase of the teacher-trainthe schoolroom without either seat or desk. system, the curriculum, and the methods. ing project. These training courses exThey are also aware of the lack of educa School System tended for a period of 5 or 6 weeks. The tional opportunity of a great part of the enrollees were teachers from the villages population. The visitor to a village school is likely to and towns. Many of them had no more Iran's population is estimated at from 18 find an overcrowded school room filled with than a sixth-grade education. The faculmillion to 20 million. Upward of 14 boys, for many villages do not offer school ties of these summer schools were composed millions of the population live in the capital ing for girls. The teacher will probably be of officials of the Ministries of Education, city of Tehran; another million live in a man who has had no more than a sixth Health, and Agriculture and the representathe cities of Shiraz, Isfahan, Kermanshah, grade education. He will be poorly dressed tives of the corresponding offices from the Kerman, Meshed, Tabriz, Hamadan, and because his salary is very low, from $15 Technical Cooperation Mission in Iran. smaller centers. The great majority of the to $20 a month. He may even be under In this course the teachers were given help nourished. The textbooks which the chil. people, however, live in villages or are in teaching methods; in construction of members of nomadic tribes which travel dren use will be ragged and dog-eared, thin materials for visual education; in underwith their herds and flocks to the moun. little books about the size of an American standing the importance of the teaching of tains in spring and return again to the spelling book. This meager book contains health habits, sanitation, and nutrition and southern plains and slopes in the autumn. the subject matter for the whole year's work the relation of agriculture to living; and in Racially the Iranian stock is Indo-Euroincluding reading, arithmetic, science, his using the community as a source of teaching pean. In fact, the word Iranian means tory, geography, and all else that is taught. materials. Aryan. The language however bears an The students literally memorize this book. Profiting from the experience of the sumunmistakable resemblance to the Teutonic Equipment, as we in the United States mer of 1952, cooperating officials expanded of Northern and Western Europe. They are know it, is practically nonexistent, unless the summer school training of teachers in for the most part of swarthy complexion, a board about 212 by 3 feet painted black 1953, and approximately 3,000 teachers enbut a few are blue-eyed and blond-haired. which serves as a chalk board can be so con rolled in the 10 regions. A training course In spite of hardship, undernourishment, sidered. To these limitations add lack of for the faculties of the summer sessions was foreign oppression, and exploitation they * Mr. Greenawalt is currently working with the held in Tehran for 6 weeks just before the have maintained a courtesy, friendliness, educational phase of the U. S. Technical Coopera. opening of the summer sessions. This was and sense of humor which make them a peotion Program in Tehran, Iran. In his article Mr. followed by 5-week courses in the 10 ple to be admired and loved. The Iranians Greenawalt deals only with educational progress provinces, known as ostans. In all the made under that program and not with the great are a people capable of playing an impor educational progress the Iranian people have inde ostans two or more sessions were held, tant part in the family of nations. pendently made in the last few years. (Continued on page 124) J UST a year ago SCHOOL LIFE reported guage records have been rising steadily; the and interchanges with parts of the world a National Conference on the Role of number of people using self-help language that were relatively unknown to us a few Foreign Languages in American Schools, books and correspondence courses is in years ago. As one school man remarked, called by the Office of Education in January creasing; commercial language schools “We are up to our necks in practical need 1953 (SCHOOL LIFE, March 1953, pp. which stress quick acquisition of the spoken for foreign languages; we just haven't 83-85). This conference, while emphasiz language are doing an annual business noticed the waters rising.” What, then, is ing the importance of an early start in for grossing several millions of dollars. In the story of our professional advancement eign languages, called attention to the need New York City 30 movie houses show only in the teaching of foreign languages? for school people and public alike to work foreign language films without English sub There are several important developtoward the improvement of foreign lan titles. Translation bureaus, with fees rang ments, if we may judge from the many inguage teaching at all levels of the educa ing from 80 cents to 2 dollars per 100 words, quiries and reports which have come to the tional system. are operating on a large scale. Since many attention of the Office of Education Com. A review of what has been happening in automobile manufacturers, oil companies, mittee on Foreign Language Teaching, an the field of foreign language study indicates pharmaceutical houses, airlines, electrical interdivisional committee appointed to that 1953 was a noteworthy year, with re and engineering firms, and other industries work on the national conference and its spect to both popular interest and profes. maintain branches abroad, personnel direc. follow-up activities. Most encouraging is sional advancement, in the teaching of sec tors of large companies are looking for the growing willingness of language specialond languages. Evidences of increased employees with language qualifications. ists and professional educators to work topublic interest are many. Editorial com During August 1953 UNESCO spon gether in a thorough reexamination of the ment favoring more and better foreign lan sored an international seminar, directed by objectives, content, method, administration, guage teaching has appeared frequently in a United States educator, on the Contribu and other aspects of foreign language daily newspapers throughout the country. tion of the Teaching of Modern Languages teaching in the public schools. Television programs in one or more foreign Toward Education for Living in a World In the colleges, the traditional idea that languages have been introduced in Albany, Community. The U. S. National Commis language study leads only to a career in Rochester, Buffalo, Schenectady, Atlanta, sion for UNESCO included in its Fourth belles lettres is being increasingly chalEl Paso, Philadelphia, Ames (Iowa), and National Conference, held in Minneapolis lenged. The head of a large department of Washington, D. C. Last summer the Girl in September, a work group on “What Is a foreign languages recently stated, "Many Scouts of the U. S. A. sponsored nine for Sound Domestic and International Program students, probably a majority of them, have eign language camps in various parts of the in Foreign Languages?” The Commission no real interest in literary studies even in country. The General Federation of Wom- plans similar discussions during the coming plans similar discussions during the coming their own language. In a foreign language en's Clubs, the American Association of year at regional conferences to be held in they are bored or repelled, although many University Women, the National Congress some 20 university centers. of these same students have a lively interest of Parents and Teachers, and many other The growing usefulness of foreign lan in politics, economics, history, and other groups encouraged greater attention to languages in American life stems from several aspects of the foreign culture." A few de. guage as a means of cultivating better un circumstances, but chiefly from the imderstanding among peoples. Sales of lan proved conditions of travel, communication, 1 The author is chairman of this committee. partments of language and literature are is not being reached. Much cultural in aptitude for learning foreign languages. reshaping their courses to meet the needs formation is undobutedly acquired, just as The Harvard study will seek to determine of greater numbers of such students. In through social studies, music, art, and other the role of abilities and motivational factors April 1953, the College of Literature, Sci- subjects, but the cultural insight that is in successful foreign-language study and to ence, and the Arts of the University of uniquely attainable by experiencing the cul devise tests and other instruments which Michigan, in a brochure listing its facilities ture itself through the language is all too will be valid for predicting success. The for instruction in Arabic, Chinese, French, frequently missed. The seminar report, in researchers will work with a wide range of German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Por recommending a clearer direction of effort age groups-children, adolescents, adults tuguese Russian, and Spanish, explained: toward cultural objectives, concerns itself and in different types of instructional pro“Although foreign language study may well with techniques of analysis for determining grams, from the more traditional to those lead to a career in itself, it is as an added the significant and relevant patterns and emphasizing oral-aural skills. skill that a knowledge of one or more for traits of a given culture and with ways of Elementary Classes eign languages is often most rewarding. It employing such a body of cultural data in The past year has been marked also by is difficult to imagine a single profession in teaching materials. continued interest in extending the teaching the curriculum of the University where the This report, if accepted in principle, of foreign languages, usually French or added skill of a foreign language would could lead to a considerable alteration in Spanish, in elementary schools. Oppor. not increase the value, the opportunities, the training of foreign-language teachers. and the rewards of the individual stu tunities for children to begin a second lanCharles E. Odegaard, dean of the College dent. . . . guage exist now in some 200 communities in The amount of language study of Literature, Science, and the Arts, Uni 34 States and the District of Columbia. The necessary will vary according to the de versity of Michigan, in his review of the mands which various occupational situa extent of the interest may be illustrated by report at the annual meeting of the Modern tions make upon the individual. . . . More Language Association (December 29, 1953, an experience in Dade County, Florida, where, after an experimental year of Spanimportant than the total number of credit Chicago, Ill.), observed: “The Seminar ish lessons over station WTHS-FM, the hours is the kind of training which the was not content with minor tinkering. It board of public instruction, hopefully planstudent receives and which of the particular opened the question wide, and I think inlanguage activities--speaking, reading, or evitably in the process opened even more ning to involve 20 schools during 1953–54, writing-are emphasized in his courses." of a Pandora's box than the report perhaps met with requests for participation from 82 The fact that people in the professions so indicates. For, if I read this report ac elementary schools. In the high schools, foreign language frequently lack competence in any foreign curately, it implies without exactly stating language while language majors have no it that the achievement of the objective with classes are paying more attention to audio visual materials and are benefiting in many other specialty is a serious problem, one which the report starts calls for the developwhich demands solution as our business, ment of a trained teacher of foreign communities from firsthand experiences diplomatic, and military relationships grow language such as has rarely walked this with exchange teachers and foreign visitors. As in communication arts and English, more and more complex. planet. . . . This report suggests that these courses are being revised in the direction Teaching Problems Emphasized be devoid of content and understanding of broadened social experience and contiEvidence of greater attention to teaching apart from the acquisition of linguistic nuity of growth in the learner.Foreign skills and that the effort to build these values problems is to be expected as the Foreign language teachers, relaxing somewhat their into courses calls for a whole new ordering efforts to teach formal grammar, seem less Language Program of the Modern Language Association of America moves into its secof intellectual interests." preoccupied with college preparatory goals. ond year. This program, undertaken for a In addition to the Foreign Language The point of view expressed by the Com3-year period under a Rockefeller FoundaProgram of the Modern Language Associa mission on the English Curriculum of the tion grant of $120,000, is endeavoring to tion, at least two other research projects National Council of Teachers of English improve the contribution of foreign lanshould be mentioned. Because language could apply as well to foreign language: “The problem is not so much one of looking guages in American life. The first project study in the schools has been limited too in the study, an interdisciplinary Seminar exclusively to the Western European coun at English and determining the order of tries, the American Council of Learned So topics to be studied as it is of looking at the on Language and Culture held last July, tackled the question of how foreign lancieties, with the aid of a Ford Foundation learner and the society of which he is a part grant and in cooperation with the Departguage study may be made to contribute to and aiding his growth both in and through ment of State, is helping to train a corps of the elements of reading, listening, and exthe understanding of other cultures. Al. pression necessary to effective living though the courses of study and textbooks in specialists in many of the little-known today." + use in virtually all high-school and college languages. With assistance from the Carlanguage classes give as one of the objecnegie Corporation of New York, the * (See, for example, the Course of Study in tives a gradually expanding and deepening Graduate School of Education of Harvard Modern Foreign Languages for Secondary Schools, knowledge of the foreign country and peo University is beginning a 2-year study of A Progress Report, Bulletin 350, Commonwealth ple whose language is studied, there is of Pennsylvania Department of Public Instruction, Available upon request from the Modern Harrisburg.) reason for believing that, as foreign lan Language Association of America, 6 Washington * Preface, The English Language Arts, Appleton. guages are generally taught, this objective Square North, New York 3, N. Y. Century-Crofts, 1952. 2 The Supreme Court Rules on School Segregation C HIEF JUSTICE WARREN of the Su covered exhaustively consideration of the In the first cases in this Court construing preme Court of the United States on Amendment in Congress, ratification by the the Fourteenth Amendment, decided shortly May 17, 1954, delivered the following opin states, then existing practices in racial seg. after its adoption, the Court interpreted it ion of the Supreme Court on the school regation, and the views of proponents and as proscribing all state-imposed discriminasegregation cases: opponents of the Amendment. This dis tions against the Negro race. The doctrine These cases come to us from the States cussion and our own investigation convince of "separate but equal" did not make its of Kansas, South Carolina, Virginia, and us that, although these sources cast some appearance in this Court until 1896 in the Delaware. They are premised on different light, it is not enough to resolve the problem case of Plessy v. Ferguson, supra, involving facts and different local conditions, but a with which we are faced. At best, they are not education but transportation. Americommon legal question justifies their con inconclusive. The most avid proponents can courts have since labored with the docsideration together in this consolidated of the post-War Amendments undoubtedly trine for over half a century. In this Court, opinion. intended them to remove all legal distinc there have been six cases involving the "sepIn each of the cases, minors of the Negro tions among "all persons born or natural arate but equal” doctrine in the field of pubrace, through their legal representatives, ized in the United States.” Their oppo lic education. In Cumming v.County Board seek the aid of the courts in obtaining ad nents, just as certainly, were antagonistic of Education, 175 U. S. 528, and Gong Lum mission to the public schools of their com to both the letter and the spirit of the v. Rice, 275 U. S. 78, the validity of the munity on a nonsegregated basis. In Amendments and wished them to have the doctrine itself was not challenged. In each instance, they had been denied admis. most limited effect. What others in Con more recent cases, all on the graduate school sion to schools attended by white children gress and the state legislatures had in mind level, inequality was found in that specific under laws requiring or permitting segre. cannot be determined with any degree of benefits enjoyed by white students were gation according to race. This segregation certainty. denied to Negro students of the same eduwas alleged to deprive the plaintiffs of the An additional reason for the inconclusive cational qualifications. Missouri ex rel. equal protection of the laws under the nature of the Amendment's history, with Gaines v. Canada, 305 U. S. 337; Sipuel v. Fourteenth Amendment. In each of the respect to segregated schools, is the status Oklahoma, 332 U.S. 631; Sweatt v. Painter, cases other than the Delaware case, a three of public education at that time. In the 339 U. S. 629; McLaurin v. Oklahoma State judge federal district court denied relief to South, the movement toward free common Regents, 339 U. S. 637. In none of these the plaintiffs on the so-called "separate but schools, supported by general taxation, had cases was it necessary to reexamine the docequal” doctrine announced by this Court not yet taken hold. Education of white trine to grant relief to the Negro plaintiff. in Plessy V. Ferguson, 163 U. S. 537. children was largely in the hands of private And in Sweatt v. Painter, supra, the Court Under that doctrine, equality of treatment groups. Education of Negroes was almost expressly reserved decision on the question is accorded when the races are provided nonexistent, and practically all of the race whether Plessy v. Ferguson should be held substantially equal facilities, even though were illiterate. In fact, any education of inapplicable to public education. these facilities be separate. In the Dela Negroes was forbidden by law in some In the instant cases, that question is diware case, the Supreme Court of Delaware states. Today, in contrast, many Negroes rectly presented. Here, unlike Sweatt v. adhered to that doctrine, but ordered that have achieved outstanding success in the Painter, there are findings below that the the plaintiffs be admitted to the white arts and sciences as well as in the business Negro and white schools involved have been schools because of their superiority to the and professional world. It is true that pub- equalized, or are being equalized, with reNegro schools. lic education had already advanced further spect to buildings, curricula, qualifications The plaintiffs contend that segregated in the North, but the effect of the Amend. and salaries of teachers, and other "tangipublic schools are not "equal” and cannot ment on Northern States was generally ig ble" factors. Our decision, therefore, canbe made “equal,” and that hence they are nored in the congressional debates. Even not turn on merely a comparison of these deprived of the equal protection of the in the North, the conditions of public edu tangible factors in the Negro and white laws. Because of the obvious importance cation did not approximate those existing schools involved in each of the cases. We of the question presented, the Court took today. The curriculum was usually rudi. must look instead to the effect of segregajurisdiction. Argument was heard in the mentary; ungraded schools were common tion itself on public education. 1952 Term, and reargument was heard this in rural areas; the school term was but In approaching this problem, we cannot Term on certain questions propounded by three months a year in many states; and turn the clock back to 1868 when the the Court. compulsory school attendance was virtu Amendment was adopted, or even to 1896 Reargument was largely devoted to the ally unknown. As a consequence, it is not when Plessy v. Ferguson was written. We circumstances surrounding the adoption surprising that there should be so little in must consider public education in the light of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868. It the history of the Fourteenth Amendment of its full development and its present place relating to its intended effect on public in American life throughout the Nation. * Because of space limitations footnotes have been omitted. education. Only in this way can it be determined if seg. regation in public schools deprives these mitted to a white graduate school be treated We conclude that in the field of public plaintiffs of the equal protection of the laws. like all other students, again resorted to education the doctrine of "separate but Today, education is perhaps the most im intangible considerations: “... his ability equal” has no place. Separate educational portant function of state and local govern to study, to engage in discussions and ex facilities are inherently unequal. There. ments. Compulsory school attendance laws change views with other students, and, in fore, we hold that the plaintiffs and others and the great expenditures for education general, to learn his profession.” Such similarly situated for whom the actions both demonstrate our recognition of the considerations apply with added force to have been brought are, by reason of the importance of education to our democratic children in grade and high schools. To segregation complained of, deprived of the society. It is required in the performance separate them from others of similar age equal protection of the laws guaranteed by of our most basic public responsibilities, and qualifications solely because of their the Fourteenth Amendment. This dispoeven service in the armed forces. It is the race generates a feeling of inferiority as to sition makes unnecessary any discussion very foundation of good citizenship. Today their status in the community that may af whether such segregation also violates the it is a principal instrument in awakening the fect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth child to cultural values, in preparing him ever to be undone. The effect of this sep Amendment. for later professional training, and in help aration on their educational opportunities Because these are class actions, because ing him to adjust normally to his environ was well stated by a finding in the Kansas of the wide applicability of this decision, ment. In these days, it is doubtful that any case by a court which nevertheless felt com and because of the great variety of local child may reasonably be expected to suc pelled to rule against the Negro plaintiffs: conditions, the formulation of decrees in ceed in life if he is denied the opportunity “Segregation of white and colored these cases presents problems of considof an education. Such an opportunity, children in public schools has a detri erable complexity. On reargument, the where the state has undertaken to provide it, mental effect upon the colored chil consideration of appropriate relief was necis a right which must be made available to dren. The impact is greater when it essarily subordinated to the primary quesall on equal terms. has the sanction of the law; for the tion—the constitutionality of segregation in We come then to the question presented: policy of separating the races is usually public education. We have now announced Does segregation of children in public interpreted as denoting the inferiority that such segregation is a denial of the equal schools solely on the basis of race, even of the Negro group. A sense of in- protection of the laws. In order that we though the physical facilities and other feriority affects the motivation of a may have the full assistance of the parties "tangible" factors may be equal, deprive child to learn. Segregation with the in formulating decrees, the cases will be the children of the minority group of equal sanction of law, therefore, has a tend restored to the docket, and the parties are educational opportunities? We believe ency to retard the educational and requested to present further argument on that it does. mental development of Negro children Questions 4 and 5 previously propounded In Sweatt v. Painter, supra, in finding and to deprive them of some of the by the Court for the reargument this Term. that a segregated law school for Negroes benefits they would receive in a racially The Attorney General of the United States could not provide them equal educational integrated school system.” is again invited to participate. The Attoropportunities, this Court relied in large Whatever may have been the extent of psy neys General of the states requiring or perpart on “those qualities which are incapable chological knowledge at the time of Plessy chological knowledge at the time of Plessy mitting segregation in public education will of objective measurement but which make v. Ferguson, this finding is amply supported also be permitted to appear as amici curiae for greatness in a law school.” In Mc by modern authority. Any language in upon request to do so by September 15, Laurin v. Oklahoma State Regents, supra, Plessy v. Ferguson contrary to this finding 1954, and submission of briefs by October the Court, in requiring that a Negro ad is rejected. 1, 1954. It is so ordered. Segregation in Schools of the District of Columbia tended by white children solely because racially segregated public schools. The of their race. They sought the aid of the legal problem in the District of Columbia is District Court for the District of Columbia somewhat different, however. The Fifth in obtaining admission. That court dis Amendment, which is applicable in the Dismissed their complaint. We granted a writ trict of Columbia, does not contain an equal of certiorari before judgment in the Court protection clause as does the Fourteenth of Appeals because of the importance of the Amendment which applies only to the constitutional question presented. 344 states. But the concepts of equal protecU. S. 873. tion and due process, both stemming from We have this day held that the Equal our American ideal of fairness, are not Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amend mutually exclusive. The “equal protection ment prohibits the states from maintaining (Continued on page 126) |
