Teaching

     The school of education at St. Mary's University held a symposium on "Teaching: What's Ahead?" The speakers are Sidney H. Ganch, York University, a visiting professor of English literature; Frederick L. Lynn, associate professor of English at the host school and moderator of the symposium; Herbert Gilkeyson, superintendent of the local school system. The symposium was held at 3 p.m. in the school's auditorium. Write about 250 words for tomorrow's paper from the following remarks:

     Gilkeyson: The emphasis will be, I believe, on grade school education where the basic study habits are inculcated and educational values formed. We have overemphasized higher education, and the result has been a deficiency of resources allocated to the elementary schools....
     We all know the problems that students in college have cannot be remedied without massively expensive remedial aid. We must put that money into the lower grades.
At the same time, there must be rededication to teaching by the teacher. A sense of professionalism will have to reinvigorate teaching or nothing positive will result....
     The teacher who used to take papers home to read now wants to have preparation periods in the school to read them. Taxpayers won't pay for this, and so homework is not given with the frequency of past years. Consequently, students spend less time learning....
     I am confident the teacher is the key to a new spirit of learning in the future...
     Lynn: I would agree that teachers must re-examine themselves, but so must everyone else. Teachers are no different from doctors and ditchdiggers. They reflect the society at large, and it is society we must look to that establishes values that we all accede to.
Ganch: Students must be taught how to reason, how to learn. John Dewey recommended strong teaching, not the chaos we see in the curricula today with its permissive teachers. Samuel Johnson blessed the teachers who applied the birch rod to him. Teachers must put demands on students....