THE MCHENRY PLAINBEALER "SERVING THE CHAIN-O-LAKES REGION SINCE 1875" Wednesday, August 16, 1967 - McHenry,/Illinois SECTION 2, 73T 71 Motorists Alerted to Child Safety in Traffic "SCHOOL'8 OPEN --DRIVE CAREFULLY" placards and signs will begin to appear In great profusion soon in> every area of the community. Bumper strips on all manner of public vehicles and on many private cars, also will carry the message everywhere they go, as an ever-visible reminder that motorists must accept a special measure of responsibility for the safety of all the children in today's heavier traffic. School authorities join with police officials and with parents in broadcasting an early warning now, that all should prepare themselves and their vehicles for the opening of the new school term. A special plea is sent to teenagers and young college students who drive their own cars, to be alert to the additional responsibility the right to drive places on their shoulders, comes the trek back to school. Because so many of their cars are usually older, reconditioned vehicles, they are advised to have pre-school checkups made of the mechanical condition of their automobiles, preferably by professionals, to be certain their cars are able to respond instantly to any emergency. Parents aware of the wisdom of this advice, as it affects them also, will be counted on by the authorities to insist that their driver children have their cars inspected and serviced. \ Importance of the ability of motor vehicles to respond instantly to any school-time emergency situation is based on a simple fact. Despite all of the training in traffic safety given children in classrooms, despite the excellent record of school safety patrols and special school crossing guards, there is always the danger that an exuberant, thoughtless youngster may suddenly dart but from between parked cars into the stream of traffic. Alertness of the oncoming drivers plus the ability of their cars to respond instantly to the emergency may well mean the difference between a serious accident, and a young life saved. When teen-age drivers assume their full measure of responsibility in traffic, the lives they«ave may be those of their friends as well as their own. Heedless driving may not always involve a pedestrian or a collision with another car. It can also lead to careening off the highway, into dangerous obstacles. e Out of Every Ten Will BE Going Back t© SE GOING BACK TO SCHOOL THIS FALL will involve grade school, high school and college youth totalling nearly one third of the nation's population, in the annual return,to learning. The ratio, actually three out of ten, is expected to prevail with substantial accuracy for most of the 23,500 school districts in the country. Percentage-wise enrollment increases will be greatest again this year at high school and college levels. Not only has the "growing-up" progress of those born during peak birth rate years contributed to these increases; the awareness of parents and today's wiser teen-agers of the importance of higher education to their future, means more are continuing to reach for all the learning they can get. The annual youth mobilization for the return to classes this year occurs during a period when the search for more effective and more efficient educational methods with which to cope with constantly increasing enrollments, and teacher shortages, is accelerated. Simultaneously studies aimed at evaluating innovations introduced into education in recent years and the newer technologies now being tested, likewise are multiplying. Experimentation with application of electronics to education has surged forward. More students at all levels, but by no means all til them, may find themselves being introduced to computer assisted teaching this year. On the evaluation front federal government, privately endowed foundations, teachers associations and even the parents have been and will continue to take a good hard look at all innovations. Team teaching, ungraded classes which permit students in the elementary schools to progress in accordance with their capacities, now widely used, are here to stay. So is the magic of the audio visual teaching hooked up to telephone lines or closed circuit t-v, permitting master teachers to "appear" simultaneously before many classes. Two-thirds of the nation's schools, it Is estimated, now are within areas served by Educational television. Costs Are Mounting Mounting costs of education at the personal level for those who want to go to college, and also at the community level where additional educational facilities are required are creating problems. Those seeking help in financing college education may have it, however, as the result of a program of government guaranteed logins available through banks. School districts should be able to share in Federal money being made available by continuation of substantial Federal appropriations. This is the year when the Federal government's most serious involvement in assisting education at all levels reaches a 100th anniversary. It all started in 1867 with the first congressional legislation establishing what has become the U.S. Office of Education. lions On Job to Open School Term Of special interest to both pupils and parents are some 4,350,000 people who will be going back to school this year. Even before school opens throughout the country, they'll be on hand, and on the job, by the millions. Included in these schoolbound millions are administrators, classroom teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria employees, janitors and all the rest of the enormous corps of school personnel dedicated to the education of America's children. Of the 4,350,000 workers In regular schools and colleges, some 2,850,000 are members of the professional staff -- administrators, principals, teachers. And of this number, 1.9 million are in the public elementary and secondary schools, reports the National Education Association. To parent and pupil, the sheer number involved in furthering education may be impressive, even overwhelming. GLASSES, LIKE apparel, «ome On a personal basis however, in a wardrobe of styles. Coed here chooses tortoise-shell for class, "Op-ish" sunglasses and smallsquared frames for dating. All frames by House of Vision. Computer Helps Match Teacher, Job there is one out of all the millions who, during any hour of any school day, is of immediate first importance to the pupil and, consequently, to the parents. Teacher Most Important That one is "Teacher." In the home, Teacher's interest and importance is commonly recognized by such firstday- of-school questions as, "How's your new teacher? Do you like her?" The answer may hold at least one surprise. Teacher may turn out to be a man. NEA reports that almost 35 CLASSROOM ON WHEELS School officials in Cuba, N.M., have created a mobile classroom, which takes children by bus to airports, bus depots, shopping centers, dairy farms, museums and the state capitol. Officials hope this will give them a wider learning background and incentive. Landmark Legislation Today the U;S.O.E. has about 2,500 employees, an annual budget of more than $4 million dollars and administers more than 75 education programs under landmark legislation capped by the Elementary and Secondary Education and the Higher Education acts of 1965, and the adjustments that have been made in these acts by Congress since then. With all of the continuing effort at cultivating the nation's greatest national resource -- the youth of the nation -- overall U.S. investment in education has soared to in excess of $48.8 billions with federal aid for the fiscal year of 1967-68 standing at a record high of $6 billion. The time of the year has come when all the children who are the major beneficiaries of these programs and the dedicated work of their teachers, must prepare again for the return to learning. School administrators, maintenance people, and most of all the teachers, are now busy preparing for their return. Matching teachers to the specific requirements of the _ schools that need them, is a percent of all classroom teachjiew service launched by the ers today are men, and at the National Education Associa- j^igh school level they outtion in a move to ease short- nmxiber \^omen. ages and improve careers of ^ profile of a typical man educators. teacher, as compiled by NEA, The new service, called NEA- might read like this; SEARCH, is a computer based He is about 35 years old, "locater and referral service," married, and teaching in the which Dr. William G. Carr, high school. He probably has NEA executive secretary says, taught for 10 years -- six to provides "a systematic method seVen of them in the local of locating jobs for educa- ^chool system. He teaches tors and relieving the critical math, science or social studies, teacher shortage" that "could He has an average of 134 only have been accomplished students in five classes a day by an association as large as _all this aside from his home- NEA." room and study hall assign- More than 4,000 teachers ments. He is working toward and over 120 school sytems his master's. had registered for the service jn elementary schools, the shortly after it had been put typical teacher is likely to be into operation. Teachers and a woman -- since 85 percent of all elementary school teachers are women. The typical woman teacher in an elementary school Is about 43 years old, married, and has taught for about 15 The system provides for years, nearly 9 of them in her sending names of teachers present school system. whose qualifications fit the requirements Of the schools, to Classes Are Large superintendents, who then She has a large class -- an are in position to make quick average of 29 pupils. She, too, contact with them. has her bachelor's degree. The lists are quickly and In college, the typical teachautomatically compiled by the er spent about 50 hours in general education. £tnd some 22 hours in "professional" education courses. school superintendents can apply for the service, for which a small fee is charged, by writing NEA-SEARCH, 1201 16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C., 20036. computer from names of applicants matching the school's requirements. Better Image is Sought For Grads Not Going to College Fl'TURE CAMPUS QUEENS EAGERLY AWAIT the school bell so that they can start lo clas- looking cute as can be, in their new brightly-striped knit skimmer*. By Alyssa; in Vt amsiitta's Orion acrylic double knit. The largest number participating in a study of teaching innovations singled out vocational training as a subject that should be given more emphasis. "School board members would like to raise the prestige (of students) who do not go to college," the IDEA study reported, "and they would like to improve the quality of this training by bringing it more in line with current and future needs of industry." The desire to raise the prestige of these students grows out of a too often expressed belief that vocational high schools are just "dumping grounds" for students "not good enough" for schooling that will prepare them for college. Sixty-six percent of the school board members and 76 percent of the parents participating in IDEA studies declared themselves in favor of vocational training systems providing for high school students to spend half of their last two terms in special training for specific jobs. Some of these plans mean that students can spend part of their time in the classroom and part of the time on real jobs where they learn such things as automobile mechanics, practical nursing, retailing, and other occupations where there is growing job demand. Such programs require the co-operation of local business and industry which, generally speaking, are glad to work with the schools in their areas. / h A