Educators Should Study Class Photo
* What a nostalgic and revealing picture of a Newport Elementary School class in 1918 (“School to Celebrate 100th Anniversary,” May 3).
Did modern educators notice the following:
A class size of 40 pupils? Not one student with a hat on, or a cap on backward? No dark glasses? An apparently disciplined class, although a couple of the boys looked a bit cheeky (note that none of the girls gave that appearance).
Current pedagogy holds that uniformity, strictness and discipline, together with a basic 3 Rs education, inhibit individuality, drive and inventiveness.
Yet circa 1918 was the generation that eventually advanced all of the technology that we enjoy today.
And their lives were not dominated by drugs, crime, and unwanted pregnancies!
Is there a message in the picture?
PAUL S. McCAIG
Dana Point
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