The CHAIRMAN. Senator Murray.

Senator MURRAY. I have no questions.

I do wish to commend the witness for the very fine statement she has made here this morning. I think she is better informed than anyone I have met yet on the fundamentals of the problems that we have confronting us. I appreciate her testimony here, and I want to especially thank her for the compliment she paid me.

Miss BORCHARDT. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Allott.

Senator ALLOTT. No questions.

The CHAIRMAN. We certainly want to thank you. We appreciate very much your fine statement here this morning. We are grateful to you. Thank you very much.

Now the Association for Childhood Education, Miss Frances Hamilton, executive secretary.

We are very happy to have you here. Do you have a prepared statement ?

Miss HAMILTON. Yes, sir; I have, and copies are coming to you. The CHAIRMAN. You may proceed.

STATEMENT OF FRANCES HAMILTON, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, ASSOCIATION FOR CHILDHOOD EDUCATION INTERNATIONAL

Miss HAMILTON. I am Frances Hamilton. I serve as executive secretary of the Association for Childhood Education International, an organization composed of more than 85,000 members interested in the education and well-being of children. Approximately 80,000 of these are parents and teachers of children in the United States.

As an organization we are very much concerned with the total educational program and recognize that much needs to be done legislatively to protect and to extend it.

APPRECIATION FOR KENNEDY BILL

I would like especially, before I move into my prepared statement, to express appreciation to Senator Kennedy and his colleagues for introducing a bill' on school construction which would at least provide places for some children to go to school who do not now have an opportunity to learn under conditions that are conducive to learning. I recognize, though, that all legislation in this session seems to be irrevocably tied to the national defense. Because of that, I will direct most of my remarks to that phase of education.

My association also believes that more children are gifted, have abilities along equally important lines to their country and to themselves than are cared for in any phase of the proposed programs in which science and mathematics seem to be particularly emphasized. I appreciate the opportunity to testify on behalf of these members with regard to bills now pending related to science and education for national defense.

1 See S. 3179, in the appendix p. 1576.

LAUDABLE PURPOSES OF SEVERAL BILLS

The several bills which have been introduced to date in the 2d session of the 85th Congress have in common the highly laudable purpose of increasing our intellectual resources, thus making us better prepared to assume the responsibilities related to our world position. It is in the interests of children and of the potential strength of our country that I wish to speak today.

It is in the earliest school years that the groundwork is laid for future interest in science. A capable teacher working with a small group of children has an opportunity to discover ability and encourage interest, both basic steps in the development of future scientists and leaders of all kinds.

GUIDANCE BY CLASSROOM TEACHER

The proposals in S. 3163, Title I-Identification of Aptitudes and Encouragement of Able Students in line 6 refers to the expenditure of funds for the testing and maintaining of records of test results for pupils in public elementary and secondary schools. This is fine, but it seems to be made ineffective by the exclusive definition of counseling and guidance personnel as "only those who are exclusively or principally engaged in counseling and guidance of students in public secondary schools." This makes it difficult to see the relationship between the first part of this statement and the implementing clauses. In most elementary schools a large percentage of guidance and counseling is done, rightly, by the classroom teacher. No funds are provided and no provision is made in this bill for in-service training to increase the effectiveness of guidance and counseling by the classroom teacher nor for the employment of qualified guidance personnel in the elementary school.

OVERSIZED CLASSES

A program, such as this, designed to function only after students have reached the seventh grade or entered high school or college can only be termed short-sighted. Many potential scientists who might have benefited under the scholarship programs proposed have already been lost by the seventh grade in the shuffle of large classes and inadequately prepared teachers.

The lost opportunities to learn to read because of the lack of individual attention in too large classes may make their latent abilities unmeasurable by tests of ability which require reading skills.

We know that teachers who are teaching 60, 70, sometimes 90 children in a day or in a piece of a day in the years when reading skills are being developed, cannot really meet the needs of any one of this size group.

FEW SCIENCE TEACHERS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

Also I would like to call your attention to another provision of S. 3163 which is inconsistent, I regret to say, and possibly not usable under present approved educational practice. Title II-Grants to States for Strengthening Science or Mathematics Instruction in Public Schools. Part A-Strengthening Supervisory, Teacher-Training,

and Related Activities of State Educational Agencies. This provides for funds to be paid to States on a matching basis for the carrying out of what would seem to be good State plans, subject to the approval of the very able Commissioner of Education, Dr. Lawrence Derthick. But section 204, on page 20, lines 18-22 practically eliminates all possibility of such funds being granted, since it defines a science or mathematics teachers as "one who is exclusively or principally engaged in teaching science or mathematics in public secondary schools or in supervising such teachers in public elementary or secondary schools." In relatively few elementary schools are there separate teachers for math or science and almost as few engaged "principally" in this work. We believe, and this is practiced over the United States, that it is more effective for young children to be taught by one capable teacher rather than having a separate teacher for mathematics and science. Separate ones could be aided by the provisions of this legislation, but it seems highly unlikely that any of these funds or any of this help would reach elementary school pupils.

In the interest of our future national security and perhaps more important, the discovery and utilization of the maximum brain power of our Nation's youth, I make the following recommendations. These are made in recognition that it will take a long-term program of training to prepare leaders in science.

UPDATING INFORMATION GIVEN PUPILS

Professional leadership at the State level is needed to improve the quality of teaching and learning by bringing up to date the information imparted to children in the elementary school. Many teachers who were prepared in the last decade or earlier have not been able to keep up with the latest concepts in the fields of mathematics and science; nor with the latest information on how children grow and learn.

Leadership would be provided at the State level by conferences, institutes, etc., during the school year and vacations. They would be organized on the local or regional basis within the State. As a result, teachers would be enabled to help children to develop scientific attitudes and a better understanding of mathematics as a means of communication of scientific ideas.

REGIONAL TRAINING CENTERS

My second proposal-centers to develop materials and train educational leaders is on this basis: there is a large block of scientific knowledge on ways to improve instruction in many critically important fields which has not been made available to many classroom teachers because it needs interpretation and demonstrated application. To meet this need, it is proposed that regional centers be set up in each State, staffed with experts who could bring scientific findings to teachers and leaders in education and develop plans for demonstrating and applying these in the classroom.

Funds should be appropriated for setting up these centers and for the employment of more staff of State departments of education who will organize, administer, and supervise these centers.

In carrying out this proposal, a team of experts would be drawn to the centers to insure a broad orientation for leaders in the several areas where scientific knowhow is needed. Such a program will involve the development of ways of communicating this knowledge for wider educational use by means of syllabic, films, charts, and other graphic materials.

FELLOWSHIPS AND SCHOLARSHIPS FOR TEACHERS

A third proposal is on fellowships and scholarships to keep current the scientific information of teachers in elementary schools. Fellowships and scholarships would be made available to teams of teachers, principals and supervisors from the staff of local elementary schools to attend the regional centers to work with experts from the science field.

Information acquired from attendance at the centers would be immediately available to other teachers who did not attend the center. This is a method of achieving the rapid dissemination of needed knowledge on a countrywide basis.

There is little doubt that the proposals outlined will succeed or fail, depending on the quality of leadership given by the individual State. We recognize that it is appropriate for responsibility for leadership in education to rest with the State.

WORKSHOPS FOR STATE LEADERS

A fourth proposal, therefore, would be workshops for State leaders. The Office of Education can serve a useful purpose in strengthening State leadership by organizing and conducting workshops and conferences. In these, State leaders in special fields would work with national and international experts to keep abreast of developments affecting education in the elementary schools.

Actually, the accepting of this last proposal would require an adaptation of some plan already in effect at the Office of Education. În effect, they have been carried forward for a number of years with annual meetings of people with State leadership responsibility in elementary education. It would require only a focus that would definitely be upon the need for further scientific and mathematical knowledge. All of these proposals can be incorporated in the legislation under consideration by the Senate.

As I have pointed out, some of these, in a way, have been written into bills already. However, in some instances they have been somewhat less that satisfactory because, while with one hand they seem to give, with one paragraph of the legislation they give, and yet with the other hand they take away the opportunity for people who work with young children to profit. By only a slight revision of these bills, the influence of your action in the 85th Congress can strengthen our country's future by providing for the early discovery, nurture, and later use of a great reservoir of talent.

EARLY AWAKENING OF INTERESTS

The basic concepts of science and mathematics are learned by observation and experimentation. A nursery school teacher needs skill

and has responsibilities for awakening scientific and intellectual as well as social interests.

Every subsequent year brings new abilities, new questioning. Have you had a 7-year-old explain the working of your power lawn mower? Do you sometimes wonder how any teacher or mother can keep up with the scientific questions which children ask? Most of us, I regret to say, cannot. With the educational media available to children today, the TV, the things they learn in many informal ways, they learn a great deal and a great deal faster than any of us that have been educated in an earlier period can possibly keep track of. Only a teacher who is able to keep informed on scientific and cultural advances is able to guide a child's learnings so that they will be of value to him and he, in turn, be of value to his country and his fellowmen in the important years ahead for our Nation.

OPPOSITION TO A LITTLE HELP TO A FEW

I submit that the tapping of our Nation's scientific manpower cannot be delayed until the latter years of formal schooling. People entrusted with the future as well as the present welfare of our country cannot afford to present legislation based on assistance to the pitifully few whose years of schooling have not really prepared them to undertake the mammoth job of our country's defense and leadership. Yet, this is all we are offering now-a little help to a few people who have gone through schools that were ill-prepared as far as numbers of teachers, available space, opportunities for preparation to give them even the basic things that they need.

These few seventh graders who will be discovered by the testing programs designed to discover science and mathematical ability will have already spent one-third to one-half of their potential school careers in classes of 50 to 60 with teachers who have not had opportunities to keep informed on recent scientific advances.

Many, because of these crowded conditions, will not have received the help they needed in learning the scientific concepts which would otherwise have been fairly well developed by the age of 12.

FUNDS FOR ALL CHILDREN FROM FIRST GRADE UP

To sift from the short-changed few a pitifully small number to educate further is a mere gesture. To begin building for the future and thus insure our Nation's security through the fullest education of its potential manpower, legislation must be enacted which provides funds and supervisory and instructional services for all children beginning with their first years in our public schools. We, as citizens, entrust to you, the capable lawmakers of our country, the responsibility of our future. We do so with the strong conviction that such trust is justified and express to you the willingness of our many members to assist you in carrying out this great responsibility.

Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN. Any questions, Senator Allott?

Senator ALLOTT. Yes; I have one question. I am very interested in your paper. I am not personnally acquainted with your organization. Would you tell me what its membership is composed of?