Report Card

P: At its soth reunion last week, Yale '05 proved that its old-fashioned classical education has a way of staying put. "Post quinquaginta annos amicitiae mutuae" it wired its counterparts at Harvard, "alumni Universitatis Yalensis hie in Novo Portu congregati classi simili Harvardensi salu-tem plurimam dicimus." As any Harvard-man would know, this was another way of saying: "After 50 years of mutual friendship, we alumni of Yale University assembled here in New Haven express affectionate greetings to the corresponding class of Harvard."

P: At the University of Illinois, President H. Gordon Hullfish of the Public Education Association met with his vice president and solemnly recommended that the P.E.A. disband. In itsheyday in the '50's, it had been a powerful influence on U.S. public education, the standard-bearer for the child-centered school, the soapbox and sounding board for the ideas of John Dewey and his followers. But now, plagued by lack of money and members--as well as by changing educational fashions--the P.E.A. was in effect admitting that, though the nation had gratefully accepted much of what the progressives preached, it had apparently also decided that enough is enough.

P: In the wake of criticism over the high (27%) rate of failures locally on the state regents history exam--one of the tests that usually determine whether a high-school senior will get an academic diploma --some New York City school officials were reportedly considering a move to disregard the traditional exam entirely, apparently on the theory that what Johnny doesn't know shouldn't hurt him. Among the questions regarded as too tough: "The Maximilian affair caused the United States to protest to the government of 1) France, 2) Great Britain, 3) Russia, 4) Spain"; "Which of these was in existence from the loth to the 19th century: 1) Hanseatic League, 2) Holy Alliance, 3) Ottoman Empire, 4) Holy Roman Empire."

P: In its latest sally into the educational alley, the Gallup poll decided that the average U.S. college graduate has a knowledge of geography unworthy of an eight-year-old. Of those questioned, about eight in ten could not locate Bulgaria, nearly seven flunked on Rumania, nearly six did not recognize Yugoslavia or Austria, half flubbed on Poland. One out of twelve not only missed these, but Spain, France and England as well.

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