Model-T Learning

Measured by the subjects and facts they teach--and by those they fail to teach--most U.S. public schools are far behind the times. So reported a group of curriculum experts, headed by Professor Herbert B. Bruner of Columbia University's Teachers College, who last week completed a five-year study called What Our Schools Are Teaching (Bureau of Publications, Teachers College; $3).

Professor Bruner found that from 1930 to 1940 there was a vast tinkering with curriculums, but 85% of the courses of study still are out of step with "the rapid tempo of present-day society." Findings:

^ Some pupils are still studying technocracy and how to repair a Model-T Ford.

^ In social studies syllabuses (written courses of study) Europe is mentioned 15,000 times, South America 2,000 times.

^ Science gets relatively little attention (about 6% of all courses).

^ Pupils learn little or nothing about such problems of modern living as housing, insurance, installment buying, employment, social security, dictatorships.

^ A notable exception: transportation (ships, railroads, planes). Far & away the most popular topic in U.S. curricilums, the study of transportation has crept into almost every course, now enlivens the study of art, English, even health.

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