Pixleyism

A class of high-school seniors in Los Angeles took a pledge to give the Golden Rule a ten-day trial at home. Their families were not to know anything about it. When the ten days were up, the Golden Rulers reported their triumphs.

"At first," wrote one boy, "I was just waiting for the ten days to be up so I could knock the socks off my sister. But as the days went on, I started to think differently. My parents were amazed I could be so generous and thoughtful." In another school, a little girl who had been fiercely anti-Japanese wrote a theme on tolerance. "If a Japanese came to my school," she said, "and asked me for a pencil, I wouldn't say no."

This children's crusade was the result of preaching. An English teacher named Mrs. Erma Pixley deeply agreed with irate parents who protested that their children were learning little of manners and less of morals in school. The school superintendent asked Mrs. Pixley to see what she could do. She got out a 112-page booklet explaining her idea: that the intangibles should be taught along with tangibles. Mathematics classes were a good place to talk about precision, accuracy and orderliness; foreign languages, international good will; science, "reverence for the wonders of the universe and humility be fore its magnitude."

Last week, well pleased with Mrs. Pixley's program, the Los Angeles school board gave her the high-sounding title of "Supervisor of Moral and Spiritual Values for the School System of the City of Los Angeles."

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