Goodbye to All That

Mrs. Allison Palmer had been teaching for only three months at the Lincoln School in Bergenfield, N. J. (pop. 12,000) when she went in to see her supervising principal. She and her husband were moving to Nevada, she said, and she wanted to resign. But before she left, there was something she thought the principal ought to know. Of 22 children in her first-and second-grade class, said Teacher Palmer, 21 had television sets at home and the results had been disastrous.

In school, she reported, the children were restless and rambunctious for lack of fresh air and exercise. During class they strained and fidgeted, just waiting for the time to go home to the television set again. "You know what they talk about?" she demanded. "Hopalong Cassidy.* Over & over. Just cowboys and Indians and Hopalong Cassidy . . . It's no wonder they are bored by school. How can I compete with Hopalong Cassidy?"

And so, last week Mrs. Palmer was rather glad to be going to Nevada. It was a country surrounded by high mountains, blessed with poor television reception and with not a TV set in sight.

*For other news of Hopalong Cassidy, see RADIO & TV.

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