Request Granted

After only one semester, pupils in the Washington Grammar School of Riverdale, Ill. had become sold on their new teacher, Perry J. Rockwell. Teacher Rockwell, 26, had never taught much before, but he made lessons fun. He organized his classes into "baseball teams," gave "bases" and "home runs" for questions they got right. He took special pains with the shy ones, built up the confidence of the undersized.

When Teacher Rockwell, a radioman first class in the Naval Reserve, received orders to report for active duty, his superintendent tried to get him deferred till June. The Navy said no. Thereupon, crossing their fingers and wishing hard, Teacher Rockwell's pupils wrote to the Navy themselves.

Last week they got an answer. "I was surprised and pleased to receive your letter," wrote Rear Admiral J. Cary Jones, Commandant of the Ninth Naval District. "I was surprised because when I was a boy, absence of a schoolteacher was a welcome event, and I was pleased to see that today's young people . . . regret the loss of a good teacher." The admiral was so pleased that he was granting Teacher Rockwell a deferment till June.

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