"Our Enemies"

It was the pedagogues' turn to strike back, and the powerful National Education Association (465,266 members) was all set to "name our enemies and hold them up to-public light." Last week, at its annual convention in San Francisco, it did so. The enemies that N.E.A. had in mind were no ordinary critics of the public schools. They were a handful of right-wing groups that have made their influence felt from Port Washington, N.Y., to Pasadena, Calif. "They have one characteristic in common: bigotry," said Richard B. Kennan of the N.E.A.'s Defense Commission. Their chief obsession: that U.S. education is headed straight for Communism.

Northern "Exposure." In the N.E.A.'s book, the most notable "enemy" is Allen A. Zoll, executive vice president of Manhattan's National Council for American Education. Founded in 1946, the council claims to be "devoted ... to the eradication of Marxism and Collectivism from our Schools," and its devotion has led it to publish scores of tracts and pamphlets. It has "exposed" the "Red-ducators" of Harvard University (it lists 76 "proCommunist" professors), of Columbia (87), Chicago (60), and Yale (30). It has denounced federal aid to education as a sure step towards Communism, has charged that "90% of texts and teaching in our schools today are in considerable measure subversive [to] basic American principles."

In this sort of propaganda, Allen Zoll is not alone. For two years, Chicago's Conference of American Small Business Organizations has been loudly attacking one textbook after another for "concealed theories of collectivism," and the Employers' Association of Chicago has been sending out its alarms: "Those thousands of Reds among the educators of our land--how many of them write the textbooks your children study?" Meanwhile, Manhattan's American Education Association has joined in; to its executive director, Milo F. McDonald, "Socalled 'Progressive Education' and Communism are one."

Healthy or Destructive? As far as the N.E.A. could tell from observing them, such organizations capitalize on any local school dispute, move in to push their doctrines during the ruckus, and try to spread the impression that the whole school system is riddled with Reds. "Up to last year," said Richard Kennan to the N.E.A. last week, "we felt it best to ignore their attacks. Now, we have clear evidence of coalition in their efforts . . . We had to come out slugging." The N.E.A.'s recommendation to the public: learn the difference between healthy criticism and destructive criticism, then come out slugging, too.

The N.E.A. also:

P:Heard a soothing report from Rail I. Grigsby, deputy U.S. commissioner of education: on the basis of the latest Selective Service requirements, college and university enrollments would drop only 8% next year.

P:Passed a resolution opposing federal aid to private and parochial schools. "The . . . separation of church and state," said the N.E.A., "should be vigorously and zealously safeguarded."

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