Parents v. Teachers

Are parents less upset about the nation's educational anemia than the educators themselves? Such is the impression left by a Gallup poll of 3,000 parents and 1,100 high school principals.

Both groups were asked: "Do you think our public schools today demand too much work or too little work from the students?"

Parents Principals Too little 51% 90% Too much 6 1 About right 33 9 No opinion 10 0

Principals are convinced (63% to 25%) that students are not required to read enough books, and 61% of the educators feel that high schools emphasize athletics too much. One out of four parents can see nothing wrong with U.S. schools, and most of the others think curriculum difficulties are not so serious as the shortage of classrooms, poor student discipline and the low pay of teachers. But curriculum deficiencies are a pressing concern for a majority of the principals. They were asked: "Have you made, or are you planning to make, any changes in the requirements or the curriculum of your high school in line with suggestions which have been made since Sputnik?" Their answers:

Have already made changes 23% Planning to make changes 29 Made some, planning others 3 Plan no change 45

The changes most principals mentioned: stiffening of math and science courses, special programs for gifted students. Some of the schoolmen are scrambling hard to reach a now fashionable orbit: "We are going to employ a more competent science instructor."

A nationwide test, to be given when children enter high school and again before they graduate--checking local scholarship with the national average--is favored by 59% of the principals. The reason most principals give: the test would help awaken parents in educational disaster areas, gain support for raising academic standards. Another question on standards showed wide division: "Some people say that colleges should raise their entrance requirements, making it harder for high school graduates to enter. Do you think colleges should do this or not?"

Parents Principals

Should 27% 49% Should not 62 45 No opinion 11 6

Parents who oppose higher entrance requirements argue that higher standards would "hurt the student who is just average." Principals in favor of the move think it would eventually force high schools to raise their own standards.

Most revealing statistic of the poll: 72% of the principals are dissatisfied with the sort of training that teachers are given. Fifty-eight percent say that teachers' colleges spend too much time on teaching techniques, too little on the subjects their graduates will be teaching. Wrote one disgusted principal: "The teachers' colleges are the poorest we have. Principals and superintendents are, more and more, people from the teachers' colleges who are basically ignorant of world culture and its background. They have only part of an education."

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