Four Minutes to Go

Teacher John Vernon, 30, of St. Stephen's (Anglican) school in Burnley, England, is known for giving his ten-year-olds prickly essay themes. Recently, Vernon told the youngsters that Britain's new early warning radar system would beep just four minutes before the inbound swoosh of a nuclear missile. "Would there be any way of escape?" asked one little girl. "None," Vernon replied firmly as he announced the essay assignment for the day: Describe "My Last Four Minutes."

The kids tackled it with imagination. Wrote Jean Francis: "I would collect my grandmamma in my father's car, and we would set off to get away as far as possible." Lesley Ann Brown also wanted to help others: "I would buy an airplane and take up as many friends as I could." James Hough would wait in the garden: "I would pray that it would land in the sea and do no damage." One girl decided to stab herself to death with a carving knife ("It would be quicker that way"). Billy Peart wrote stoutly: "I would make sure we could press the button which would send our rockets back to Russia."

Delighted with the results. Teacher Vernon failed to observe a simple fact: the children were terrified. "I was crying when I wrote my essay," said Jean Francis. "So were Lesley Brown, Vicky Weir and Susan Howarth." Complained one mother: "My little girl came home sobbing about an H-bomb. Now she daren't go upstairs in the dark." Jean Francis' father gruffed: "This could upset their whole lives."

Last week school officials met to debate the matter. "Perhaps children should be made aware of possible disaster," said the Rev. Alan Clark, dean of Burnley. "But I do feel they should be spared undue emotional stress." Headmaster Rowland Williams, an old soldier, refused to censure Vernon: "I fully support him. There is no harm in children's being brought face to face with reality."

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