Page 55 - 1955

lii!IRLSCHOOL A take-ott on t.bil ~eracti'Yity (ncn-cultur"l) ot the avertlge modern h1gA aob.ool.
If you boya and girla like a fairy ato17, I will tell ;you the atoq ot a aohool oalled W.b.irlaohool. In Whirlachool there were superintelligent pupils. The;y could dance withoui oollidingz t.he;y cculd kiok balls high and far; thEIIY could sit for l;mg periods of time without letting their minds be disturbed; thE\\' could do many things. This was all because they were superintelligent. They had a little trouble passing exams at Whirlsohool, but tbia didn't worry them too much because thE\\' could do eo me.ny other things and were so well adjusted.
But there was one chap who got worried at not passing eXBI!Is and he decided to get to the bottom of the matter. So he Mt down and thought and thought and let hie mind get
very disturbed. Pinally frCJil this disturbance was born an idea. ThiB chap whom I am goill& to call Pinker (His real name was BIU!k, but at llhirlschool nobod;y eYer called ~hing b7 ita rig!Jt nama) - - thil Pinker came to tbe conclusion that tbe reason so ~ people were not passing eXBI!Ia was that the;y were simply not interested in the stuff the eXBI!Is were about. So Pinker started a mMement. The whole school lent him an ear. He spoke and
said:
"Gisengalel" (This was the formula the;y used in addressing teen-age people at 'lllirlsohool) "I here stand in front or you to tell ;you that I'm here to ~ tbat I .baYe thought snd thought and haYe had an idea. This is its you gisengala don't do so hot on e:mms. (He didn't ·mean h~, but this is wmt ycm call a saying.) Well W~? Simpl;y beoauae tbe atutt we're eXBIIIined on don't interest ua." (There were loud shouts ot "Too, ;yoo" which showed approval. "Boo, boo" was said for disapproYal.) "So here's m;y plans you make me president and I'll have stuff tor ua to be examined on that we're intereated in."
(At thia point in his apeech there were five minutes ot yoo-yooing, which the superintelli- gent pupila took to mean he waa elected president. It was all so plain.)
Pinker immediately got a committee of four others who felt as he did and wouldn't back-talk l!im too much, beoaue wh1111 you get too much superintelligent back-talk, you don't get !!NOh dcme and it takes too long. First tbe;y asked what a human been is and decided he waa a bod;y and a mind and aa Ilia bod;y was obYioual;y muc.b bigger and more 1mportan1; than
hia mind, thE\\' t.bOD.ght this lllllat be eduoated first. So thEIIY spent six hours on bo~­ education, and two on mind-education. One loblJ7ist asked what they were going to do tor
t.be spirit, but sa they could not agree whathar he meant school spirit, ghost spirit,
alcohol apirit or mean spirit, they let that matter drop - - I mean tbe matter ot the spirit.
Next problem was how to put in thB six hours PT-ing. They said do what's interestill&, that is games, and evarybo<\1 will be keen and keenness in important. So the;y played games for six hcmrs, three in the a.m. and 3 in the p.m. and two hours for mind-education. Aa they foand thia 8-hour day too long, thE\\' decided to shorten it, so they asked where the;y could cut, and in anawer cut one hour off the mial-eduoation time. One bright star mads
the observation that since games train mind as well aa b~, gamea were about all they needed, so w~ not out the one hour for mind-education? In respect for him they ~ the mind-education to 30 minutes, five of which were for announcements about the games and
boci1 education dances. The remaining 25 minutea was quite a problEIIl to them. They decided to pick out five subjects which t.ha.Y thougjlt were really important and give them fiYe miautea a da;y, EACH. (T.b.ia is to be said magnanimoual;y.) T.bia generOD.B allotment ot tima made tba studellta all keen abont their work and cU4n't disturb thei:r minds too much. The fiye subJecta ohoaan wares 1. automobile driYing, 2. social adJustment, 3. personality development, 4. proper dresa, 5. management. The;y used moviea for all these aubjecta and had no need of tee.ch!!ra• Even in automobile driYin& they had moviea of automobiles dri'Yill& around. They meant to have real oara, but the p~-pinc.b1ng board of education woul.Ul't
a. supply each student with a ca:r, which waa obvioualy necessar,y or b. remove the telephone posts in t.bs diatriot. Instead of teaollera t~ had diaoussiona. As there waa no time in claas, they did thia on tbeir W~cy to lunch. ETerybod;v was having a wonderfUl time, I mean education, wben suddenly ttl& btmbshall hit.
Tbare waa a fellow up the street who believed 1n free enterprise, so he started up a eohool in oampetiUon witll Whirlaohool. He decided to train the mind, figuring that it people walked around and did aome honeat wo:rk in the treah air, ocoaaio.aall;y, they would have IIDOIIB*l bodil;y training. He -• a dangeroua fellow who wanted to train the minds of the young and mala! them critiaal ot aociet;y, alwa;ya diaaatiatiad and looking for improYe- mEI!lta. HeteathatpioltingupanddiacuuingbalicideaawaaTHEthingineducation.
So ba ~ olauea arranged 1n auch things aa math-tics, acieace, languages, history, an4 evea &aglil.b. He opened the aob.ool doors. Not ~ came. The competition waa too ke8A fl'OIIl the old-fashioned W.birlllohool. But atte:r a year people, for some ayaterioua reaaon,
etarted smding their children to HIS school where mind-education - s given the apotlight.