I t SEPTEMBER 5,19741 2Aú I ". IN THIS ISSUE: Better Schools for Kids ¡;-'" ' I ' Learning a{ Hgme ' Experimentål'schoots in D'enmark Prison Educatiod Memories of Junior ROTC " '.- ' ;i', *,' * PLUS PEACE AND FREEDOM THRU NONVIOLENT ACTION ; THE POLITICS OF THE ANTI.GNdÚPEN LAW THE STRUGGLE TO SAVE THE WHALES , i t .'t tt RACK TO SCHOOL! ,t. for the enforcement of universal disarmament and for mediation and a¡bi trations of disputes and conflicts between individual nationg and towards the limitæ tion of the sovereþn power of nations by' outlawing national armies and abolishing thei¡ war-making facilities agency ' In regards to the August I a¡ticle "If s Time to Start Worrying About the Bomb Again, I have a point to ¡aise. The author says that of the possible ¡eactions to the United States unilaterally disaiming its nuclear arsenal would be that "The other powers might re frain from following our example. But that the chances of an accidental war or.war through miscalculation would be lessened." What about the possibility of nuclear blackmail? Wouldn't we be at the mercy of the Russians, let's say? They would be in a position to make any demand that they wished. And could tlueaten to blow up a sizable US city or t\r,o if we didn't comply. I would like to know the authors' viewpoint on this possibility. BOB NIEMEROW Menlo Parþ CA In his article "It's,time to start worrying About the Bomb Agair¡" (WIN, 8/U74), Hend¡ick Hertzberg quotes Senator Harold E Hqghes as having said that if he ever werg Presiden! he "would nwet, under any circumstances, u$e nuclear weapons." Is the¡e a diffe¡ence between having people killed by "conventional" weapons instead of by nuclear weapons? Hertzberg who himself suggests the abolition of atomic weapons (nationally or universally?) as$¡mes that Senator Hughes was in fâvor of unilateral nt¡clear disarmæ menl lt is regrettable that well''meaning peoplg like Hughesand Hertzberg, do not appear to have yet achieved a full under' standing of the problem that plagues marr kind" The problem is not nuclear or corr ventional weapons or nuclear disarmament The problem is wæ itself and its abolition Even if nuclear disarmament were attair able-which is exceedingly improbable as' long as nations are fer¡erishly preparing for war. Is the¡e any reason to assume that na tions, one or all ofthenr, wouldn't ¡estore the production of atomic weapons inr mediately upon-the outbreak of war? Our eforts should be directed towards the abolition of war as a socalled legitimate institutlo¡r, universal and general d-isarme' ment The establishment of a supemational 2 WIN -OTTO NATHAN New York CitY, NY In Seth Foldy's article in WIN [8/U74] I was quoted as saying that feminist sócialism meant "to come ou! to be gay, to discover fhe gayness in everybody." I never defined feminist socialism as being exclusively gay or sexual I do believe that one mqior part of fer¡inism is to not only work for the recognition of gayness as normal and healthy, but also to admit and experience the gayness that is in all of us But that is not the total definition of eithe¡ feminism or feminist socialism. Seth's prejudice against using "labels" for the Pepple's Party should not have led him to quote me out of context or to try to discredit those of us who pushed for "feminist socialism" by not wen doing us the service of including the deûnition that we presented to the cor¡ ference. It read'nWe advocate feminist socialisr4 which represents a combination of the social and economic changesnecee sary in our society. Feminism encompasses both the realization that sexism against women and gays must end, and the corr cept that all human relationships based on inequality and oppression must be replaced with ones in which people relate in equal norrintimidating ways Socialism is a de centralized democratic economic system ¡here workers and consumers control the means of production Socialism also calls for the people's cont¡ol of all the institw tions that afect their live$" Second, Seth completely omitted the major reason that many of us pushed foi the People's Party to define itself as femi nist socialist We believe that it is impor' tant to make one's radical positions cleareven if it means temporatily alienating peo ple wlio have been conditioned to fear anything but the existing economic and social system in the USA. lt is true that there can be many deûnitions of femi¡rist socialism, just as there can be many definitions of *thé left,t' etc, democracy, totalitarianism, but that doesn't mean that we can't use any of what Seth calls "labels"-it just means that we have to be clear in our defr nition of our labels when we speak to the people (and to each other on the left). rffe also believe that feminisn¡ as quoted from an article by Ch¡isti Thies (an HRP member who attended the convention), "speak$ to the reality of who the oppressor of not only women but also young people and minorities ig the powerful white male. Feminism also deñnes ¿ mode of action characterized by noÊag€ressive, notlauthorita¡iar¡ nonhierarchical attitudes and behavior. Finally, the concept offeminism speatß to the ideal of going beyond a class less society to work for an androgynous one as well Coupling the word feminist not have its ¡oots in capitalism and will not immediately disappear with the advent of socialism, but will continue to be a struggle under all economic systems." In other to offer good advice to another whose suffering surely can't get any worse by pitching in to help others fàr worse off than hinr words, we wanted the People's Party to define itself as feminist soçialist because we believe that that term best expresses our politics, the politics we want to see talked about on the left and to the public, and the politics that we would like to see in the society that we would call And that goes for John Stoltenberg too (in the same issue). With so much anguish and torture facirg so mahy hundreds of, thous¿rids of ,human beings around the world today, who gives a bloodY damn about his erections! -CLAIRE.CULHANE idffhi¡;Urr* Ann Arbor, Ml I want to commend lvIN and Dellums both for the Congressman's a¡ticle on the Military BudgeL [WIN, 7/18/74] Dellums $eems to me to go right to the heart of understanding the country's predicament Dirring the John son ye¡¡fs, Iohnsori ùied to tell us we could have guns and butter-Johnson proved hirn self when he asked for taxes to pay for thê war. Now, it seems our politicians are saying to us;'1)trÇ it's true. ïÍe can't have guns and bttler. Bu! face it, we're going to have to settle fo¡ guns oy¿r butter. Because guns more important " Against this reasoning, Dellums has developed a telling argument: What are we buying with our taxes to sup port the military? Protection? Nq we're perpetuating the military bureaucracy. I think his example of the S. Kóreang armed and trained to the teetb is a good one. ' think the Peace Movement needs to separate its friends from its enemies-Dellums pro vides us with a neat measute for doing so. If the Congressperson (whower s/he may bg who's æking for our vote), is a hawk, s/he's¡o friend. And especially, articles like Dellurn's should show up the phoninos of Senators like Jaclson 1DWæh"), who try to pose as hawks on foreign policy and liberals at home That's a contradicfion:þ terms. Iaþkson can't be for hþh defense appropriations¿¿d social welfare at home. As things are constitutod presentl¡ there isn't enough money for both ¿¡re I _STEVE PELLETIERE Bu'keleY, CA , with the concept of socialisn¡ also speaks to the nature of sexism and how it does When Thomas Alfurd Reynoldg from his pdson cell advised larry Erickson to "stop feeling sony for yourself, get out and þelp thirgs" (7llLl74)it¡e¡ninded me of littlo story tililfred Burchett told about change a one of his Vietnamese guides during his trip through NLF territory a¡ound 1964. . .we had just one week oT married he said with a rare sþh. That wds duttttg the war agalnst the Flench Then she wøs rounded up by the Dlemßts and tottued..I don't lctlpw whethq she ls stíll aliûe , ,I can't remet* bø hø foce try as lurd as I un (bul) I re membèr how sott andgentle she wøswtth me but nude of steel when lt concqtæd the enemy. Lífe øn be blttq ot tlmes, But comørd to nuny of my cornrødesl @rþ sídø myself lucky. I knew the buuty of a tu,onut 's bve fü a weelç ttony of my @ttt rades, rflen oÍ 40 and morq lwe n.eyer ". life," knownthßb&utY. It takes one who is imprisoned and uc able to help change things on the outside, self. , àIhrough its admittedly pxcellent photog: ruphy, Chariots of the Gods examines several -aweinspiring historical relics and asks the logical questior¡ "How could these ancient people do such fantastic things?" Building " d flourishing ciúilization in the Guatamalan ' Jufl$e, the statues on Easter Island, the Egyptian pyramids, and lhe Andean "landing stfips" are all indeed remarkable, But N.-BurnabY, BC were these ancient dark-skinned people so inferior to us that they neóded tlie assistance of fàir-skinned, blueeyed, male, space voyaging "Gods" to get it together? Ed Agro's letter IWIN, 8lll74l on alte¡nate Is it a blow to our v¿nity tò admit the funds and banks lead me to write a líttlè MaySs could create a calendar mote acabout the approach of the Washington Area curate than Ewopean ones of the same Fund for Life period? That possibly the people of the September 5, 1974 / Vol. X, Ng;.29 Ou¡ Fund decided upon its founding that . Euþ-Èiates Yalley could invent an elecûrc it did not want its money in a commercial ¡. batte¡y cell befo¡e the birth of Christ? That 4. Better Schools for Kids perhaps the Egyptians wéiê more imaginabank So we put our funãs in a community' Ruth Davidon credit union operated by a settlement house. tive dhgineers than we are? the This pæticular credit union has been helpful who about Anyone. has read much 5. Learningat Home I Art Horris to resisters in the pæt by letting them know Inca civilization or contemplated aerial ' & The banish Expe¡iment photographs of tnca cities a¡ið inigafed when IRS was after money from their ao Craig Chaudron count so they could take it all out, leaving ûeldi carved into the Andean Mountains nothing for IRS. It'loans out its money only can't help but feel a sense of dmazemenl 1 0. lnside Edücation: Sc,hoolin8iin Here is a civilization comparable in size, ,l'i to members (like all credit unrons), most of Pfisôn / Lorry Goro whom a¡e poor and couldn't get bank loans. scope and adminishation to Rome yet with r ' considerably more democracy and artistic Similar credit unions exist throughout the 14. Th"e Way We Were: J ROTC in the country and can be used as alternatives to ¿chievement It'spanned altitu{es of 20,000 1950's I Roger McCain feet and flou¡ished without the use of writbanks. lVe also have not stytéd ourselves as a ing¡ wheels or draft animals. If 'Rome could "18. The Politics of the Anti-Grouper , , joint escrow account This does not mean build great aquad¡rcts (the movie doq.sn't ,. ,Lalv I.Richard Schrader question fl¡ír) why couldn't the lncas'ñafé '' " ' membe¡s are left in the lurch'when IRS 20. lmagine That You Are a Whale t¿kes all thei¡ assets-we conside¡ ourseþes tuilt the massive walls the movie finds so unexplainable? a mutual aid society and are able,to help if Blackbird financial difrculties arise from IRS actibn Thel.ristory of ancient peoples is indeed 23. Changes But we presume we won't need to return, a mind boggling study, but we should get an all the tax mòney donated and therefor,e appreciation of how remarkable thei¡ corr 26. Reviews tribution to our society ig rather than deny .,. make grants with.some of iL Scf fartme have not had any m$tgal aid requests simply because it fr so hard to underIhose who want to get in touch with us stand; In appreciating ow past, the.last 'may urite Was¡ington Area Fund for Life, STAFF thing we should do is free ourselvesfrom 120 Maryland Ava, NE, Washingtor¡ DC the "cu¡rent dogmatic pursuit of'pute sci' Maris Cakars . Susan Cakars -BILL SAMUEI¡r ence'based upon'hard cold facts'," as yorrr Washington, DC reviewer advocates. To do anything else is Marty Cribbins Chuck Fager . to.rely on faith. ' ' Julie Mäas Märy Mayo Susan Pines. I am ready to believe Ctøriots of the Fred Rosen Martha Thomases I was really shocked to ûnd a favorable re. Gods? bttt fi¡st I must be presented with view of the film Cluriots of the Gds? in facts This the movie does not do. It ¡elies UNINDICTED the July 18 issue of WIN. Irônically enough instead on weird music and photographip CO.CONSPIRATORS the word "undogmatic" is used seve¡al. cfistortions to give the viewei a. false sense times in describing the film, although it of wondgr'abo-ut oftentimös eiplainable makes one of the most flogmatic leaps of ùance Belvllle ' Jerry Coffln ' Lynno Coffln phcnomenon Iti conclusions are hastilSr' ¡Diana Davles . Ruth Dear ' Ralph DlGl¡ faith possiblø It is a belief that I'm afraid draw-r¡ often contradictory and sometimes ' Éilan Doh€rty . Soth Foldy. J¡m Forest too many Marxists, as well as apologists for downright dishonesl E*amples of dishonev Leah Frltz . Larry Gara . Ne¡l Haworth the imperialist system shæe: that Western . possibly t[g.,=f ni'ove Èlgdeman Grace Hêdeman . Marty Jezer couldn't tyl."Egyptians .- .Fd ' B€ctúyJoh(¡soe-' Nancy Johnson Cl¡ristian civilization (i e.,'our own present i stones for the pyramids on wobden rollets '" Paul Johnsôn . Alllson Karpel .. cra¡gKarpel way of life) is the only civilization capable because the native palr¡'coìild;doJ take.the -'Ellot Llnzer . Jackson Måêlow John Kyper greêt performing the deeds, therefore of weþhL" Fact: Egyptians were importing Davld McReynolds . Mark Mgrr¡s . Jim P6ck only one worth historically considering. Tad Richards . lgal Roodenko . Nancy Rctn' ceda¡ from Lebanon during that i Wendy Schwartz . Beverly Woodward As civilizations go, lVestern Christianity specifically for pyramid building. Or: "aris very young and Oy Arnold Toynbee's ae chaeologists say the Nazca landing strips were count) but one of 2l advanced civilizations roads Bút theæ roads lead.nowhere." Fact: to make its apÞearance on the eartlu This In1ül my reading of the Incas and dozens of '12471 box new doesn't take into accognt eight "arrested" references to the Nazca Pampa, I have never 339-4585 relephòne 914 and "abortive" civillzations to say nothing is uni come across referpnces to "roads.'.'It l' of the thousands of "primitive" societieq wr$ally accepted by arclÍaeologisls-which WIN ls puÞlished weekly elcgpt for the flrst each with thei¡ own unique (if unused) corr two weeks ln January, 2nd weèk ¡n May. last 4 the movie is anxious to'discredit as a'classweeks in August, and the last week ¡n October t¡ibutions. Unlike most other civiliz¿1is¡s, that the designs wøe meant to be seen by by the WIN Pubtish¡ng Emp¡re with the support ours is a cræsly materialistig self-centered dieties in the sky. of the War Res¡sters League, Subscrlpflons'are and bigoted one. Though the use of superi Iastly, your reviewer wants us to adopt $7.O0 per yoaf. second class postage at New t'móre or armaments we have been able to obliterY.ofK NY lOOOl. tndlvldual wrltersãfefespon. exploratory imaginative and c¡eative a slble for oplnions expressed and accúracy of ate oihe¡ existing civiliz¿tions and primitive g¡v€n. Sorr!Ê-manuscrlpts cannót.be re. facts societies giving us the license to equate our CONTINUED ON PAGE 29 turned unless accompanl€d by a self-addressed general.. way of life with Civilization in stamped ênvelope. Prlnted ln U.S.A ' : it 20002. - ' . ' '''' time '547 rifton york . wlN 3 \ Better Schools for Kids I I I BY RurH DAvtDoN ( ay to) PhOtO bY CAm Smith fÏom BUCKMINISTER FULLER TO CHILDREN OF EARTH I went to visit my friends Barbara Deming and Jayne Verlaine (they're grown ups). We talked about a school kids would like better. They started me think- a ing. 7 ãçJ )¡r vl nE:1\ <-¡ A school that kids would like better would probably be an outdoor school. We wouldn't have desks,.we would have boxes to keep things in. ln sumrner, ¡ spring and fall we could have school under a tree, and in winter we could have school indoors. The indoor school would be a one-floor house with five rooms, and four bathrooms (2 for girls and 2 f or boys). One room would be a cafeteria, another a school room and anothergym room. The classroom wciuld be'a pretty big room but instead of desks maybe just small cushions to sit on. The kids could learn about cooking in the cafeteria. There would probably be about 20 children of different ages. The outdoor school would have a building right near the tree for washing our hands, getting drinks and going to the bathroom. The teachers would just sort of hang around and hqlp us when we needed help. We could study more about animals, people ãnd plants. We could go on nature walks and find out things. We could grow our own crops and flowers. We could do plays and useful arts and crafts, or just arts and crafts for fun. We could make things for the school. To hang on walls and places outside, we could paint pictures. We could go on lots of field trips too. We could visit'farms, factories and stores. We could go on overnight hikes. We could have more books to read and a small library. Everyone could pick their own private quiet space and read. There wouldn't be any grades, just kids learning things all together. This is all just a thoughL lf kids really want this kind of school maybe someday there will be a school like this. 4 WIN J: BY ARTHUR S. HARRIS, JR, '-. ,.4 advantaged schools. Auditing art supervisors and principals loved it. So what if she showed slides of our trip to Japan or arranged to bus a class to see maple ' Elsewhere, in magazines like Outside the Nþt and even in the Sunday supplements, l've chronicled how Phyl' lis and l, both one-time'teachers, becamgso disillusioned with public schools that we iust had to withdraw our two boys at the end of their fourth.and sixth grade years and oversee their education ourselves. Rather than go over all that ground again, I'd like to move on to how we're doing. First, who does-the teaching? Frankly,.we don't have much teaching. We believe that chilören learn best what they want to learn when they want to learn iL Too often adults actually get in the way of learning. Taken to its infinite end, one could woñdef whether schools with all those instructional hours don't sometimes hinder learning. Both Phyllis and I are ex-teachers. ln facl Phyllis was a part-time public school "art teacher'l as recently as last year. I put "art teacher" in quotes because Phyllis brought up all manner of subjects in her dis- syiup being collected? The children were interested, weren't they?,túy own.full-time teachinS, in college and prep schoôl; dfriJdd some years àgo. But both of us began to questiqn increasingly the structured estab-' I ish mçnt i n whirí,h:we taqgþ-li. Wpr.e- peopl e bei ng . .1 they "learn" ih sþite'of us? "taughtf ' 'So'.wé'.orsitdid r. For 6ack and lèt our older son Kevin read. six months he read almost nothing but books and articles about astronomy. For awhile he got hooked on the American Revolution after seeing the play 1776; then he got back into the A's again with astrology, aibhitecture, and archaeology. They're not subjects ordinarily offered in grade school, but who arg we to dictate a child's interests? Our youngest child, Clif- ' ford, who is no rea.der, is always tãking engines apart or building something or fixing a leaking radiator in my car. ls this learning?. Why not? Since he has more "personality" than almost anyone you'll meet, wq recently were gratified to learn from the Christopher Jenck's study that personality (alòng with luck and graded performance) had much to do with success in life. WIN 5 T , Our own children seem to learn without that omnipresent teacher. Probably Professor Louis Agassiz demonstrated this in the way he taught his studen! Nathaniel.Shaler; he had poor Shaler spend over a hundred þours examining a fish without telling him anything about the fish. He wanted Shaler to learn for himself, ln the same way, we feel the most important thing is for a child to learn how to leorn, The trouble with school is that too much is "taugh1." Too often a teacher is positioned between a child and the material, blocking natural access to that material. Curriculum: The word is an anathema to us. lf we laid out a course of study for our sons, they'd surely feel I they were back in school again with those narrow subject areas of history, English, geography, and math. Sometimes I get the idea that the mere defining of a subject is the first step toward robbing it of its mystique. When Kevin is reading about some archaeological discovery in Mexico, he isn't consciously thinking, "Now this is archaeology." ln the truest sensè, subjects all fuse with one another. Once Kevin became absorbed in Transcendental.Meditation (and took a college credit course in it at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario) he began to delve into psychology, religions other than Christianity, the culture of lndia, mysticism, even elementary Sanskrit-all sorts of things, almost none of them offered in school. Who are we to fence his learning ùith narrow subject areas of math, history, English, and civics? All righ! so far as American history goes, he knows nothing whatever about corruption in the Harding administratíon, probably doesn't even know a man named Harding was ever President. But I'll bet-he knows more about the American Revolution than anyone on òur block. ls this bad? And if you tell me he'isn't becoming well-rounded, I will show you most of his school contemporaries (l probably should slip into jargon and call them his "peer group") who know nothing of architecture, archaeology, astronomy, or astrology (just to take the A's), to say nothing of zen, penology, psychologywell-rounded indeed! Social Life: lt's the same as before: Kevin, our'introspective reader, is still a loner without friends as he was throughout the first six grades. Clifford, our gre garious one, has dozens of friends of all oges iust as he always did. We don't try to change either one and admire Kevin's self-sufüciency. ln general we feel American schools are obsessed with "interpersonal relationships" and thus give the "loner" a complex. By the way, either boy may return to school anytime he wants. So far, no takers. Physical Education: They exercise as they used toi.e., one boy is very athletic, the other somewhat sedentary. Both haveten-speed bicycles and do a lot of cycling. Our socalled non-athletic one has lately been entering 18-mile bicycle races and spends time "training." Both take swimming lessons to perfect fheir crawl strokes. Clifford is an ardent bowler. Both ski. By the wa¡ not one of these sports was offered in school where the concentration was on sports rqquiring large groups. Compromises: Kevin does take a course in guitar and an adult education course (sic) in touch typing. Classrooms: Who needs a room with 30 desks facing north and one desk facing south? Take away àll that glass and brick and learning is likely to take place anywhere. Since our boys left school, we spent six months 6 WIN in Mexico. I'm iroí going to make big claims our children learned sociology and geography out in the field, but i do hereby solemnly attest that Clifford picked up elementary but fluent Spanish, and nobody set out to teach him a single word of the language. lncidentally, he was the only one among us who couldl understand rapid Spanish spoken to us, and often translated before the rest of us could say despocio, por favor, Diplomas, Certificates, Regent Exams, Report C,ards, College Boards: We have successfully weaned our children away from all these tons of paper. When we feel they've "finished high school," we'll get our friend Kari, an artisÇ to make them up diplomas with' more scrolls, ribbons, and fancy printing than anything the high school offers. A college admission director has already told us (at a cocktail party, not in his office) that a home-educated applicant would be most appealing-what a challenge to track him along all those traditional high schoolers with their gradepoint averages! This admissions director told us: Kevin's application would undoubtedly stand out among many others as rather intriguing-it would be hard to turn down flat. Leg¿lly: Although we both feel that our state's compußory school láws are ilnconstitutional and were once prepared to stand on these grounds as long as the money held out we reached an accommodãtion four years ago with the city school system.pur attorney found a provision of the state's education laws pertaining to the education of a child at home. Granted the provision was undoubtedly drafted for the infirm who couldn't make it daily to a classroom, but'still this section of the law happened to be marvelously ap plicable to our situation, for it allowed at-home educa- tion provided that the instruction offered was sub- stantially parallel and equivalent to that provided in the schools. Once we'd dug this pr