Box 22, Folder 17, Document 16

Box 22, Folder 17, Document 16

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THE WASHINGTON POST - NOV. 19, 1966

Teachers Seen Using Sluins as Excuse

By Henry W. Pierce were among more than 2500;excuse their own failure tojwhich is incorrect All the an-
PITTSBURGH, Nov. 18|Persons attending the four-jteach the youngsters properly. |thropologists here have main:!
The Nation’s schools are usingjday American Anthropogical! cites Example tained trat the culture of pov-

lower-class children’s “pover- iati : , erty concept has been misused.
ty culture” as an excuse for saSpeatOn MEsUNG. Here hSe told about a New York’ But perhaps it’s our own point

not educating them adequate-| “*thropologists, who tradi city teacher in an underprivi-of view that needs changing.”
ly, a leading social scientist|tionally have studied such}ledged school district who took; He charged that anthropolo-,





charged here today. things as tribal cultures andjher students to the airport as gists are “very much involved
pr. Estelle Fuchs, anthro-|man’s remote past, have/Part of a class project. jin their own middle-class cul-
pologist at New York’s Hunter “It was the first time those tures. |



Collect: and ‘anthor of the [Shown a spurt of interest in] wijdrven had been out of their|



controversial “Pickets at the|POverty groups within thejown neighborhood,” she de-.
Gates,” said schools tend to|United States. A sessign onjclared, adding: i
freeze underprivileged - chil-|POvetty drew a standing-room/= “They were amazed when -
Sren’ inte \ay lower alass way |crowd here, while sessions on they got their first glimpse of -
of life. tribal customs and on baboon an escalator. One of them’

Washington schools are a,Dehavior drew only scattered’ asked whether it tickled if you!
prime example of this, she | attendance. ‘ lrode it. That teacher used the
said, Dr. Fuchs, one of six speak- incident to prove her students

She also cited schools in,ers on “The Culture of Pov-/hadn't the intelligence to

-|Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Bos-| erty,” said’ schools are hard-!Jearn.” |
‘ton and New York. ‘ening many of the differeces) Dr, Fuchs called this atti-,

x : ‘between middle-class Ameri-'tude “typical‘’ among man

Anthropologist Dissents = ‘aang and lower-class groups. eachage > mt
But a Wahsington University; “School administrators are’ ..

anthropologist, Dr. Charles A./using the ‘culture of poverty’) Not Scheduled

Valentine, disagreed with her./concept to absolve themselves) At the end of the session, |

‘Dr. Valentine charged an-|from responsibility,” she de- Dr. Valentine, who was not a’
thropologists with failure to’ clared. |scheduled speaker, stood up’
live among underprivileged) Teachers, she said, often use| and declared:
groups as a means of study-\in such terms as “psychologi-, “It seems to me there has;
ing them. F cally unready” and “cuturally been a common thread run-,

“Anthropologists can study|jmpoverished home life” to,ning through these discussions.
a South Seas culture and find! - - !
order, but they go into Harlem
and find nothing but disorder.
They study our own slum-
dwellers with questionnaires
and interviews; they are ap-
parently too afraid to go and
live as one of them,” he as-
serted. ;

He added: “It boils down to
this: we are good anthropolo-
gists overseas and bad anthro.
pologists-at home.”

Dr. Valentine said he in-
tends to “live among the poor”
as part of a study he is un-
dertaking next year in the
Brownsville section of Brook-
lyn.

t







Four-Day Meeting
Dr. Fuchs and Dr. Valentine

Tet me ee ee ee

ne a