University of Southern California
SUMMER $ TROJAN
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, FRIDAY, JULY 25. 1969, VOL. LX. NO. 11
African studies for elementary schools, too
Small discussion groups is one of the features of the Communications Workshop for Junior High Students now in progress here. Pictured above, from left, are Miss Larrie Schmidt, Audubon Junior High School newspaper adviser; LoisShizawa, Lisa Song, Julia Murakami, Arlene Miyamoto and Janis Terada, all of Audubon JHS. See stories of and by students on page three.
Photo by Robert Parker
A substantial change in elementary school children’s awareness of African realities is the projected outcome of a special international institute underway on campus this summer.
The program titled “African Curriculum and Materials Project for Elementary School Teachers” is under the direction of the School of Education and Center for International Education in cooperation with the U.S. Office of Education. Most of the program will be conducted in Ghana, West Africa.
The participants, 25 teachers and supervisors from seven states, are developing courses of study while at the same time including settings from Africa
High school students attend 5 workshops
When summer comes to the university, so do various groups of high school students, mostly of senior status.
The students come to participate in one of five programs offered through four departments of the university.
The Division of Cinema in the School of Performing Arts offers “Introduction to Motion Picture Production,” which is, incidentally, open to not only high school seniors but also college freshmen and sophomores.
The School of Journalism offers two different types of workshops for high school students, newspaper and yearbook.
Telecommunications offers a radio-television workshop. Speech department within Letters, Arts and Sciences offers a workshop in forensics.
Under the supervision of faculty from the Division of Cinema, students spend most mornings and afternoon at Universal Studios.
After preliminary observation of sound stage procedures students participate in seminars with studio executives, discussion groups, lectures, film screenings, reading assignments and q uestion-and-answer periods.
Roy Copperud, adviser to the Daily Trojan and associate professor of journalism, conducts three workshops during the summer within the School of Journalism for high school students. In two of the three workshops the students get first-hand experience writing stories under a critical eye and with guidance. The third workshop conducted by Professor Copperud covers all aspects of the preparation and publication of the school annual. Field trips are included in all three of the journalism workshops.
In the radio-television workshop students are given the opportunity to use a complete radio station, facilities for tape
recording and editing, and a television studio complete with cameras, monitors and slide and film projectors.
The workshop in high school forensics stresses course work and practical training in traditional forensic activities: debate, extemporaneous and impromptu speaking, oratory, discussion and interpretation. Intensive work is done in the national debate subject matter area.
Other activities available for high school students that are not fully university sponsored include the Congress of Strings and an engineering program.
and gathering the instructional materials to support these studies.
Throughout the program, the participants will develop African studies courses that will be available for selection or adoption by elementary school districts in Southern California. If requested by local schools and approved and supported by the U.S. Office of Education, the courses and accompanying materials can be distributed over a broad area of the United States after a trial period.
The major objective of the program is to encourage and assist a substantial number of local school districts to develop curricula with an African perspective. The university plans to join the districts in such on-going programs after the overseas project.
The goal of this and other similar projects is to develop a substantial awareness of African realities to offset presently existing myths in American schools. It is also necessary to contribute to urgently needed knowledge of the non-Western world.
Dr. John A. Carpenter, director of the Center for International Education, noted, “There exists a significant need to include study of Africa in our elementary schools. Africa remains among the most neglected non-Western regions of study in American education, yet it is a major area of world concern.”
During early June, the Ghana Project participants assembled here for intensive planning and orientation to prepare them for their eight-week journey. Now in Ghana, the participants are meeting with major officials of the government as well as tribal chiefs and ordinary citizens. They are discussing the social.
cultural, political, geographic, and economic aspects of West Africa and particularly Ghana.
Procedurally they are working in small teams and individually. Each team includes an African informant who knows the community and can assist the team members in entering, knowing and recording data on African life. Pursuit of individual curriculum and materials development, for later use in the schools, is an integral part of this phase of the project.
The African informants are in addition assisting the individual participants in suggesting possible areas of study and of individual involvement and how to select and accomplish related curriculum tasks. This aspect of the program includes living for varying periods of time with African families.
During their travels to numerous cities and villages, the American educators are preparing instructional materials including film slides and audio tapes to support their African studies courses when they return. Trainiing in obtaining this data was provided the educators during the first part of the program at the university.
The purpose of the overseas aspect of the program is to provide these teachers with immediate experience in an African society. This analytic and sensitizing field involvement is designed to increase understanding of African societies and to provide material and data in support of a reality based curriculum.
Upon return to the United States in middle August, the group will evaluate the program, then complete their courses and materials. During these sessions they will also plan strategies for adoption and utilization of these courses in school districts.
100 youths study computers
Resident honors here
Thirteen superior high school students from three states are attending the university full-time for seven weeks this summer.
The are participants in the Resident College Summer Session for High School Honors Students, an enrichment program for capable young students who have completed their high school junior year.
Now in its tenth year, the program is in session through Aug. 1.
Each student is enrolled in two freshman college level courses: “Great Issues and Ideas in the Growth of Western Civilizaiton,” the core course, and an elective class, selected by the student and his advisor from among the basic offerings in the Summer Session. Each course carries four units of college credit.
The program includes 40 special lectures and seminar discussions featuring regular faculty members chosen for unusua! competence in their respective fields in the liberal arts and sciences.
Each student participating in the h ig h 1 y-concentrated academic program is required to live on campus in a dormitory.
Rounding out the program for the group is a schedule of attendance at social functions and cultural events on and off the campus.
Director of the program is Dr. Norman Kertig, associate dean of USC’s College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, associate professor of international relations,,and a recipient of the USC Associates Award for Teaching Excellence.
A new sort of head start program—which teaches high school students the intricacies of a computer language—is underway here.
Under a grant from the National Science Foundation, the university is training 100 inner-city youths in computer science in an effort to help close the competition gap that may confront them in the future.
“It is a program that recognizes a particular need of inner-city young persons, many of whom can be classified as disadvantaged, and many of whom are minority group members,” according to Carlos Ford-Livene, program director.
“Participants in the program are in two major categories—80 students who have some background in mathematics and science and who will most likely get into college; and 20 others, most of whom will be looking for jobs when they leave high school.
“The latter have not had a background in mathematics and science. In some cases their school records may even suggest
they are potential high school dropouts.”
Ford-Livene explained that the 80 participants who are college-bound are divided into two groups of 40 students each. These two groups attend separate sessions. However, both are receiving intensive training for FORTRAN IV programming based on the IBM System 360, and its usefulness.
“When these students reach the college level, the training will mean valuable background on which they can build in learning computer science, and will enable some to use the computer to solve problems in mathematics, engineering, and science,” Ford-Livene said.
“They also may be able to get computer-related part-time jobs to aid them in financing their college education.”
The remaining 20 of the total group of 200, the majority of whom will be seeking employment when they leave high school, are getting a less technical but extremely practical course in data processing.
“The data processing students will have sufficient background to apply for trainee positions in
the many computer-allied fields, such as computer operators, data processors and keypunch operators.
“From industrial firms we are hoping to stimulate participation in the program, and genuine interest in these students and their potential employability in the field,” Ford-Livene said.
The man who created the program a year ago. Dr. Richard
E.	Bellman, USC professor of mathematics, medicine and electrical engineering, said he hopes other colleges and universities across the nation will adopt the same kind of program. If placed on a national scale, such a program might help solve the major problems faced by unskilled high school dropouts and potential dropouts, he said.
Students in the program receive a $25 per week stipend, range in age from 15 to 18. and are representatives of 17 Southern California area high schools: Lincoln, Los Angeles, Manual Arts, Jefferson, Centennial, Morningside. Jordan, Inglewood, Garfield, Locke, Belmont, Roosevelt, Crenshaw, Washington, Venice, Fremont and Dorsev.