385 



Dr. I^LSON". Let me take a rhetorical exception to your question, or 

 a point implied in it. 



It is not our product. This is the key to our activity in this area. We 

 merely provide the funds, and it is the professional people, the edu- 

 cators, the scientists, that design the product. 



The matter you raise is one of great concern to us, because a group of 

 people of very high level abilities — and I include in that description 

 practical teachers — who have devoted 1, 2, 3, 5 years of hard profes- 

 sional effort to a course of materials in which they have a deep con- 

 viction, also quite naturally tend to become salesmen of it. 



In the past, we have not permitted our funds to be used to advertise 

 or sell or advocate the adoption of these products. Our position has 

 been that if they are good, they should be accepted on their educational 

 or scientific merits. 



A problem has been growing, however, and it is in substance this : 

 To illustrate, let me for a moment turn to a field a little peripheral to 

 this committee's interest, the so-called new math. Much of the so-called 

 new math we have supported. 



The new math is not new math at all. It is a different mixture of 

 mathematics and to teach it requires quite different pedagogy and 

 skills and techniques. 



One cannot assume that the teachers, skilled as they may be, and 

 experienced as they may be, in classroom procedures or other kinds of 

 materials, can automatically handle these new materials well. 



There has developed quite a gap between the availability of the 

 materials and the capacity of teachers to use them to maximum advan- 

 tage. 



We have now said to all of the groups who have developed these 

 materials to the point where they are commercially available, "We are 

 now willing to provide funds to you if you really want to help the 

 teachers know how to handle your materials well." 



We have reasoned, perhaps belatedly, that if one of the difficulties 

 in getting the materials taught well is the fact that teachers don't 

 really understand how to use them, then perhaps the people who ought 

 to help the teachers are those who developed the materials. We are 

 quite conscious of running some risk of criticism — and we will get it — 

 to the effect that, "You not only subsidized the writing of the text- 

 books, but now you are subsidizing the training of teachers explicitly 

 to handle those textbooks." 



The authors and publishers of other textbooks do not look upon this 

 circumstance with great pleasure, of course, but we tliink that, with 

 the taxpayer having invested through the Foundation thus far a num- 

 ber of millions of dollars in the development of these materials, we 

 ought to — indeed we perhaps are even morally obligated — ^to take the 

 next step to see that those who want to use them are given the oppor- 

 tunity to learn how to use them well. 



Mr. Pollock. Mr. Chairman, I thank you very much. I did not 

 mean to take so much time. 



Mr. Lennon. Thank you. 



The gentleman from Mimiesota, Mr. Karth. 



Mr. Karth. Mr. Chairman, I hesitate to take any time, because of 

 the lateness of the hour. 



Mr. Lennon". Go right ahead, until we get a quorum call. 



