8 — PATENT TRADER
Saturday, Oct 6, 1973
Victor
Comment and opinion
Salvatore
How about
romance?
The PEP tests
Under pressure of the State Education
Department's drive for greater " a c ­
countability," upper Westchester and
P u t n a m school districts have released
comparative scores on standardized
P E P tests administered to children in
three grades
The schools have many reasons for an
earlier reluctance to publicize these
scores Some — professional pride and
jealousy — a r e obvious others a r e
cogent Among these is the fear that
parents and teachers alike will place too
much emphasis on test taking abilitv to
the detriment of other major factors in
the learning process
The most persuasive practical reason
has been that the making of such tests
and the interpretation of their results is
an intricate process, difficult to explain to
the layman
For better or worse, however we live
in a test-conscious world Besides the
state's P E P tests children in area
schools a r e subjected to a whole batterv
of measurements — tests known by such
names as Metropolitan, Iowa, California,
Step, Scat, SAT and PSAT Such ubiqui­
tous educational tools cannot be treated
as though they were on a p a r with the
Eleusinian mysteries The cure for misin­
formation is more, not less, information
Further, in withholding comparative
data from the public, local school dis­
tricts have also withheld it from one
another
A quick analysis of local test results
indicates that a neighborly stock taking
might be productive If two neighboring
Patent T r a d e r did not attempt to cor­
relate test scores with per pupil expendi­
tures But there is enough indication that
extra effort and money pay off to w a r r a n t
such a study s being m a d e on a local
basis If a close relationship could be
shown, it would be a powerful persuader
to use with school district voters
Even observers who decry unioniza­
tion a s incompatible with the profes­
sionalism to which teachers also aspire
recognize that the new militancy has
been nourished in part, by the petty tv ranny of some school boards and their ad­
ministrative a r m s
In recent years the gap between ad­
ministrators and teachers has, if any­
thing, widened There was a time when
many district principals regarded t h e m - '
selves a s primus inter p a r e s , first among
equals As such, they could serve as
But the state seems determined to use
the tests. originalK developed for a dif­
ferent purpose, as a lever to pry account­
'I'd like sou to mvfl
ability out of the schools SED has its ow n
problem of accountability—to Governor
Rockefeller who would like to hold it ac­
countable to an independent inspector
general
The P E P tests m a j have
become a political weapon If the tests
are in need of revision, the widest pos­
sible publicity seems much more likelv to
To the Editor
accomplish this end than sweeping their
Your feature story about the
results under the rug
New Castle Republican and
Next week, October 7-13, is 'National
Newspaper Week", which proves that the
newspaper business also hires inept
publicists
But since newspaper week is a fact,
and concerns our business, and is being
marked, with various degrees of self
righteousness b> 9,000 papers around the
country, perhaps we should say some­
thing positive about the institution that
this week stands for
First off, newspapers a r e published by
humans, so they e r r But they e r r far less
than some p e r s o n s - p a r t i c u l a r l y lessthan-virtuous office holders—would have
you believe And the important point is
not that newspapers a r e sometimes
wrong, but that most of them try to report
our new
Australian
Letters
In the wake of the publication of P E P
scores, some districts a r e already
moving to m a k e results of their entire
testing p r o g r a m s accessible to the public
The process m a y be painful, but the ul­
timate consequences can only be salu­
tary
Education, like war, is too important
to be left to the specialists
spokesmen
faculties
and
advocates
for
their
Democratic platforms fell far
short of the mark There are
important differences between
the positions of the two parties
which the electorate should
know
In the first place, the
Republicans on our town board
including our supervisor,
George Oettmger. were in the
forefront of the fight against
UDC and its subsidized housing
The Republican plank to
protect New Castle from UDC's
continuing designs is from the
heart
The two lawyerDemocrats on the town board,
Mr Burns and Mr Mont­
gomery, cast votes favorable
toward UDC at least five times
I DC is still waiting in the wings
for a favorable town board
form makes it apparent that
they favor giving developers of
apartments the go-ahead The
Democrats' statements and
votes on the town board in
dicate as much This writer
heard Mrs Felcher. one of the
Democratic candidates, favor
UDC and advocate apartments
when she was a speaker at a
local multifamily
housing
group meeting
On the other side of the coin
we know that the Republican
candidates want to continue to
protect the environment of New
Castle from a high density
population and from the
Suburban Action Institute with
its associate, the Garden City
Construction Company, who see
big profits in apartments
Regarding the need. Mayor
Kensing of Mt Kisco recently
stated that 10 per cent of the
apartments in Mt Kisco are
empty That means about 100
vacant apartments The Phase
I study of Clark Associates
failed to find a need for apart
mentsor there would have been
But a s districts grew and adminis­
Another major difference is
trators proliferated, the administrative the attitude toward apart­
function acquired a kind of mystique, set­ ments There are 16 known
proposals for apartments in
ting it a p a r t from the everyday business New (astle which could be
of teaching children Nurturing their ow n pressed before the town board
prerogatives, administrators tended to If one is granted it becomes
next to impossible to deny the
downgrade the teacher' contribution to others The Democratic platthe educational process
The unhappy result has all too often
been to place administrators in an adver­
sary, rather than supportive, position visa-vis the staffs they head The real
victims of this process have not been the
teachers, who have learned to speak for
<This letter to New Castle
themselves, but the children both groups Supervisor George Oettinger is the members of all three
boards were present — about 25
published here at the request of people in all — (Ai Leader,
profess to serve
Under the plans d r a w n up by the Bed­
ford Bikeway Committee, a town ap­
pointed group, an initial 11 miles of 'pri­
ority bikeway" would link the town's
three, h a m l e t s . Bedford Village, Bedford
Hills, and Katonah Eventually, m o r e
miles of bikeway would connect with this
central loop to give Bedford a total of 50
miles of paved bicycle roads. Such a
system would not only m a k e life safer for
bikers, but it would encourage hundreds
m o r e Bedford residents to shape up, and
a t the s a m e time free their town's a i r of a
few pollutants by switching from four to
two wheels.
a Phase II study worth perhaps
$25,000 revenue for that firm of
planners
Another major difference is
between a full time Republican
supervisor. Mr Oettinger. and
a part time Democrat, Mr
Burns, who would try to run the
town from a law office in New
York City Additionally the
Republicans with their three
votes enacted both a Wetlands
Ordinance and a Recreation
and Parks Ordinance These
ordinances protect our streams
and water holding areas from
encroachment, and provide for
a smooth operation of our
recreation
programs and
development of our parks The
two lawyer-Democrats now on
the town board did not vote in
favor of either of these con­
structive ordinances
The voters must realize in
ever> election under the Home
Rule Amendment, we must be
sure that we vote for town
board members and supervisor
who will take the necessary
action to refuse a UDC proposal
within the 30-dav
grace
period
Francis Milieu,
Chappaqua
All there, waiting jor
accurately the news of the day within
their circulation a r e a For this is news—
particularly in communities such as P a t ­
ent Trader c o v e r s - that would otherwise
go largely unnoticed
Newspapers a r e often impertinent,
sometimes inconsiderate in attempting to
perform their role But more important
than the temporary annoyance that such
impertinence, such brashness m a y cause
is the long range goal that the newspaper
performs, that of keeping information
flowing Our democracy could not sur­
vive long behind closed doors
Members of news staffs of newspa­
pers can be just a s arrogant, pompous,
and self seeking a s some of the people
they cover But the important thing is
that collectively reporters and editors—
with amazingly few exceptions—have
one goal in mind—truth
" The truth shall make you free' i John
8 321 Honest reporters and editors cer­
tainly play at least a small part in achieving this lofty goal
9
'Erosion'
feared in
Yorktown
Full circle in Lewisboro:
vv lio'll pay for reduced taxes?
To the Editor
It appears that the Lewisboro
Town Board is using the old
political ploy of playing both
ends against the middle Their
position on the question of tax
assessments is one example
Seventy per cent of our
homeowners have been in­
formed they will receive a
reduction in taxes Many of the
town's business establishments
Acceptance of the Bedford plan by DOT also expect a reduction On May
did not c o m e overnight, or in response to 30, a few days before the
a well written single letter The com­ Primary, the large landholders
were advised that they could
mittee spent two y e a r s collecting data
obtain a 50 per cent reduction in
and drawing up an airtight proposal
taxes over a 10 year period for a
scenic easement Obviously, we
have
come full circle with no
Of course, there is still one big hurdle to
one left to pay for everyone's
surmount before Bedford bikers get their reduced taxes
roads F u n d s for the project will hinge on
the fate of New York State transportation
bond issue, which will be up for voter a p ­
proval next month We have some serious
misgivings about this bond issue, which
has become a $3 5 billion catch-all for ev­
erything from subway fares, to road
building, to bikeways But we have no­
thing but p r a i s e for the hardworking Bed­
ford* Bikeway Committee
you..
This amazes me Where are
your priorities'' You called the
the writer, a member of school board member, was out meeting of the three boards as
Chappaqua school board. — Ed­ of town on business) We waited town supervisor and you con­
firmed the time and date We
itor)
until about 20 minutes after the were all there, waiting for you
starting time, at which point Couldn't you have rescheduled
Dear Mr Oettinger
Bill Bowen, your colleague on
On September 10 at our the town board, indicated that your "prior political" meeting''
regularly scheduled public you "might be a few minutes Couldn't you have been a "few
school board meeting, we dis­ l a t e " "We then started the minutes late" for that other
meeting"' Is your reelection
cussed a letter that you, as New meeting which lasted about an
campaign
more important than
Castle supervisor, had sent to hour You never did arrive My
trying
to
solve
a difficult New
us proposing a joint meeting be­ colleagues on the school board
Castle
problem''
tween the town board, the were all puzzled by your ab­
school board and the library sence Frankly, I felt that the
board You offered three alter­ meeting was indecisive since
Will you be able to make the
nate dates, and we chose you, as town supervisor, were next meeting
Tuesday, September 18 after not present offering your ideas
Curtis C. Beusman,
lengthy discussion
among and suggestions
Chappaqua School Board
board members and interested
Member
citizens in the audience Dick
Laster, school board president,
Much to my surprise and
wrote you and confirmed this dismay, I have just now discov­
date, and also talked to you ered that you attended another
comfirming the forthcoming meeting, characterized in last
meeting
Saturday's Patent Trader as a
On the night of the meeting. "prior political commitment."
they also will not receive their
promised tax reduction Or
perhaps there is an extravagant
benefactor we have not been
told about yet
Paul Zill.
Lewisboro
Bikeways in Bedford
How about that Bedford committee
that is the first in the state to get an okay
for town bikeway plans"
pro.'
New Castle platforms:
'important differences
Newspapers and freedom
The number of "national something''
weeks has long since exceeded the actual
number of weeks in the year That's why
we don't put much stock in these trite con­
coctions of inept publicists
Some spoil sports took issue with the Playboy survey
First, they said that the survey w a s not conducted by
social scientists specifically trained for the task This, of
course, raises the question of just what training is appro­
priate for a sex survey, but I don't think we ought to get
into that in a family newspaper
District educators also advance a lack
of professional confidence in the P E P
tests a.s a reason for not publicizing
scores Again. man> of their criticisms
appear well founded
Th e gap widens
As positions hardened in the Yorktown
teachers strike this week, parents and
other noncombatants realized increas­
ingly that it takes two to make a strike
I don't think anybody will be surprised to learn that
Playboy magazine h a s been conducting a sex poll And
that they've been at it for 25 y e a r s , ever since the m a g a ­
zine that has glorified bunnies and b a r e breasts w a s
started
Now, Playboy has finally released the results of its
poll, and guess what e x t r a m a r i t a l sex is on the rise 11
wonder what Playboy would have done if its poll had dis­
covered that e x t r a m a r i t a l sex w a s on the decline'' J u s t
think what that would have done to the morale of Hugh
Hefner and company All those y e a r s promoting good old
raunchy sex, and nothing to show for it i
districts, dealing with roughly similar
groups of children, have highly divergent
test results, one may be doing something
the other would be advised to copy
As noted in a recent letter to
the Editor, Mrs F Duncombe
writes
to illustrate
the
runaround she received by town
officials. The town attorney is
too busy In another case, tne
assessor advised to wait two
months, a date conveniently
after the general elections
After November, many other
towns people may learn that
Editor's note
Patent Trader welcomes
letters to the Editor on all
subjects of general inter­
est When space is limited,
shorter letters will receive
preference We reserve the
right to shorten all letters
over 250 words All are sub­
ject to routine editing
All letters must be
signed We do not print
anonymous letters, accept
pseudonyms or withhold
names Addresses and tele­
phone numbers should be
included for identification,
although only the name of
the town will be used
(This letter to Robert Walleck, member of the Yorktown
school board is printed here at
the writer's request. — Editor)
Dear Bob
I am extremely concerned
with the board's posture in the
current school strike in Yorktown As you may recall, I ac­
tively supported your election
to the board when you ran on a
pro-school, pro-education plat­
form
I am deeply disturbed by
your evident sell-out to either
the superintendent of schools or
interests in the community
or both
You and your colleagues have
done a great disservice to a fine
school system and to our com­
munity by your actions (and,
indeed, inactions)
•/
I urge you to quickly seek a
decent and honorable settle­
ment with the teachers in this
current deplorable situation.
Without our excellent teaching
staff we have no schools. Con­
tinuation of the strike can only
lead to a complete erosion of
our educational system with the
ultimate penalty being foisted
upon the innocents in the
dispute — our children.
Richard C. Oliver,
Yorktown Heights
The spoil sports also suggested thai sex polling is
usually suspect because it inevitably a t t r a c t s people
willing to talk about their sex lives These people, so the
rationale goes a r e apt to be m o r e sexually active and
unreserved in the first place Now this a r g u m e n t I c a n
buy I'm the type that is «»nctly private about m y sex
life But I have a relative that w ould tell evervthing about
herself and a lot more about m e . true and oi erwise. to
the first poll t a k e r t.iat c a m e down the street So, I would
say that the two of us would throw any sex poll out of
kilter
The big question, though, that I have about sex today
is why is it under such scrutiny ' It s o m e t i m e s seems that
collectively we have become a nation that h a s become a s
preoccupied with sex a s a child in the bathtub who first
discovers his vital parts
-
I'm glad though that the n u m b e r of sex magazines
continues to proliferate Sooner or later people a r e going
to become sated with b a r e bosoms and bottoms This will
inevitably lead to boredom with explicit sex And then,
just maybe, we can get back to r o m a n c e
It's not that there is any thing the m a t t e r with sex
Quite the c o n t r a r y But how long c a n grown people spend
staring at naked bodies'' And it might be argued the
Playboy t> pe of display really isn t sex, it s some kind of
over-done exhibitionism that only the late H L
Mencken could ever label properly
When this country does get back to romance. I cer­
tainly don't think it will be the Victorian e r a variety But
the point is that real r o m a n c e implies a certain amount of
privacy, thoughts and actions shared only by two lovers,
not emblazoned in neon lights on T i m e s Square for all to
watch and cheer
But until most grownups grow up. I suppose Playboy
and its host of imitators w ill continue to personify Ameri­
can r o m a n c e Good looks will be judged by what a p p e a r s
on magazine centerfolds, not by what is etched on indi­
vidual imaginations I can't see how real r o m a n c e can
flourish in this homogenous setting
Sports program backers
reorganize at Fox Lane
(This open letter is printed
here at the request of one of its
writers. Gerard C. Vlergardt. —
Editor)
Dear Friends,
In keeping with modern
trends and in answer to
requests from many individuals
who are interested in the sports
program at Fox Lane High
School, the Fox Lane Dads'
Club has initiated a major
reorganization By unanimous
vote of the members on May 22.
1973. our organization is
changing its name to the Fox
Lane Sports Club and mem­
bership is now open to all
parents and other individuals
close to the boys and girls
athletic program at Fox Lane
Therefore, we are formally
inviting all members of the Fox
Lane community (moms, dads,
relatives and friends) to
become involved with us Lend
us your support through
membership in the Fox Lane
Sports Club and your efforts
and participation to our
programs throughout the year
, Activities which we sponsor
during the year include raffle
in the fall, a ciatn oa«e on
December 2, support of athletic
program by underwriting
awards dinner for all sports,
Fox Lane Sports Club Annual
Baseball Tournament, support
of the Michael A Cotton
Scholarship Fund, donation of
special equipment to the
athletic program In the past,"
we have donated such items
as
the
scoreboard,
photographic equipment, the
sprinkler system which was
installed this summer on the
football field
(Jur first open meeting as the
Fox Lane Sports Club will be
held on Tuesday, October 9 in
the administration building at 8
p m Refreshments will be
served Dues are $2 per person.
We look forward to seeing
familiar faces and meeting new
friends
Martin McGrath
President, Fox Lane Sports
Club
derard C. Mergardt.
Director of Athletics
Fox Lane High School
PATENT TRADER
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FOUNDED IN 1853 by LUTHER TUCKER
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Publisher
Editor
Victor Salvatore J r .
Assistant Editor
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Editorial Page Editor
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Town Life Editor
,
Barbara Coats
Week Ahead Editor
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Putnam Editor
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Sports Editor .._
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