Word: grade
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...appease Sea Dog Dismukes, who, although credited with saving the torpedoed transport Mount Vernon in World War I, was being forced into retirement because of age, Congress that year passed the so-called "Tombstone Law." Under it, all battle-cited Navy, Marine and Coast Guard officers are promoted one grade upon being piped out of service. This allowed a generous wash of war-decorated four-stripe captains, for example, to engrave "Rear Admiral" across their business cards, social invitations-and tombstones...
Soon after World War I, outside influences began to creep behind Amana's calico curtain. Young people wanted more than the eighth-grade education allowed by the elders. Secret radios were heard in defiance of a church ban, bicycles appeared, and one man even drove a car home. Worst of all, young Amanas began drifting away, seeking work and a richer, livelier life in the cities. "Human nature simply asserted itself," Dr. Henry G. Moershel, 58, Amana's longtime president, explained last week. "People were getting their keep whether they worked or not, and many were starting little...
Many educators would like to see the cutoff point raised from the current U.S. average of 5 years 9 months to about 5 years 11 months. They explain that the younger the child the less his chances of adjusting to first-grade work; early failure at the blackboard can induce a defeatist attitude that endures for years. Physically as well as mentally, say the educators, waiting is wise. Studies have shown that four out of five children are still normally farsighted at the age of six, are handicapped in reading until about six months later. But these arguments...
...counseling the parent," predicted one school principal, "will some day replace age as the criteria." Last week in Cherry Creek, a well-to-do suburb of Denver, Superintendent Robert Higday Shreve countered the general acceptance of definite cutoff dates in the Denver area by admitting to the first grade a girl just 5 years 3 months old. "I decided my philosophy of education required a more flexible rule," says Shreve. "The psychologist reported the girl is ready for the first grade in every way. She would just be bored by kindergarten. Since she is ready for us, we are ready...
...maturity. Schools are not generally equipped to handle such exhaustive testing, but proud parents would probably be happy to foot the bill for a private psychologist. Over the country, many youngsters who miss the cutoff point attend private schools for a year and then go public in the second grade. In Houston, where the whole matter has been put on a cash basis, eager mothers gladly shell out a special head tax of $90 to break the cutoff rule...